CEOs spend most of their time in communication with others. The expression “the buck stops here” recognizes that the CEO provides answers to pressing questions. The tone is set at the top by a leader who answers questions at a town hall meeting or in a board meeting.
Yes, questions are important. But, so are answers, and they have been underappreciated in the academic and applied press. My recent book, Answer Intelligence: Raise Your AQ shines a light upon the topic of answers in business and life. I studied expert communicators, published an academic article, and expanded upon the article in my book. The result is a new science of answers that you can use in your next important conversation as a CEO.
To illustrate the importance of a systematic and thoughtful approach toward answers for a CEO, I will examine Town Hall and Board Presentation Answer Intelligence (AQ)™.
Town Hall AQ
Imagine you are a CEO at a Town Hall, and are asked, “What is the biggest challenge your company will face this year?” The main finding from the AQ research is that there are six answer types (story, metaphor, theory, concept, procedure, action) that correspond to three question types (why, what, how). Given a what-question, the most appropriate answers are a concept or a metaphor. For example, perhaps the CEO believes the biggest challenge is employee engagement, complicated by the lingering pandemic and a hybrid work environment.
A CEO that provides a High AQ response might define the concept of employee engagement as emotional engagement (when the company is praised in the press, employees are happy, and they are sad when the company is covered in a negative light), physical engagement (employees have the stamina to work and stay until the job is done), and cognitive engagement (e.g., they have a positive preoccupation with their work). This three-pronged definition provides depth to the understanding of engagement.
Additionally, a metaphor for employee engagement can be provided to create an emotional connection. For example, a CEO may describe the company’s role in employee engagement as a magnet (a force), and the employee’s response as iron filings that are drawn to the company or away from it. Perhaps the situation is serious, and the polarity of the magnet has been reversed, and the company is pushing its employees away, not attracting them. In which case, the direction of the magnetic field needs to be reversed fast before employees are lost for good.
In a similar manner, if the question is, “How will we cut the budget to survive the pandemic?” A direct response to this question would require outlining procedures and actions (two answer types). Although a CEO is not focused on the details of the implementation, without a high-level plan and critical actions, credibility will go down.
Finally, perhaps a cautious question is submitted by an anonymous attendee: “Why should we believe you?” This question would require a compelling story and theory (often called strategy in the context of a business meeting).
Board Presentation AQ
In a Town Hall, questions and answers can unfold like a dynamic chain where questions and answers are linked together to form a dialogue. AQ can also help prepare the CEO for the next Board presentation. Although interactive, many Board presentations feature a one-way delivery of information. During these monologue presentations, answers are important, perhaps more important than questions. Specifically, the board members still have questions, but they are not immediately voiced, requiring the presenter to anticipate questions in advance and prepare a presentation full of answers to the varied why-, what-, and how-questions.
One tip to make the preparation for the presentation more manageable and to give a coherent and singular focus to your presentation is to prepare three similar what-, why-, and how- questions using this simple approach: “What is the big idea?” For example, employee engagement discussed in the prior Town Hall scenario. Why is the big idea important? In this case, an illustrative employee engagement story can be shared, and theory can be discussed (how it predicts important business outcomes such as job performance or employee turnover). Finally, “How to implement?” the big idea can be discussed. For example, implementation of employee engagement in terms of key procedures and actions can be presented.
An advantage of the six-answer presentation is that it does not waste time, (only six answers, no more) as board members’ time is very valuable. It also places priority on all key questions (what, why, how) and answers, which gives the Board a full perspective to consider the proposal and to ask subsequent why-, what-, and how-questions as desired.
To learn more about Answer Intelligence (AQ)™ and 5 High AQ practices associated with expert communicators, read the book and visit www.RaiseYourAQ.com
Dr Brian Glibkowski is an Associate Professor of Management at North Central College, CEO of Semplar Science Corp and author of Answer Intelligence: Raise your AQ. Find out more: www.RaiseYourAQ.com
