Ask just this one question to help your employees become proactive
It will give you an invincible team. It will make your life a lot easier.
In a very early stage startup that has 1–10 employees only, it’s often the case that the cofounders/CEO are playing triple roles: making the C-level decisions, executing on a few of those, and enabling employees to take actions and receive feedback in time. When it comes to performing the last role cofounders/CEO sometimes give very direct and detailed instructions on how to accomplish certain jobs since they want to thoroughly cover the issue while they can in order to minimize the possibility of things going south. I was certainly doing that at one point.
However, I did start to notice the shortcomings of this approach.
First, before I knew I had already created a passive environment in which people were reactive instead of responsive. It means that people are taking actions purely to follow my ways of seeing things and handling issues, without actively thinking about what unique perspectives or resources they may possess to cope with the difficulties in their own terms. Giving people the step-by-step instruction will result in the so-called “Quick Start Guide Effect”. Let me explain. When going through a Quick Start Guide of a new device, you expect that every time you follow the instruction to do something, e.g., put in a battery or turn the handle, the device is in an updated status that’s one step closer to the final completion. The only question repeatedly showing up in your mind is “It’s done. What’s next?” Your perception of success is extremely narrowly associated with following through the steps to the end. You gain instant satisfaction by merely moving one step forward. Your subconscious tells you that it’s this guide’s responsibility to take you there. In a startup, a business without the playbook, it’s a huge red flag when your employees come to you asking the same question: “It’s done. What’s next?”. It suggests either they’ve lost the bigger picture or stopped caring. We are all familiar with the experience that if we are blindfolded to finish the previous steps, it will take a good amount of mental effort for us to reconnect the dots on our own once the next step is not provided immediately.
Second, the habit of seeking solutions to every single problem on my own first then hand over the full instruction to an employee is inevitably harmful to both the business and my health. It’s diligence for the wrong cause. Various problems show up daily: an unhappy client, a delayed deliverable from a contracted service, another supplier who wants to raise the price… When I don’t have an immediate answer, I’d have to have very late hours in the office: I found myself not spending time scaling the business though, instead, doing researches and writing emails to my teammates about what should be done and why. If I don’t have enough bandwidth to do so, the problems begin to snowball and quickly become a crisis. At that point, I feel defeated and the employee who brought up the issue initially feels ignored. The priority of tasks is forced to shift accordingly, only not due to an exciting business opportunity. It’s detrimental in every way.
The busy Q3 this year gave me an opportunity to break from this pattern. One day, when an employee came to me with an administrative issue taken place between her and another colleague of ours, I didn’t think much before asking that question I’m still feeling fortunate about today:
“What do you think could be done in this situation?”
This question is totally transformative. By inviting others to come up with their own ways of solving the problems, I am actually sending a strong message to them: Yes, you are entrusted to proceed and you are qualified to take responsibilities. This question introduces a conceptual framework that empowers my teammates to draft their own versions of the Guide. They will know the ins-and-outs of the “device” next time. She moved forward with her own sets of initiatives. I only had to spend another one second literally on this matter — I sent her a thumb-up emoji when she slacked me “I took care of it.” two days later.
Asking this question at least earns me an extra 10 hours per week to fry the bigger fish like fundraising, meeting with the new clients and more meaningful networking.
“Hey TJ, we haven’t received the retouched high-res photos yet, but we are launching that collection in 3 days. What do you want me to do?”
“What do you think could be done?”
“I’ll nudge the retoucher again and remind him of the deadline. I’ll circulate a final round of mockup using the low-res tmr.”
“Hey TJ, an interior designer wants the beddings in 3 new colors delivered next week, but we need at least 5 days to make lab dips for those 3 colors first. What should I tell them?”
“What do you think could be done in this situation?”
“I’m thinking I could present two colors we already have that are super close to what they want and offer to rush one lab dip. We have a chance in this case. I’ll also call the dye house right now to arrange the production.”
…
Soon the strong proactive spirit will noticeably benefit the business. People seldom come to me with questions anymore, at least small and transactional ones. Instead, in the email or in the conversation, the problem is usually followed by a proposal:
“Here is what I think should be done…I’ve already done X & Y… Based on the response, I think I should carry on/try an alternative approach which is…”
There is also a positive side effect. This approach encourages other colleagues to contribute their own angles. It oftentimes leading to collaboration.
“I think what also can be done is…”
“That’s a terrific idea. Would you like to join me to solve it?”
The next thing you know is you have an invincible team.
Just within the past 3 months, By asking the question “What do you think could be done in this situation?”, I have witnessed my teammates achieved an incredible amount of progress. They formed one of the most important brand partnerships. They secured a placement in a media outlet we’ve been dreaming of for two years. They built the SEO program for our website from scratch which improved our monthly traffic by one third.
Empower your employees with this question. They will become remarkably proactive.
