Asking the Right Questions

Good leaders know that asking questions is an important ingredient in leadership. Even when you think you have a good grasp on a situation, asking questions can allow others to provide additional insights that you may not have otherwise.

Also, great leaders know that asking the right questions is a powerful way to  seek new ideas, overcome blind spots and secure the buy-in of their teams members. So, much more important than asking questions is knowing the right questions to ask

Consider this dialogue between a married couple who seemed to have a broken garage door keypad.

Wife: Did you reprogram the garage door opener?

Husband: (hesitates before responding) Don't worry about it. The garage door is working fine now.

Wife: But did you reprogram it?

Husband: (hesitates again while thinking "the issue is not with the reprogramming", but then responded with) Reprogramming it is not the problem and as I said before, it's working now.

Wife: How can it be working if it has not been reprogrammed? Our son was locked out late when he was visiting and couldn't get in through the door.

Husband: But that was three weeks ago. I've fixed the issue since that time.

Wife: (her voice rising) It doesn't matter how long it was, how is it fixed if you didn't reprogram it?! Why can't you just answer the question of whether or not you have reprogrammed it!

Husband: (now getting frustrated) Because it doesn't need reprogramming. The keypad just needed a new battery and I replaced it.

Wife: (her voice rising even higher) Why then can't you answer the question of whether you reprogrammed the door or not?!

 At this stage, the husband kept quiet while thinking to himself, "Why are you so much fixated on a response to that question when it's the wrong question to ask in this situation?"

To him, the goal of the question was to find out if the door was working. He thought that the correct response to the question of "did you reprogram the garage door opener" was "no, I didn't reprogrammed it". But that does nothing to communicate the fact that the problem with the door was now fixed.

This exchange highlights how asking the wrong question and insisting on getting a response to that question can lead to misunderstandings, arguments, and disagreements. So, what are the right questions to ask?

I believe asking open-ended questions are best.

Close-ended questions (requiring "Yes/No", "True/False", "Right/Wrong" responses) are laced with the assumption that what the question assumes is the right course of action. What happens if getting either response from these set of binary choices does nothing to provide clarity to the situation?

As someone who was recently told by a person close to me that I sometimes ask questions that are laced with assumptions (especially in personal situations), I'm trying to do a better job of thinking through the questions I ask. I want to ask questions that will trigger the thought processes of the respondent and which ensures that I get to the goal of the question as quickly as possible.

What about you? What kind of questions do you ask, if any?

Knowing When Time's Up

Less than two weeks ago, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern suddenly announced her resignation. When I first heard it, my mind immediately thought of what she must have done to warrant her stepping down.

But I was wrong.

In an era when leaders around the world hold on, and try to consolidate their powers even in the face of scandals, Ardern isn't leaving because she did anything wrong. She's leaving because according to her, she thinks she's no longer able to shoulder the responsibility of leading the country.

Her actual words were:

"𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 - 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕. 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒋𝒐𝒃 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆."

I think she deserves some kind of global award to recognize this decision. There's no Nobel prize in Leadership, but I believe Ms. Ardern deserves one. What she did is a rare attribute of great leaders. This is what true leadership is all about.

The greatest passion of a true leader is to serve and bring about positive change for the benefit of those being led. That includes the ability to recognize when you're no longer able to deliver and also having the courage to step aside.

Such courage, honesty, and humility are rarely seen in people at the highest levels of government. Consider that she's also the youngest ever head of government - she was only 37 years old when she was elected as Prime Minister. This is proof that great leadership has nothing to do with age.

I hope some of the (older, and supposedly wiser) sexagenarian and septuagenarian heads of state can learn a thing or two from this great leader. Rather than weakly holding on to power irresponsibly as some have done (or tried to do), she demonstrates that it's a show of strength to relinquish it willingly.

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe held onto power for 37 years before being forced out of the presidency. He was 93 years old at the time and refused calls from his own party to step down until the decision was made for him. For someone like that, being president had nothing to do with serving people. It's about consolidating power.

While this tendency to hold onto power is common in politics and government, it's not completely absent in business.

I once had a boss who tried all he could to suppress and keep down those of us working on his team so that none of us would be able to take over his position. He was so short-sighted in his thinking that he had reached the apex of his career in the company and wanted to stay there for as long as he could. His tactic worked for a while and he lost quite a few good team members in the process.

Great leaders know what it takes to lead their teams. A good portion of that is knowing when they're no longer the right person to lead the team.

Will you know when you're not the right leader your team needs?

Will I?