Captain Davies (my Boss from 1995 – 1996): “Petty Officer Munro, why are the pens on the clipboards at the front desk not working?”
Me (Petty Officer Munro): “I don’t know sir.”
Now the answer here was obvious. The pens at the front desk were dry because patients used them every day. No doctorate degree necessary here to figure it out. However these were typical of the daily exchanges between me and my idiot Boss Captain Davies during my tenure as the Leading Petty Officer at the Branch Dental Clinic at SUBASE Bangor in Silverdale, Washington. One day it was dry pens. The next could be about why there was a scratch in the side of our mobile dental unit. I felt as though I was under constant scrutiny. It was a particularly dark period in my life and I dreaded each day in that job.
If I think back on it, every question Capt. Davies asked me was one of interrogation, not curiosity. He knew the answer. He just wanted to know if I did. There is a difference.
Asking a question in interrogation: The asker assumes you DON’T know the answer or you have the wrong answer and they are waiting to evaluate you. This is what you find in audits and inspections. The questioning is uncomfortable. All that’s missing is the Bad/Good cop and a hot light shining in your face.
Asking a question in curiosity: The asker assumes you DO know the answer and is asking because they DON’T know it. The question is designed to inform, not reveal incompetence. It’s a much more comfortable experience. Captain Davies could have asked if I knew a better way to ensure the pens at the front desk always had ink in them. I could have figured that out. But the act of testing me to see if I was omniscient had the opposite effect.
So, if you’re The Boss, take the time to figure out WHY you’re asking the question and then choose to either ask it, not ask it, or ask it in a more productive way. You’ll go a long way towards building up the confidence in your direct reports and help them be more proactive in doing their job.