A property manager who responds to every team question with another question and whose team solves problems faster than any other in the portfolio.
The leader who always has the answer produces a team that always needs one.
When leaders consistently solve problems for their teams rather than with them, they are investing in the leader’s capability rather than the team’s, and the resulting operational dependency means the leader is always needed at exactly the moments when they most need to be developing others.
Answering a question with a question is not evasion. It is the most direct route to a team that can think, because thinking is a practiced skill that requires the opportunity to be wrong, to revise, and to arrive at the right answer through effort rather than transfer.
The manager whose team has the highest problem-solving capability is almost never the one who provides the most answers. They are the ones who asked the best questions and then waited long enough for the team to find the ones they already had.
She responded to every question with a question. It was uncomfortable at first. Then it became the culture. Within eight months, her team was solving problems before they reached her. Within eighteen months, two of them were ready for their own properties. Ask the question. Hold the silence. Trust the process.
The leader who gives answers builds a team that needs them. The leader who asks questions builds a team that finds them. — Mike Brewer
In your next team interaction, where someone brings you a problem, respond only with questions throughout the conversation. What does the team discover that they would not have discovered if you had just answered?