COLUMN : DO YOU ASK YOUR BOSS “WHY”

“WHY” often appears in various tips on management. For example, one of the most famous videos from TED is Simon Sinek’s book “Start with WHY”.

In addition, “Purpose management,” which has been heard in recent years, is also related to “WHY”. This is a management method based on the idea that we should manage our social purpose by clarifying “why we exist “.

The reason why Simon Sinek’s words are featured in the media and “Purpose management” has become a hot word is because, on the other hand, “WHY” is often ignored.

Today, I would like to share my personal opinion on “WHY”.

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When is “WHY” used?

There are times in the workplace when “WHY” comes up. A typical example would be when investigating the cause of a mistake made by members, or when members do not do something that they said they would do.

You pursue them like this. Even if they clarify the reason, the boss is obsessed with asking their members “WHY”.

Recently, bosses may be less likely to yell at their members for fear of being sued for harassment, but it is not pleasant for them to be asked “why?” and “how come?” in a matter-of-fact manner.

In this situation, from the member’s perspective, it is likely that they often do not have a good image of being asked “WHY” by their boss.

This is a bit off topic, but when it comes to training and mentoring members, I feel like there are a lot of cases where people use “why” too many times and say it in a harsh way, and it turns into an interrogation or questioning like a detective would do with a suspect.

In the Japanese business world, “why” may not be used very often in a positive context.

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Do you ask your boss about “why”?

Simon Sinek has said so, so it may be that there are only a few business people who are good at talking about (using) “why,” not just in Japan.

Thinking about this, I suddenly thought of the following.

In the Japanese business world, members may not often ask their bosses about “why”.

What do you think? For example, if you are a section manager,

*You are suddenly instructed by your boss to think about “HOW”

*You don’t see any relevance or consistency between the boss’s instructions and the strategy

*Your boss’s instructions seem to go against the current policy

In such a case,

◆What is the background to that instruction?
◆Why did they give such instructions?

Do you ask (confirm) your boss? I don’t think you can give clear instructions to your members without asking them. Your members will want to know the background, that is, “why such instructions were given”. If they understand “why”, ideas will come from various perspectives.

There are many reasons why they don’t ask about “why”. For example,

●Because they are afraid of their boss (because their boss will yell at them)
●Because they are afraid that their boss will make fun of them (treat them as incompetent)
●Because the organizational culture is “Think about “why” yourself. Don’t ask me about every single thing”
●They don’t have the antenna to listen to “why” in the first place. Because he/she has a thought pattern that immediately rushes to “HOW”

There may be other reasons, but either way, it’s a bad situation for the organization and for the people manager.

When you give instructions to your members without asking “WHY” from your boss, you probably won’t be able to answer their questions. Saying something like “I think…” will only leave your members feeling confused.

If this applies to you, you need to take action as a people manager to improve!

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Thank you for reading my blog despite my poor English.

If you have any comments, please send me an e-mail. [email address : hanabishi.708@gmail.com]