英文
Chapter 20 No One Likes to Take Orders
I once had the pleasure of dining with Miss Ida Tarbell, the dean of American biographers. When I told her I was writing this book, we began discussing this all—important subject of getting along with people, and she told me that while she was writing her biography of Owen D. Young, she interviewed a man who had sat for three years in the same office with Mr. Young. This man declared that during all that time he had never heard Owen D. Young give a direct order to anyone. He always gave suggestions, not orders. Owen D. Young never said, for example,“Do this or do that,”or“Don't do this or don't do that.”He would say,“You might consider this,”or“Do you think that would work?”Frequently he would say, after he had dictated a letter,“What do you think of this?”In looking over a letter of one of his assistants, he would say,“Maybe if we were to phrase it this way it would be better.”He always gave people the opportunity to do things themselves; he never told his assistants to do things; he let them do them, let them learn from their mistakes.
A technique like that makes it easy for a person to correct errors. A technique like that saves a person's pride and gives him or her a feeling of importance. It encourages cooperation instead of rebellion.
Resentment caused by a brash order may last a long time—even if the order was given to correct an obviously bad situation. Dan Santarelli, a teacher at a vocational school in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, told one of our classes how one of his students had blocked the entrance way to one of the school's shops by illegally parking his car in it. One of the other instructors stormed into the classroom and asked in an arrogant tone,“Whose car is blocking the driveway?”When the student who owned the car responded, the instructor screamed:“Move that car and move it right now, or I'll wrap a chain around it and drag it out of there.”
Now that student was wrong. The car should not have been parked there. But from that day on, not only did that student resent the instructor's action, but all the students in the class did everything they could to give the instructor a hard time and make his job unpleasant.
How could he have handled it differently? If he had asked in a friendly way,“Whose car is in the driveway?”and then suggested that if it were moved, other cars could get in and out, the student would have gladly moved it and neither he nor his classmates would have been upset and resentful.
Asking questions not only makes an order more palatable; it often stimulates the creativity of the persons whom you ask. People are more likely to accept an order if they have had a part in the decision that caused the order to be issued.
When Ian Macdonald of Johannesburg, South Africa, the general manager of a small manufacturing plant specializing in precision machine parts, had the opportunity to accept a very large order, he was convinced that he would not meet the promised delivery date. The work already scheduled in the shop and the short completion time needed for this order made it seem impossible for him to accept the order.
Instead of pushing his people to accelerate their work and rush the order through, he called everybody together, explained the situation to them, and told them how much it would mean to the company and to them if they could make it possible to produce the order on time. Then he started asking questions:
“Is there anything we can do to handle this order?”
“Can anyone think of different ways to process it through the shop that will make it possible to take the order?”
“Is there any way to adjust our hours or personnel assignments that would help?”
The employees came up with many ideas and insisted that he take the order. They approached it with a“We can do it”attitude, and the order was accepted, produced and delivered on time.
An effective leader will use…
ASK QUESTIONS INSTEAD OF GIVING DIRECT ORDERS.
中文
第二十章 没人喜欢被指使
我曾有幸与美国资深传记作家艾达·塔贝尔一同进餐。当我告诉她我正在写这样一本书后，我们便开始讨论待人接物时最重要的一点。她告诉我，她在写欧文·D．扬的传记时曾经访问过一个与扬先生在同一个办公室共事三年的人。这个人说，他从来也没听过扬先生直接给任何人下命令。他总是提出建议，而非命令。例如，欧文·D．扬从来不会说：“做这件事”“做那件事”“别这样做”“别那样做”。他会说：“你或许可以考虑这样做”或者“你觉得这样可行吗”。当他口述完一封信后，总是会说：“你觉得可以吗？”在审读助手写的信时，他会说：“或许如果我们重新措辞会更好。”他总是给人做事的主动权，从不指使助手做这做那，他放手让他们自己做事并从错误中学习。
这样的方式会使他人更容易改正错误。这样的方式保护了他人的自尊，能使他人感觉到自己的重要性。这促进了合作，减少了反抗。
粗暴的命令所引发的怨恨是长久的，即便命令是为了改善明显糟糕的情况。宾夕法尼亚州怀俄明一所技校的老师丹·桑塔莱利在班里讲了他的一个学生违规停车挡住学校里一家店入口的事。一位讲师冲了进来，用傲慢的口吻问：“谁的车挡住了通道？”当那个学生回应后，那个老师大喊：“把车开走！现在！要不然我用链子把它缠上然后拖走！”
那个学生固然做错了，不能把车停在那里。但从此以后，不仅那个学生厌恶那位老师的举动，所有学生都开始在他的班上捣乱，令他头疼。
他还能采取什么其他的方式吗？如果他友好地问“哪位同学把车停在过道上了”，然后建议那位同学把车移走，让其他车可以出入，学生会很乐意移车的。那个同学和其他同学都不会生气，也不会厌恶那个老师。
问问题的方式不仅能使命令更易被接受，还往往能激发对方的创造力。人们在认为自己参与了决定时会更乐意接受命令。
当南非约翰内斯堡的精密部件小工厂总经理伊恩·麦当劳接到一笔庞大订单时，他很确定他们无法如期交货。工厂里的工作早已安排好，而这笔订单交货时间之紧迫使按时交货都成了几乎不可能的任务。
伊恩并没有催促员工加快速度赶订单。他召集了全厂会议，向大家解释了情况，告诉他们如果能按时交货对公司来说将具有多重大的意义。然后他开始问问题：
“我们能用什么办法来处理这个订单？”
“有没有人能想到任何不同的操作方式以保证我们能按时交货？”
“我们该怎样调整工作时间和任务分配？”
职员们想出了很多主意，执意让经理接这笔订单。他们用“我们能做到”的态度来迎接这个问题。于是他接受了订单，开始生产，并且如期交货。
高效领导者会：
提出问题而不是直接下命令。
