How to Give Guidance Without Giving Answers
The great temptation of leadership is giving answers instead of guidance.
Experience makes answer-giving easy. But there’s an ego factor as well. It feels great to KNOW when others don’t.
At first, giving answers feels powerful, but then you wonder why people beat a path to your door – never mind that they won’t take action without your nod of approval.
Answer-giving creates dependency.
Guidance shows respect, builds confidence, and enables action.
People come to you looking for specific answers. Give them guidance instead.
#1. Guidance provides a panoramic view.
A team member asks, “Which candidate should we hire?” Guidance asks, “What types of people best meet the future needs of your team?”
A friend asks, “Should I take this new job?” Guidance asks:
- “What do you want to be doing five years from now?”
- “What types of jobs are most fulfilling?”
- “What are you doing when you add the most value to others?”
Follow the above exploration with, “How does this opportunity take you where you want to go?”
#2. Guidance enables thinking.
YOU do the thinking when YOU give the answer.
Provide the panoramic view. Expect others to make specific application.
- “What big ideas seem most relevant to this situation?”
- “Now that you have some broad principles to consider, what’s your next step?”
#3. Guidance clarifies responsibility.
“Just tell me what to do,” is an attempt at giving you ownership.
Instead of giving answers, ask:
- “What’s keeping you from making this decision?”
- “What do you need from me that enables YOU to make a decision?
Provide answers when:
- Others are new or untrained. In this case, send them to team members.
- It’s a one-time situation.
- The house is on fire.
- You expect things done YOUR way.
Guidance enables growth.
How might leaders give fewer answers and provide more guidance?
When is it better to give answers instead of guidance?
I wish I had these suggestions as I parented my kids. Too often I go into “dad mode” and lay out what I believe is the correct plan of action. It takes a disciplined leader to throttle back and ask questions instead of give answers. Very good post–one of your best!
Thanks Pat. It’s great that you apply these ideas to parenting. IF WE COULD JUST GO BACK! 🙂
Your use of throttle back really captures the idea well. And the discipline it takes to throttle back is incredible, especially when you’re a peddle to the metal type of person. Cheers.
I like the questions you’ve laid out, Dan. I think it helps to have questions in mind that can guide or explore the idea further. Even questions like “What have you considered so far?” can prompt the critical thinking we want to see. It also helps to remember that often the person coming to you with a question is often the local expert on the issue they are facing. My answer is often dumb within their context and circumstances.
Thanks Susan. Love the question, “What have you considered so far?” It shows respect. It also creates accountability. It suggests that you shouldn’t come seeking answers if you haven’t already come up with some of your own.
Another version might be, “What have you already tried?” Cheers
By providing resources and training in the work place, to equip employees and encourage lifetime learning.
Thanks Gerry. Exactly. Equip people and then give them opportunities to test their knowledge.
Have an employee who had 2 temporary leadership promotion opportunities. One was on a team he came from that he knew the boss and most of the team. The other was in a brand new team in a location that he had never been to. He asked me what I thought he should do. I asked him what do I tell him to look for in every situation. He remember how I drill him on “everything has a leadership component and an opportunity to grow”. he laughed and said “well I guess I am going to the one that gives me the best chance to grow and learn as a leader”. He got ready to leave and I told him to sit back down and lets talk. After all I knew he knew what I was going to say so we spent some time talking about what he really wanted to know. The right answer is often a question. I learned that from some of your other post. Thank you.
Hey Walt, “The right answer is often a question.” Now that is gold!
Isn’t it great to see others step into their future?
Cheers
What a great post! I think this is a key separator between a good leader and a great leader. A great leader doesn’t give you the answer they teach you how to find them yourself.
Great post. Although not in leader roles, in some of my roles, if someone asked a question, asked one back, trying to get them thinking further, developing themselves, understanding.
Dan,
Excellent.
We need to encourage others to use the resources available to get the answers, sure there are times we give the answer in the essence to safe time and move forward, in reality we need to encourage them to seek out the answers.
“We never stop learning”, and we need to be always thinking “what the next step is”, if no one is available to give the answer.
I take the “what have you considered so far” and also use “what other (ideas, solutions, decisions) did you consider and reject? Why did you reject them?” It really gets people to look at their thought processes more objectively.
Dan
I always thoroughly enjoy your posts – very inspirational and thought-provoking. It often comfort me in my thinking and has sometimes gave me the confirmation that I needed to adapt my style.
Coming from the industry world, I am currently supporting local communities/people in Africa to take ownership of their life and take action in improving their circumstances at their level. It does take a lot of motivating. This is the first time I post a comment, but this post really hit it home.
I can see the effect of giving “answer” instead of “guidance”. I have come across many people who are just expecting ready-made solution and someone else to implement because this is what they had in the past and they still can’t do it themselves: They remain dependant on you.
“Guidance shows respect, builds confidence, and enables action.” I would also add here “provides grounds to learn” as this leads to enabling growth as you mentioned. This is how we learn, not when someone does it for us.
“#2. Guidance enables thinking.” Spot-on! when you start thinking, you develop and you learn and remember.
I try to provide guidance, this is the root of what I am doing. But I think that we often want to provide answers because it is easier and faster to do than to teach. Unfortunately this keeps the cycle of questions coming over and over and there is no improvement in the ability to deliver.
To provide guidance, we can try to remember how we learned in the first place, remember that the people we lead have to develop and grow so that they will be more effective and efficient, which is where we ultimately want them to be.
And in some cases, we might want to provide “half” answer that will help the guidance and thinking.
When the subject is unknown, I would provide a few answers (suggestions) so that there is still thinking behind and the ownership of the final answer still remain with your team member. They might even build up on your suggestion and come up with an even better answer.
Thanks for all your guidances Dan!