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(Gary Cohen). So if there is one thing tonight
that I'd like you to walk away with because, you know,
I'm going to present a lot of information, we're going to go
very quickly, because they're going to start waving and
saying, you know, you're running out of time.
And we might not even cover all of the slides, but that is
unimportant to me because what is really important is the
message, and that is "ask, don't tell".
What's the message?
(audience response). Ask, don't tell.
(Gary). Oh, come on, you guys are in
education, you can do better!
What was the message?
(audience response). Ask, don't tell.
(Gary). Awesome, because if you just
think about that for a moment, tomorrow or the next day when
you're in that situation with your son or your daughter,
school, in the office, it works, it really does.
It changes the whole dynamic of the relationship with
the people that you're working with.
So I forget, what was that, that you didn't want to remember.
I have an active working memory thing, what?
(audience response). [unclear audio].
Ask don't tell.
(Gary). Awesome, okay.
If you reported to Jack Welch--remember this is the
guy that went into GE, turned it around, was known as like,
Atomic Jack, Neutron Jack-- what do you think your
number one learning would be?
So say you're Jeff Imolt.
Jeff is the new CEO, chairman of GE today, he has taken it over.
So if we asked Jeff what was his number one learning--he served
under Jack for a lot of years--what do you think
that would be?
That's a little tougher, takes a little more time
on these tougher questions.
Okay, here we go, the ball is about to drop.
Okay, asking questions, it's amazing how you knew intuitively
that it was asking questions.
In fact, it is asking questions for those of you, this is one
where I actually have the answer.
Because a friend of mine was a roommate in college--I know,
how many extensions do we have to Jeff Imolt--to Jeff Imolt,
and my buddy asked him what was the number one thing
you learned from Jack?
And it was?
(audience response). Ask, don't tell.
(Gary). Yes, he said that Jack, at a
dinner like this would sit down and if he didn't know you
it wouldn't matter, he would ask everything and anything.
And he had a ferocious curiousity, but he was always
driven towards a goal, so it wasn't just blanket curiosity.
And then I interviewed another gentleman who worked for a
foundation where Jack was the chairman and I said,
tell me more about what it was like to have
this reporting relationship.
He said it was wonderful.
I said what happened?
He said, well I would come into his office and it was like an
arena and I'd sit down and he'd start asking me questions.
I said, was it to intimidate you?
Well, the first few times I felt intimidated because
here's the guru of gurus on how to lead something and
I'm in his presence.
And he said, over time that disappeared and what I really
understood was he was really asking me the questions I needed
to understand, to look at this in a much deeper, richer
perspective, and that he never told him once the answer.
In three-and-a-half years of reporting to Jack Welch,
he never once told him the answer.
I thought that was amazing, because that's not the meaty
impression that we have of that type of leader, and so this is
part of what I find interesting.
I interviewed Ron Hyfitz, who I consider one of the best writers
on leadership, and he comes from the Kennedy school, and I asked
him why is it that we don't see more books around
asking questions in leadership?
He says it's not interesting to academics because it's
historical referencing that we look at, how did the person do
in their job of leading.
I'm interested in what's it like to lead going
up a down escalator.
To me that's what so many of us do all day.
The escalator is going one way and we're trying to climb up
against the environment, against everything, and guess what?
Sometimes we don't make it, but it doesn't make us less of a
leader, because it's about how did we bring people along.
Sometimes you don't achieve your goal, but it doesn't
make you less of a leader.
So Jack Welch says, "leaders probe and push with a curiosity
that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions
are answered with action".
What we'll see throughout this presentation is it's about
perspective, it's about evaluation--both in the
situation and the people-- and it's about conducting,
it's about making those questions turn into actions,
it's not just about the answer.
Okay, so what percent of the time do
exceptional leaders ask questions?
Did I give this away already?
We're going to find out.
[no dialogue].
The ball is going down, here it comes...okay...
click again; ah, there we go.
A hundred percent of the time says 50%.
It's actually between 70% and 80% is what I found so far,
but now I'm going to add this to my numbers because I'm just
continuing to get more and more data around this.
But when I interviewed these people they said they
spend 70% to 80% of their time asking questions.
So this begs the question--there's all these
books, there's over 10,000 books on leadership,
so why another one, right?
Well, what I look at is if they're so busy asking the
questions and all these other books tell us what we're
supposed to tell and do, then there is a conflict there
for me, which is what is it that these questions are really
manifesting in the leader?
So are the characteristics of trust, courage, and all the
other values--or virtues, I should say--coming forth
from the questions they ask.
Am I getting too far away?
Yeah, there.
So exceptional leaders spend 70% to 80% of their time
asking questions.
Now let's take some real life examples of this, Tom Pritzger.
Tom Pritzger is CEO and chairman of the Hyatt Corporation.
They also own the Marmin group.
It's a business family, is how I like to think of it.
And I asked him to give me an example of how when you use
questions to lead it changes the entire outcome of a situation.
So he proceeds to tell me how one of their businesses
was offered a $5 million government contract to
produce something for the armed services, which he
couldn't specify or he'd have to kill me.
And when he went to the CEO and asked so what are we doing to
fill the order, the CEO said we talked to the head engineer who
engineered this whole thing and by the way he's the
plant manager, and he says he's designed this plant and
he knows exactly the amount of time it takes to produce things
and we're full, we cannot take that work.
And so Tom said, you know, what happens if you ask
the people on the line?
The CEO goes, well, it couldn't hurt.
So they gather all the employees in the lunchroom and the way
he describes it is, these are guys working on a hard line,
they come in with the tattoos and just a whole different
image of decision making.
And they say so we've got this $5 million order and
we really want to take it but this is what we see.
We can't see a way to get another four hours of production
a day out of the line.
What do you see?
One of the guys scratches his head and says well, you know,
if you put some shelves right here in my station and move
my station about 15 degrees, I can get you 20 minutes.
And another one says, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, you're saying
we could spend money here to save time?
Yeah.
Oh gosh, I can get you 10 minutes easy simply by
moving my stool this far.
Really?
And by the end they had found about 4 hours and 20 minutes.
It's amazing when you ask the question and you don't
have the answer, what happens.
And so often we really move into a space of believing that
we really know, when we may not really know.
It's only our perception of the situation.