Every leader faces a pivotal moment: Do you simply share what you know, or do you inspire others to find the answers themselves? For Erik Forbus and Kevin Keith, this realization turned into action after attending leadership sessions at the Reliable Plant Conference.
While technical implementations often come with built-in support, applying leadership techniques is a personal journey that leaders must start on their own. But, by recognizing the value of fostering an environment where others can discover the answers for themselves, these industry experts embraced the challenge of asking “what” and “how” questions to guide their teams.
This final part of my three-part series reveals how their commitment to fostering growth led to unexpected and transformative results for their employees, their processes, and their own leadership journeys.
Learning to Take the First Step
JODY PARSONS: The last time we spoke, you committed to asking "what" and "how" questions instead of giving advice or just answering questions. How difficult was this switch?
KEVIN KEITH: It was tricky at first. I had to be really mindful and form the questions in my head well before presenting them. Most of the time, your first reaction is to give a short, efficient response, but in order to promote engaging and educational conversations, you have to think about and formulate your response.
For example, I had a team member asking if we needed to filter the gearbox. My initial response was, “Yeah, we should.” But I took an extra second to think more deeply about it and instead asked, “What would happen if we didn’t do that? What would the outcome be?” This created a teaching moment where he could solidify the knowledge he already had and help build confidence in his abilities.
With this interaction, he formulated solid evidence for himself to back up the maintenance decision and allowed him to be an active, engaged participant in the decision.
ERIK FORBUS: It was difficult for me. I’ve done and accomplished enough in my career that when a team member comes to me with a question, I typically know the answer or the best way to do something.
Switching gears like this to start asking engaging questions made me feel like I was saying I didn’t know something, and I pride myself on finding out the answer when I don’t know something. I like to be able to say, “This is what I do,” when I’m asked a question.
But I knew I had the answer, and this was about educating my team members, not just directing them. When they needed assistance, I began asking them follow-up questions. For example, when someone reported an issue, instead of telling them how to resolve it, I started asking, "How did the issue happen?" and "What happened leading up to the issue?”
This line of questioning has helped us uncover underlying problems with assets that were also contributing to the overall issue. Not only were my team members more engaged and active in understanding the health and issues of our assets, but as a team, we all gathered more in-depth information and discovered more about the actual problem we can now address than what was first identified.
LEADERSHIP LESSON
Technically, Kevin and Erik’s practice of answering questions efficiently and being a trusted source of solid information was fine. But they chose to take it a step further and embody a growth mindset.
A growth mindset allows leaders to suspend the inaccurate notion that what has happened will always happen or that there is nothing new to learn; it establishes that processes, people, and anything else can all be improved through consistent effort. In other words, Kevin and Erik have been enhancing their continuous improvement processes.
When embodying a growth mindset, the thinking will shift from “I’m valuable because of what I know” to “I add value because of what I can learn and teach others.”
The myth is that leaders must know everything. That simply isn’t true. Leaders must create conditions where employees thrive, and one way to do that is by consistently using “what” and “how” questions.
Digging Deeper for Better Outcomes
JODY: What was your greatest success?
KEVIN: My greatest success was when I started using this question-style communication skill with my own managers. When I asked them a question, I noticed that their first instinct was to respond quickly and efficiently, just like I used to. But when I began asking them follow-up “what” and “how” questions, it prompted them to do the same thing.
The result was more in-depth and engaging conversations that helped me become even more knowledgeable about my job and feel more confident in my understanding of what we are trying to accomplish.
Sometimes, you have to meet your management in the middle and ask these questions yourself. It promotes better communication tactics and creates opportunities for conversations rather than just responses or directives.
ERIK: Instinctually, I found more issues that could go wrong. But, when I thought about it, I saw how many times I simply didn’t gather enough information. My solutions weren’t permanent fixes because I needed to get more information to fully understand the issue. By digger deeper and asking more questions, I gained a greater understanding of what my technicians were really needing a solution for.
LEADERSHIP LESSON
This engaged questioning experiment illustrates that solutions-based conversations produce massive opportunities for learning, understanding, and agreement. By actively engaging employees and fostering a growth mindset culture, core root issues were discovered, better solutions were agreed upon, and persistent problems were solved.
These outcomes can and will leave a lasting impression on technicians and supervisors; while there are many solutions to an issue, the first one that comes to mind may not always be the best. Engaged discussions help discover the best solution, grow core facility knowledge, and enhance a company’s longevity.
Growing as Leaders Through Collaboration
JODY: What did you discover about yourself?
KEVIN: When I started applying this communication skill, I had to actively think about how to formulate a question or response to continually create these higher-level conversations. The first few times were a trial-and-error process, but it got easier the more I did it.
ERIK: I found that I was trying to be helpful, but my quick, short answers relied on a tiny bit of information to make decisions. Instead of only listening to the original question and saying, “This is what you need,” I tried to dig deeper into the root cause and not just settle for the quick fix to the surface-level issue.
LEADERSHIP LESSON
For leaders used to answering questions with quick solutions, switching to asking “what” and “how” questions can feel extremely unnatural. However, as both Kevin and Erik discovered, the outcome is worth the effort.
As the experts saw, while providing quick answers can be useful, they often fail to address the root cause, promote collaboration, or foster engagement through learning moments.
With time and continued effort, leaders can uncover both the expected and unexpected outcomes of asking questions, such as increasing employee trust, driving a positive culture shift, and actively engaging employees.
Transforming Team Dynamics with Engaged Conversations
JODY: How did your colleagues and direct reports respond to you?
KEVIN: They noticed the difference and appreciated the extra effort. Now, instead of expecting a short answer, they anticipate and wait for my engaged response, and they have their own follow-up questions and responses, as well.
This is providing a more meaningful back-and-forth conversation and is increasing our understanding of our assets and processes.
ERIK: We developed a better rapport with have back-and-forth trouble shooting conversations than I expected. We were able to dive deeper into potential causes when looking for a solution. This more thorough questioning process has helped us to better understand the true root causes and decide what the best solution is.
LEADERSHIP LESSON
To experience the benefits of discarding the thought “To be useful, I must provide quick, accurate answers,” a leader must embody a growth mindset, just as Kevin and Erik have.
By having “short, but meaningful conversations” via “what” and “how” questions, they found that their employees not only responded well to this type of coaching, but they had a desire to learn more and be more engaged.
This discovery comes at a crucial juncture in the industry, as, according to a 2024 Gallup Survey, 51% of employees consider themselves disengaged. By engaging employees with “what” and “how” questions, facilities can create more favorable outcomes, not only for their critical assets, but the invaluable team members who maintain them.
The Unexpected Impact
JODY: Were you surprised by any of the results?
KEVIN: I was surprised by the number of conversations we could have. Most of the time, everyone is in such a hurry that there were only short one or two sentence conversations. Now, the questions are creating learning conversations, and we’ve all improved our communication skills.
It’s not the same conversation with every person, because some of these “what” and “how” conversations that work with one person, doesn’t work with another. You have to adapt it to the individual, for example, I wouldn’t use the same line of questioning with a superior as I would with a direct report.
ERIK: I was surprised by how responsive my technicians were. When I was asked a question, I answered with a question, and it brought us to the same general area – a better path to what we were doing.
Asking “why” has also helped me when making job plans. Now, instead of just giving the plan, I also explain “how” we do these things in the processes to create more learning opportunities.
LEADERSHIP LESSON
By fostering a growth mindset, Kevin and Erik were able to directly influence the trust between their facility’s reliability experts, supervisors, and technicians. This trust will begin to influence an employee-centric culture across the floor, allowing all team members to feel supported and encouraged to be more engaged in their roles.
Additionally, both experts walked away from this process as better communicators, more discerning coaches, and better proponents of utilizing questions for meaningful engagement. Kevin and Eric both developed a better way forward with their technicians where engagement and solution-finding opportunities are more readily available.
Putting It All Together
It’s one thing to walk away from a Reliable Plant Conference leadership seminar feeling inspired to do something different; It’s a completely different experience to put those practices into place and experience positive results, both intended and unintended.
Leadership experts can provide engaging sessions, but those sessions are only useful if the participants utilize the tactics and ideas they learned. You don’t have to take a leadership expert’s word for it – the positive proof is demonstrated in every part of this three-part series.
Anyone is capable of experiencing the endless benefits of efficient and productive leadership practices; they just have to be willing to embody a growth mindset, employ some new tactics, and trust the process.
Now, it’s your turn. Engage employees with “what” and “how” questions and see for yourself what is possible.
Notes From the Author
I wish to express a heartfelt “Thank you!” to both Kevin Keith and Blue Buffalo and Erik Forbus and Cardinal Corporation, along with Reliable Plant and Noria. This experiment was successful and provided solutions to problems that these reliability experts did not know they had.
