225: Solutions-Focused Questions to Ask Your Direct Reports

The Exclusive Career Coach

Today I wanted to give you some tools to help you with your direct reports. I utilized “Quiet Leadership” from David Rock for this episode.

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The idea of solutions-focused questions is that you are focusing not on the problem, but on the solution to the problem. There is no upside to placing blame; rather, you want to help your employee understand how they can do better next time.

Focusing on problems is focusing on the past – leading us to try to change what can’t be changed. Focusing on problems leads to blame, excuses, and justifications.

Focusing on solutions creates energy in our minds. We address problems by analyzing the way forward, instead of their causes.

Here are examples of questions:

Why didn’t you hit your targets? VS.

What do you need to do next time to hit your targets?

Why did this happen? VS.

Why do you want to achieve here?

Where did it all start to go wrong? VS.

What do you need to do to move this forward?

Why do you think you’re not good at this? VS.

How can you develop strength in this area?

What’s wrong with your team? VS.

What does your team need to do to win?

Why did you do that? VS.

What do you want to do next?

Who is responsible for this? VS.

Who can achieve this?

Why isn’t this working? VS.

What do we need to do to make this work?

Notice how often I used the word “why” in the problem-focused questions – removing this work from our conversations with employees can be a great first step to focusing on solutions.

Here’s a quote from The Solutions Focus: “It is often easier to start something new than to stop something. Anything that is a habit is by definition difficult to stop. And, if change is encouraged by positive reinforcement, it is much easier to be aware of when you are taking the reinforceable action than to know when you are not doing whatever it is that you want to give up.”

In a nutshell: Problems fade into the background as solutions develop.

According to Quiet Leadership: “If you’re worried that this sounds too easy, consider that being solutions-focused means taking responsibility for outcomes and taking action. It doesn’t mean being lazy with the facts; in fact, it requires significant discipline and focus.”

Here’s your assignment: When you go into a conversation with someone, notice the number of times you choose to focus on problems versus the number of times you choose to focus on solutions, and keep a tally of your ratio. Do this for a week, and see if, simply by awareness, your ratio begins to change towards a solutions focus.

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