Aug 23, 2026 · 1 hr · 13 segments
Most people treat asking good questions as something you either have a knack for or you don't. Bob makes the case that it's actually a trainable habit, one built on slowing down long enough to catch a…
Andrew HawkinsHostSo I have these moments in my office, and I don't mean like moments like I'm stamping my feet or I'm pulling my hair out.
It's just kind of, you know, I did an employee review with somebody, and it didn't go badly, but it didn't go easy.
And if you're a person in my office who's listening to this and I'm not hard on you, then that's worse.
It means that you need something that I might be able to help you with that will push you into something that's better for you, it's better for us, it's better for your long-term development, all these sort of things.
If I don't do that to people, I've either given up on them or I don't see what I need, or they don't provide value that makes me think, "Oh, there's something here that we should work on together."
So I ended up doing this review with somebody, and they came back to me the next day with some follow-up questions.
They were expressing some concerns about remembering all the directions that I sent in the review like, "Here's the problem I see.
What do we need to do to work through it?" Like, all the kind of things that you would hope would happen in, in an employee evaluation.
This person's concern was, "How do I remember all this stuff?" And I don't know that I'm that much older than this person, but there was a recognition that it's possible that all this time that I've spent writing blog posts and that we've spent discussing these topics have actually helped this kind of critical thinking exercise.
Like, how do you recognize something, and how do you work through what the next step should be in a way that you can articulate it to the next person?
So I have these moments in my office, and I don't mean like moments like I'm stamping my feet or I'm pulling my hair out.
It's just kind of, you know, I did an employee review with somebody, and it didn't go badly, but it didn't go easy.
And if you're a person in my office who's listening to this and I'm not hard on you, then that's worse.
It means that you need something that I might be able to help you with that will push you into something that's better for you, it's better for us, it's better for your long-term development, all these sort of things.
If I don't do that to people, I've either given up on them or I don't see what I need, or they don't provide value that makes me think, "Oh, there's something here that we should work on together."
So I ended up doing this review with somebody, and they came back to me the next day with some follow-up questions.
They were expressing some concerns about remembering all the directions that I sent in the review like, "Here's the problem I see.
What do we need to do to work through it?" Like, all the kind of things that you would hope would happen in, in an employee evaluation.
This person's concern was, "How do I remember all this stuff?" And I don't know that I'm that much older than this person, but there was a recognition that it's possible that all this time that I've spent writing blog posts and that we've spent discussing these topics have actually helped this kind of critical thinking exercise.
Like, how do you recognize something, and how do you work through what the next step should be in a way that you can articulate it to the next person?
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