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Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Personal Excellence
BT11

You Don't Have All the Answers: So Stop Giving Advice and Start Asking Questions Prior Year Content

Many of us are raised to recognize the value of experts. When we work in a technical arena, seeing our own value as experts is re-enforced. We often are rewarded or promoted based on our knowledge. Our tendency is to want to solve problems by giving our colleagues, teams, and mentees sound advice. Judith Mills says this approach is often counterproductive because, in doing this, we take ownership of the problem. Rather than allowing them to solve their own problems, we can thwart their growth and, in the process, become a bottleneck. Learn the benefits and techniques (and when to use them) for transferring responsibility to the person or teams with the problem. Explore how to use questions to empower others to solve their problems by helping them walk through the situation and recognize the major hurdles. Join Judith to discover when we should allow them to work it out and when we should help solve the problem directly.

1.00 PMI® PDU
Judith Mills
Judith Mills, Judith Mills LLC

Judith Mills is interested in people. Rising through the ranks from software engineer to VP Development at a global software company, Judith is equally comfortable talking with teams about building great applications as she is working on organizational strategy in the boardroom. Her interest in people and her desire to create great work environments where people can thrive and do their best drive her to continually learn more and seek new opportunities to effect change. Judith has worked with leadership teams and implemented Scrum and kanban for hundreds of teams on three continents.

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