Questions as Leadership Tools

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Asking good questions is crucial for a leader for many reasons:

• It allows the leader to monitor the various actions that are under his control and ensure that everything gets done on time and meets expectations.
• Good questions also direct people in the right direction, ensuring that everyone works towards the leader’s vision.
• It allows a leader to correct course and highlight mistakes on the fly, but by making the people realizing their mistakes themselves which is less confronting.
• Questions also constitute a powerful tool to show team members that a leader cares deeply about what they are doing and wants to understand where they are, what they are doing, how they are doing it, and where they want to go.
• By asking questions instead of giving all the answers, a leader gives his team a lot of autonomy and respect. The team members must come up with their own answers instead of waiting to be told what to do.

Since questions are so central to a leader's life, I think it is important for the Manager's Corner to spend some time studying the question (punt intended). So, this and the next few posts will explore the world of questions as leadership tools. This first post of the series is a quite simplistic view of questions. We will dig deeper in subsequent posts.

I think questions can be divided into two broad categories: closed questions and open questions. Closed questions are used to check or monitor. They are often about facts finding. They can be yes/no questions. They are more related to the world of management. The following questions are examples of closed questions:

• Have you completed this assignment?

• Is it going to be ready on time?

• When will you arrive at the meeting?

Open questions, on the opposite, don’t have a right or wrong answer. They are used for investigating opinions or exploring the mind of the person in front of you. Open questions are more related to the world of leadership. For instance, the following questions are open questions:

• What do you think of this process?

• How can we improve this situation?

• What do you think would be needed to achieve this?

It is important to note that both types of questions are very important but they cannot be used interchangeably. Some situations ask for closed questions and some ask for open questions. As a leader, you must be careful not to mix up the two types of questions. When you want facts or a yes/no answer, don’t ask an open question because you will not get what you want as an answer.

It is also important to note that your attitude when receiving the answer has to be different whether you asked an open or a closed question. For a closed question, you need to get all the facts you need or a yes/no answer. You can be strict about it, and you should be. If a question demands a yes/no answer, do not accept anything else. It is your right and your duty.

On the other hand, if you asked an open question, you need to listen carefully to what the person will answer and analyse the answer, possibly asking further questions. You need to respect the answer given to you. For instance, if you ask someone his opinion about a process you are using, you need to respect the answer even if it does not go in the direction you wanted!

What about you dear leader, are you asking a lot of questions to your team? When being led, do you prefer being asked questions or getting all the answers from your leader? Please share your thoughts with the other readers by adding a comment below.

Until next time,

Remi Cote

PS: If you find these postings interesting and would like to learn more about what I can do for you and your team, then please visit www.innovachron.com or contact me directly at remi@innovachron.com.