Questions as Leadership Tools: Constructive Questions

Dear Managers and Leaders!

In my last three posts, I classified questions into the two broad categories of open and closed questions and then looked at a list of open questions to clarify a vision. I also looked at implicit and explicit questions to say that implicit questions can be dangerous for leaders and urged you to be as explicit as possible with your requests. Today I continue my journey into the world of questions as leadership tools by providing an analysis of constructive questions to help you find the right questions to move your team forward.

For a team to move forward and go beyond what they are usually producing, it needs to be able to get out of their normal ways of thinking about problems and shift their paradigm. As a leader of the group, you need to lead your people into doing this. You need to move them along the way of innovation.

Telling people exactly where you think they should go, or exactly how you think about a given situation may help, but it will generally not produce lasting effects or allow the team to actualize the thinking. A far more powerful leadership technique is to bring people to find their own solutions or shift their paradigm by themselves. Asking the right open questions allows a leader to do just that. It stirs the group in the right direction, but the group still finds its own answers, its own solutions.

According to the book “Savoir innover en équipe” from Sébastien Beaulieu and Luc-Antoine Malo that I already discussed here in a previous post, there are three aspects that can be used to create constructive questions that will bring a team further:

• Situation logical levels
• Time
• Perceptual positions or the position of the observer

There are 6 logical levels that can be used to look at all facets of a situation:

• Environment – where and when, what is the context
• Behaviour – what, which actions
• Strategies – how, in which way, with which tools
• Values and beliefs – why, according to which values
• Identity – Who am I, how do I perceive myself
• Purpose – For who, for what

Time means past, present, and future. You can play with time as you ask questions to your team to place them in different context and to make them understand and focus on the timeline of events. To move people on timeline, simply change the verb tense.

The perceptual positions are more subtle. The first position is what I see, how I look at the world. The second position is how you see me. The third position is how an observer would see us while we discuss. The forth position is how someone would look at me, you, and the observer. As you can see, there are different ways to look at a situation depending on who looks at it. There is what I see, what the other see, what the other thinks I see, what I think the other sees, what an observer thinks of our relationship, etc. There are multiple ways of looking into a problem depending on where you put the observer.

Now let’s look at a how you can use these three elements to create constructive questions that will move your team along. The first thing you can do is to mix and match time and the logical levels in the first position to ask your team things like the following:

• What belief led me to think that way? - (past, values and beliefs)
• For what, for whom do I act this way? What purpose does it serve? – (present, purpose)
• What will I do to achieve that goal? - (future, strategies)
• In which context will I make this presentation? Who will be part of the audience? - (future, environment)
• What did I do to make that person cry? – (past – behaviour)
• How will I feel if I took this leadership role? – (future, identity)

As you can see, there are multiple ways to mix time and the 6 logical levels in the first position.

Let’s now look at a few examples in the second position to give an idea of what this looks like.

• Why did you do that? What was the purpose of this action? – (past, purpose)
• What role do you think you will have in this situation? – (future, identity)

You can also place yourself in the second position to explore the impact you have on others.

• Why does he think I’m doing that? What values does he think drive me in that direction? – (present, values and beliefs)

If you place yourself in position 3, then your question forces people to take a look at the entire system at play, but you are still part of the system. It is not about you or I in our relationship, but rather about our relationship itself. Here are two examples:

• Why are we always fighting? – (present, behaviour)
• What will be the essence of our team in five years? – (future, purpose)

In position 4, you observe the system and you are external to it. You look at it from a bird’s eye.

• What position should that team have in the context of the entire enterprise? – (present, identity)
• Why are they still fighting? – (present, behaviour)

As you can see, helping your team analyze their situation using constructive questions built around time, position of the observer, and the logical levels can help them advance to the next level of understanding. It can clarify their vision of the present and help them create a better future. Have you used similar questions in the past? Were they successful at engaging people in a constructive dialog and at looking into the future with clarity?

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.

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.

The Power of the Team

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Have you ever felt totally energized and in perfect symbiosis when you were part of a team? Have you felt the power of the ideas suddenly flowing through your head just because you’re working with someone else? Have you ever felt that with your team you could accomplish anything, that nothing could prevent you from achieving your goals? We can often feel that in sport teams when a team is capable of winning just because they “play as a team”, even when they are weaker on paper than their opponents.

As a solopreneur myself (yes, an entrepreneur working by himself), I rarely experience this team power. I am usually alone in my office, sharing my space and time with my computer. I am the only one who can motivate myself, set goals for myself, celebrate successes, and assume my losses. It is great at times because I have the freedom to set my own agenda, but being a team player myself, I sometimes miss the energy and elation of being part of a team.

However, this morning, I had a long chat with someone I just started to partner with. I really felt this team energy and power while speaking to him. It felt really good to have someone to share my ideas with and get feedback in real time! There was also this feeling of growing an idea together: “we should do this” one says and the other to respond “yes, and we should add that as well to make it more complete” and so on and so forth. A great feeling indeed!

I have read in many places that leaders often feel alone at the top. I think it can be true because having a relationship with your followers is not the same. People will look at you for the final call. They will not tell you many things that you do not want to hear. Even if you have the most open organization, you will not feel the same freedom.

What I would suggest to those lonely leaders is to build relationships with peers. If you are not at the top of your company, then build strong relationships with your peers, people at the same level as you, likely the people reporting to the same boss. Your team of peers is really important. This is where you can feel team work and spirit for yourself. You can also, and this will also apply to those at the top of their company, build partnership with people who are in similar positions as you. You can do that through social networking on the Internet, you can take part in a professional association, or you can create partnerships with other companies! Once you do that, you will start to feel rejuvenated and energized by the simple fact that you feel you are part of a team or of a community. Doing something with someone else, or with other people will really boosts your motivation and focus.

What about you dear leader? Are you one of the lonely leaders I was referring to above? Are you feeling you are part of a team?

Until next time,

Remi Cote

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