As we saw in a previous poster entitled Unsolicited Advice, “Unsolicited advice can be viewed as criticism.”
Nevertheless, there are times when we wish to give another peer or even superior advice. What approach does a leader use?
If a leader has heard of a plan that a superior is about to undertake and has concerns in a given area, s/he comes to the superior with questions like “As I play this plan out in my mind, if the market spreads collapse, how does it affect the effectiveness of our strategy? How might we adjust?”
The more direct (and potentially offensive way) would be to say, “I’ve reviewed your plan and couldn’t help but notice I don’t believe you’ve created enough contingencies for market spreads collapsing.”
By giving advice through asking questions the leader has allowed the superior to save face while putting the superior in a position of a teacher – teaching the leader about the plan. The use of questions never once supposes that the superior hasn’t considered the possibility of collapsing spreads, but only is seeking to determine what the superior’s thinking on that subject might be.
A leader knows how to give advice by asking questions, because s/he finds that more times than not the advice is better received when in the context of a question.
Categories: Authority Relationships
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