As a leader, one of the practices I try to follow is using questions to create a safe environment that encourages the sharing of ideas, candid feedback, shared learning, creative thinking, and innovation. Can’t say I am world class at practicing the art, but it is something I reflect on regularly… When we ask questions – instead of making statements, offering opinions, or being directive – we unleash the creativity, insight, foresight, and energy of our teams. When we ask questions with humility and curiosity, we engage others and invite them into a learning environment, building trust and positive working relationships.
As leaders we can’t simply ask leading, closed, or loaded questions– if we ask questions that we believe we already know the answer to or are simply trying to lead someone to the answer we want, we are not in a learning mindset. When we ask a question, we need to have a genuine intention of wanting to learn something new or spur shared discovery – not simply looking for answers that validate our current position.
Found this HBR article insightful and it will definitely provide additional context for my personal reflection on how I can more effectively use questions. The article identifies five domains of questions: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective.
- Investigative – What do we know (or not know)?
- Speculative – What If? What else? How might we?
- Productive – What’s next? How will we measure progress?
- Interpretive – So what? How is that useful? What did we learn?
- Subjective – How do you feel about…?, Are we aligned? Have we included all the stakeholders?
Here are few quotes from the article… (link to the HBR article below)…
“As a leader, you don’t have the answers; your workforce [does], your people [do],” Jane Fraser, Citi’s CEO, told Fortune magazine. “That’s completely changed how you have to lead an organization. You have to unleash the creativity….The innovation isn’t happening because there’s a genius at the top of the company that’s coming up with the answers for everything.”
The questions that get leaders and teams into trouble are often the ones they fail to ask. These are questions that don’t come spontaneously; they require prompting and conscious effort. They may run counter to your and your team’s individual or collective habits, preoccupations, and patterns of interaction.
In the realm of inquiry a leader’s job is to flush out information, insights, and alternatives, unearthing critical questions the team has overlooked. You don’t need to come up with the missing questions yourself, but you do need to draw attention to neglected spheres of inquiry so that others can raise them.
Steven Baert, a former chief people and organization officer at Novartis, described his process on The Curious Advantage podcast. “Previously [I focused on] listening to fix,” he told the host. “‘You have a problem. I need a few points of data from you so I can solve the problem.’ [But now] I’m practicing listening to learn.”
“I have to remind myself that my real value as a leader is to provide the big picture and to move beyond the questions that are comfortable for me.”
“I need to make space for the people who aren’t like me to ask these questions that I’m not good at asking.”
Ron's Reflections 
Leave a comment