Answer: The amount of information you receive in response to a question

Closed-ended questions aren’t bad – they just don’t get you a lot of information. Close-ended questions usually start with the following: do, should, can, and will. They tend to be most effective when asked at the end of a conversation to confirm commitment. Are you ready to buy? Is this the way you want to proceed?

Open-ended questions aren’t always the best option – they are optimal when you are seeking input, collaboration, ideas, teamwork, and innovative thoughts. Open-ended questions start with “what” or “how”. What is your most important product benefit? How would you like to proceed?

Warning: We are so accustomed to asking close-ended questions that they are our default. We have to intentionally ask open-ended questions to make them our new default.

Exercise: For one day, keep track of the types of questions you ask. At the top of a piece of paper, write “open” on one side and “closed” on the other. After every interaction, put a check mark under the type of question you asked. At the end of the day, review the list. What opportunities do you have to increase collaboration and idea generation in your interactions by asking more open-ended questions?

Open-ended questions have exponential value when delegating. Download the 2-Way Delegation app. You will expand your ability to increase trust and results by asking open-ended questions.

It starts by hammering the people that bring you bad news. It ends with being blindsided by a negative situation that impacts your team, department, or organization so strongly you cannot recover quickly or maybe at all.

History is full of leaders who stopped listening to bad news and through words or actions only welcomed all-is-good updates. Those leaders and organizations often experienced a major decline or ceased to exist.  

Pay attention to the tips below so that you aren’t blindsided by bad news.

1. If you aren’t hearing about obstacles or problems, ask for them. “What is the biggest obstacle you are handling right now? How is this obstacle affecting the team and the deliverables?”
2. When someone does give you bad news, say thank you. Thank the person for bringing forth a tough issue. 
3. Be a THINKing partner; have a two-way discussion about how to fix the situation. Don’t punish or degrade. Talk about the options and how to implement the best option. Later, after the problem is fixed, you will have time to have a tough conversation—now is not the time.   

Delegation is the answer to getting work done through others. Follow up is the answer to making sure you understand the obstacles your team, department, or organization faces. The 2-Way Delegation app has 100s of tips for delegating effectively, building your career, and being successful in your leadership role. 

Your delegation skills directly affect your ability to lead.  If we are delegating in a powerful way, we are maximizing our leadership effectiveness.  The opposite is true.

Take a quick quiz to glance at how you are doing.  On a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being never/almost never and 4 being always/almost always, rate yourself on three behaviors:

1. When analyzing work to delegate, you spend time planning the best way to delegate the work before doing so.
2. When delegating work, you tell the person to whom you are delegating why you are asking him/her to do the work.
3. When following up on delegated work, you do not take the work away and do it yourself if you notice the work is not done correctly or the way that you would do it.

Delegation is a systematic process that requires preplanning, a communication of why the task is important, and the patience to help delegatees learn.

The app, 2-Way Delegation, has a 32-question self-scoring assessment with the behaviors of an effective delegator. Assess your delegation strengths and development areas; then, read the 46 page app to immediately start improving your delegation skills, leadership, work/life balance, and the growth of team members.