Always Ask Questions To Delegate Key Tasks

Almost everyone stumbles while climbing the corporate ladder. For Douglas Baker, the real test is how you recover.

In his first general management job in the early 1990s, Baker found himself running manufacturing at a unit of Ecolab ECL, a maker of cleaning and sanitizing products in St. Paul, Minn.

"Our facility wasn't as clean as it could be," said Baker, now Ecolab's chairman and chief executive. "So I went to our warehouse manager and said, 'Clean this up and bring it up to standard.'"

A few weeks later, Baker toured the warehouse and liked what he saw. He thanked the warehouse manager and figured the matter was settled.

But in the coming months, Baker started noticing unusually large bills from a waste disposal company that specialized in incineration. He couldn't fathom a reason for the charges.

Digging for answers, Baker discovered that the warehouse manager had hired the incineration firm to destroy excess inventory. That's how the manager tidied up the warehouse so promptly.

"This guy broke a lot of codes and he knew it," Baker said. "I caught him and he didn't last much longer with us. But the damage was done."

The warehouse manager had improperly disposed of $400,000 in inventory and incurred a $100,000 incineration bill in doing so. Baker had to tell his superiors why the company's pockets were suddenly $500,000 lighter.

"Within 12 hours, I wrote a letter explaining everything," he recalled. "It wasn't a fun letter to write."

Worried about his career, Baker knew that he had erred in not supervising his warehouse manager more closely. He hoped his bosses would forgive him.

They did. And over the next 10 years, Baker earned a series of promotions.

"Around the time I became CEO, I learned that the letter I wrote many years before had made a positive impression," he said. "Confessing in that letter helped me get the CEO job. They liked that I took responsibility."

Aside from learning a valuable lesson -- to come clean when problems arise -- Baker also vowed to manage people differently.

Looking back, he regrets not asking the warehouse manager, "How are you going to clean up this facility?"

Baker has never made that error again. Instead, he questions employees after he doles out assignments. He invites them to discuss how they intend to do the task at hand.

As a veteran honcho, Baker knows that not asking the right questions opens the door to problems. "If I have any doubt whether I should ask a question, I ask it," he said. "It's my default setting. And I keep asking questions until I'm convinced the person understands the right way to proceed."

Baker also follows up to assess progress. That nixes surprises down the line.

"Through the Socratic method, I encourage employees to think for themselves," he said. "And I check in later to make sure they're following through."