Lesson 8- Active Inquiry

From your own experience, describe a situation in which you used active inquiry.

I demonstrate active inquiry the most when I’m meeting with the associates on my team about a problem that they are facing.

Most recently, one of the new HR Representatives on my team approached me about an associate relations situation that she was handling.  There was a problem in one of her departments with an associate who was having attendance issues and before they were able to confront him, he indicated that he was having medical issues and was citing that this was impacting his attendance.  The HR  Manager was asking me how she should handle it, since his manager was interested in applying corrective counseling.

Instead of telling her the answers, I practiced inquiry.  I asked her questions like, “Tell me about the performance history with this associate.”, “Has anyone asked him about why he has been having attendance issues…Why?  Why not?”  “Given the recent knowledge that we have about his medical issues, what do you think are the risks with proceeding with corrective counseling?”

By engaging in these questions, the HR Representative was able to feel confident in how to address the situation with this associate’s department.  She also felt good about the meeting with me because it was her, not me, who came up with the answers.