Business owners and managers frequently ask me,
“How do you teach people to think?”
This profound question can lead to substantial improvements in results.
The answer lies in becoming a mentor and an effective communicator, consistently encouraging team members to think independently.
There is a tendency among business owners and managers to provide answers rather than investing time with team members to help them discover solutions. This is often due to the belief that it saves time.
While this may be true in the short term, this approach ultimately costs more time in the long run, weakens the business and increases the manager’s responsibilities as the team becomes increasingly reliant on them for solutions.
Thinking involves employing one’s rational mind to evaluate a situation and explore possible actions that will lead to the desired outcome or solution. For a company to operate at the highest levels, team members must be taught that it is acceptable, and continually encouraged, to think through situations rather than relying on others for answers or guessing at a solution.
How can effective communication be utilized to encourage independent thinking?
Begin by creating a safe environment for team members to ask questions.
This is achieved through composure, avoiding disappointment, frustration, judgment, condescension, demeaning behavior or anger as you work together toward a viable solution. Establish a constructive learning environment where team members feel safe to expose what they do not know as they work with and learn from you.
It is crucial to understand that individuals who do not feel safe asking questions will often guess what action is best to take or take no action at all. This leads to errors that can ripple throughout business operations. Accounts are not handled effectively, time and resources are wasted, customers become disgruntled, and business suffers. Consequently, more time and resources are spent repairing the error and the relationship with the customer.
Next, encourage team members to approach you with questions rather than guessing the correct course of action.
Help them realize the strength in utilizing available resources to create understanding, learning and successful solutions.
A critical component to success is to avoid simply providing correct answers. Instead, take time to work with team members in exploring the situation. Ask open-ended questions about the situation they are dealing with. This will allow everyone involved to develop greater clarity as you work together toward a solution.
Then, inquire about the possible solutions team members see.
Continue asking open-ended questions to fully draw out their perspective. If their perception of the situation is not accurate, share some clarifying details with them and ask further questions to help them deduce the best possible solution or direct them to information that holds the solution.
Finally, have team members teach you what they have learned.
This will indicate whether further work is needed and help them to further ingrain what they have learned.
Over time, you will identify how best to mentor each individual, and team members will learn they can collaborate with you to improve their decision-making abilities. This creates a strong bond between you and your team. Additionally, your team will become more competent, fewer errors will be made, and the company will deliver a far greater experience to customers.
It is important to remember that many individuals have been conditioned to rely on others for answers, instead of learning to think independently, due to a lifetime of experiences where they were told who to be, what to do and how to think.
When this previous conditioning is understood and overcome, individuals can access more of their potential and perform at higher levels.
You have a choice regarding the development of team members: You can either increase their dependency on you for solutions or empower them to seek and find answers independently.
Investing in your team members and their ability to think through situations to successful solutions fundamentally helps them to empower themselves. This enhances their abilities, reduces their dependence on you for answers, strengthens your business from within and improves your company’s performance.
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