Many leaders believe that they should have all of the answers in running their businesses, but the best leaders believe that they need to “ask better questions.” How does a leader take on a more powerful role of “inquiry” versus a “dictatorial” role of managing?
The Situation Revealed behind Failure and Success
Tony Robbins has famously said that the best leaders ask the best questions. They assume nothing and know even less. They don’t pretend that there is nothing that they can be taught. They embrace learning, no matter from whom.
Within the complexity of today’s business environment, it is absolutely impossible for everyone to have an entire picture of all operating processes and systems within the decision-making process. Best practices in competitive companies insure that they engage the team members who will be involved in the outcome of decisions as well as rely on the system of inquiry to manage the risk of a narrow perspective solution.
It is known that leaders who are asking many questions are not micromanaging but creating an environment for inquiry and innovation. The leadership takeaway is that asking questions is a sign of strength, direction, and leadership at its best.
RUSS
Many leaders believe that they should have all of the answers in running their businesses, but the best leaders believe that they need to “ask better questions.” How does a leader take on a more powerful role of “inquiry” versus a “dictatorial” role of managing?
The challenge for a leader who is committed to being effective begins by realizing there are limits to the strategies and design being implemented. In the face of a dynamic business, even the very best strategies have a point where their effectiveness expires. These strategies may represent the highest thinking a leader has available.
The self-reflective question for the leader is: how does one engage and persist in creating powerful inquiries designed to support constant growth and value creation? My thought is that the strategy a leader follows when looking to overcome tendencies of being overly directive or dictatorial, begins by designing a system which recognizes the eventuality of a strategy reaching the limit of its utility and potentially expiring in its effectiveness.
Leaders tend to become overly directive or dictatorial when they feel stressed by the demands of the business. The experience of stress is typically an indicator that something is "wrong". A leader who anticipates this eventuality designs a system which acknowledges the need to re-dress itself and to measure its effectiveness. Beginning to design a system with this understanding in mind, the committed leader could design semiannual or quarterly reviews with the team in order to solicit feedback and measure effectiveness.
Collaborating in this way also transcends the individual limits of the leader's own thinking and strategy by including the variety of perspectives inherent with each team member. Having multiple perspectives available offers several different "cuts" of the issue at hand and may invite multiple questions challenging the constraints of the leader's individual thinking.
This is a forward leaning design and strategy for leaders, given the reality that circumstances will always change, and strategies and systems need to include such consequence.
BLAKE
Having all of the answers in today’s marketplace is just not the direction of a great and promising leader. It is extremely important that today’s leaders realize and materials the vision and goals of their companies through a collaborative and integrated thinking environment. This is truly the only way that companies will have a competitive advantage at the customer level and in the market.
The Key Take Away QUESTION you should be asking yourself this week is:
How can I spend my time learning the key questions to ask my peers, managers, and business associates to make progress and create value?
Here’s to another QUESTION of Leadership!!
