Leading with Questions, 3rd Edition

1A Powerful But Underused Leadership Tool

We live in a fast‐paced, demanding, results‐oriented world. New technologies place vast quantities of information at our fingertips in nanoseconds. We want problems solved instantly, results yesterday, answers immediately. We are exhorted to forget “ready, aim, fire” and to shoot now and shoot again. Leaders are expected to be decisive, bold, charismatic, and visionary—to know all the answers before others have even thought of the questions.

Ironically, if we respond to these pressures—or believe the hype about visionary leaders that is so prominent in the business press—we risk sacrificing the very thing we need to lead effectively. When the people around us clamor for fast answers—sometimes any answer—we need to be able to resist the impulse to provide solutions and instead learn to ask questions. Most leaders are unaware of the amazing power of questions, how they can generate short‐term results, and long‐term learning and success. The problem is that we feel that we are supposed to have answers, not questions.

Over the past thirty‐five years, we have interviewed leaders around the world about their use—or avoidance—of questions. This comment by Gidget Hopf, president and CEO of the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired—Goodwill Industries, is typical: “I just automatically assumed that if someone was at my door with a problem, they expected me to solve it.”

Hopf thought it was her job to provide answers. Then she realized ...