Not having all the answers, but still being OK
Day 1 in my new job and I got asked lots of questions I had absolutely no answers to. Despite being someone who likes to have control and likes to plan for any eventuality, there was no way I was prepared for reasonable, but blindsiding questions to problems I had never heard of before.
Can I hire a temp who has been with us for three years - his contract expires tomorrow? How can I enter a new product bundle in our ordering system without screwing up our new billing system? Why do you keep on asking for the same reports that xx asks for when you're on the same team? 3 of the 50 questions I got today.
A few years ago I would've answered as best as I could, right then and there. But I've found out that it is not so much the answers, but engaging in a conversation about the reason behind the questions that creates the real value. Or as a fave previous manager used to say - practice the art of precision questioning .
Why have we had temp for 3 years - oh it's common practice and we always have a rotating temp staff on these contracts. Fine. Why are we worried about screwing up our billing system - we don't have a clear process so I am always unsure how to do this - not good, let's get that process in place ASAP. Why are different people asking for the same reports - seems like we need a depository and structure for reports, let's get that fixed.
So even if I couldn't answer the primary question, we could together find the root cause and fix the issue there. Now I only have 47 other questions to left to figure out tomorrow.
