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Answering Questions
When it comes to communicating in the workplace, questions are at the heart of how we convey information and how we demonstrate our competence, our commitment, and our compatibility. You’ll be asked questions and you’ll be expected to ask questions, and it’s in these moments that unspoken rules can start bubbling to the surface.
Let’s talk about when you’re asked questions. When I was first starting out, if I didn’t know an answer, I would go ahead and say, “I’m not sure.” And while this may be the honest answer, it isn’t a satisfying answer. What people are asking for that they’ll never tell you about is that they’re not looking for the complete answer, they’re not looking for a Pulitzer Prize winning response. All they’re looking for is a satisfying answer. And a satisfying answer is one where people can be convinced that you’re trying your best, that you’re putting some thought into this, and that ultimately, you’re trying to help.
What is a satisfying answer? A satisfying answer is when you give a partial answer, when you give a hypothesis, or when you give a promise of a more complete answer later. So let’s say your manager comes up to you, or a coworker comes up to you and asks you a question, instead of saying, “I don’t know,” you can say, “I don’t know about this part, but I do know about this part.” Or you can say, “I’m not sure, but I suspect,” or you can say, “I’m not exactly sure, but let me look into this and let me send you an email and get back to you by this afternoon.”
In the workplace, you’ll inevitably find yourself in the following situation. A coworker or a manager looks over to your direction and says, “Hey, what do you think?” At which point, the classic answer is, “Hmm, that’s interesting,” and that’s okay. That’s maybe the C+ answer, but the A+ answer is one where you give an answer and/or a point of view, and what you’re doing in this situation is not just agreeing with others, but you’re, instead, showing that you’re thinking about this topic proactively and you’re putting some real thought into this, thinking about, okay, these are the things that I agree with. These are the things that I’m not so sure about. And more importantly, this is where I think we should go next. You’re not just taking the question at face value, you’re thinking about the bigger picture. You’re asking yourself, what’s the broader question we’re trying to answer here? What is the broader objective of this entire conversation? And, what is the question behind the question?
Asking Questions
Unspoken rules can also arise when you have questions, and when you have questions, there’s a C+ response, there’s a B+ response, and there’s an A+ response. The C+ response is to not ask questions at all because you’re worried about asking something that may be common sense, or that may come across as if you didn’t do your research. And that’s what I did. So I put my head down, and I just hoped that I’d figure it out eventually, when in reality, my coworkers were sitting next to me, wondering, “Does Gorick care about this work, because we know he shouldn’t get very much of this, and yet he’s not asking any questions.”
So that’s the C+ approach. The B+ approach is to ask an open-ended question, to say, “I’m stuck. What do I do next?” And this is better than not asking questions at all, but what you’re doing is pushing the responsibility of figuring it out onto other people.
The A+ answer follows the unspoken rule of giving people something to react to. So instead of asking an open-ended question, what you’re doing is saying, “I’m struggling with this. I looked here and here. I think I can take path A, B, or C. I’m leaning towards path B, am I thinking about this the right way?” And so what you’re doing is applying another unspoken rule, which is the unspoken rule of doing and showing your homework. What you’re doing in this A+ answer is showing, “Hey, I’ve done as much work as I can to figure things out on my own before asking you. So this, by definition, is a good question. So help me out.”
The unspoken role of doing and showing your homework is ultimately about showing that you have a good head on your shoulders, that you’re resourceful, and that you’re willing to learn and help. What does that look like? Before you ask a question, it’s important to look at emails you may have received already, dig through files that may have been shared with you, maybe go on the internet and try and dig for a partial answer, and then take what you’ve gathered and show your homework as you would in school. Where you’re saying, “I’m struggling with this question. I’ve gone above and beyond in trying to figure out a partial answer on my own. This is the precise part that I’m now struggling with. Am I thinking about this the right way?”