Lead me not....

To expand on my first 'Random' bullet point: I really dislike it when people spin their comments in order to tell me what they think I want to hear.

I know a little about the Mexican culture and I've had first hand testimony of most Mexicans strong inclination to please. I grew up in Central CA and had a few close friends who were Mexican. I can't say that those particular friends went out of their way to please me, but they were older than me and they were more of the mentor type relationships.

That first hand testimony was from my brother. He lived in Mexico for a few years and was a plant manager there. It didn't take him long to discover that his subordinates strong inclination to please him affected how they communicated to him. If he asked them, "Did you meet your goals today?" they would say "Yes!" even if they didn't meet the goals set for them. Being the American I am, I would probably not take that very well. I would consider that lying. But my brother discovered that they had no intention of lying to him and what they meant by "Yes!" was that they did their best.

But I live in and work with Americans. Even if I did have someone communicate to me in that manner, I would correct them and ask them to tell me if they met their goals or not. When I ask "Did you meet your goals?", I'm not asking, "How do you think you did today?" If they didn't meet their goals, then that would prompt another question, "Why not?"

I want people to be direct with me. Not to fudge the truth or spin their comments according to what they think I want to hear. I have a huge problem with people lying to me and just don't stand for that in my employees. That's a good way for them to lose their job. But when I ask for their thoughts about things, I have a few guys that read into my questions. I've gotten a lot better at asking non-leading questions, so it's pretty obvious when they stumble through their response and are trying to come up with something that I'll like. Stop it!

That really is the key though. Ask questions that don't lead people to the answer. Asking questions that require a 'yes' or 'no' is another way, but not when you really do want to hear their thoughts.

- "You did a good job on this, but can you think of any ways to make it better?"

- "I'm not really sure how to fix this. What do you think?"

Of course, there have been more than a few times I intended to lead the answer. Maybe it's not always fair to test people that way, but sometimes it's a good way to discover someones character, skill set, or perceptiveness.