Ilias Aliev, Rosgosstrakh HR-Director, told us how he used Zen traditions in his management practice. Watch the video to know how the art of asking questions can help in solving difficult business situations.
1. Which competency is important for leaders?
It is very difficult to evaluate yourself in the field I intend to speak about. It is art of asking questions. It is Zen tradition which implies a teacher asking question without any intention to receive an answer. Its aim is to waken consciousness or subconsciousness. For example, "Everybody heard two hands clapping. And what is the sound of one hand clapping?" And the man goes away, meditates, and than comes to say something like, "There is a bird in the sky, and there is a fish is in the water". So it is an exchange of symbols. When I first read about it I felt it was close to me. You don't impose your answer to another person but you just help him in his self-development and it is very important.
2. How did you recognize this competency?
I understood that asking questions was an art when I wrote my master's thesis in England. At first I was disappointed with my scientific adviser who did not correct me and did not give me answers. The only thing he did was asking me questions. During two hour session he could ask me two questions, sometimes three, sometimes four. We gradually reached the period when he asked me one question. So he asked me a question than during half an hour I was trying to explain him that his question was incorrect, during another half an hour I was answering his question, than I was meditating upon our conversation and than I left. After a time I understood that this method had helped me to understand the structure of my work, and the pattern I had to act to reach the result, and to understand what was the result.
3. What the question should be like?
"How do you want to do it?" "Why are you doing in this way?" You should understand what question is the most appropriate to the situation. It should destroy the brain. It should make you look at the situation from a different angle. I can give an example. It was a difficult situation for me as a top-manager. As it lasted for quit a long period of time it began to tire me, I thought about it all the time. I called my scientific adviser. He had been listening to me for four hours. During these sessions he said just a few words. But what was important he asked me the only question. "From what you are doing what do you think you will do the best in this situation?" It was all I needed.
4. Why this competency is so important for HR-Director?
Working with top-managers you should not give them answers. A top-manager stops listening to you as you begin to give him answers because he himself is a person who gives answers the whole day. The main mistake of many HR-Directors is that they have already given themselves answers. And they give the same answers to other top-managers. And they became very upset when top-managers have other answers at the same questions.
