High Performance Leadership

Are you asking the right questions? One of my mentors, Lester T. Shapiro, told me that the primary role of leaders is to ask relevant questions. I heard that over twenty years ago, and it is as true today as it was then. Leaders ask questions. Questions to challenge. "What was the best thing about the performance? "What could we have done to make the performance better?" "What will you do differently next time?" Questions to probe. "What stands in your way?" "When will you achieve that goal?" "When will you know when you will know?" "What would make this goal even more noble, more ambitious?" Questions to motivate. "When have you overcome something like this before?" "Who do you know who has done something similar?" "What makes you feel good about this goal?" "Who will you help the most by achieving this goal? Questions. The secret to leadership success is ask...

Questions are powerful. I've been lucky to work with two powerful mentors. Each helped me to realize and utilize the importance of questions. Lester T. Shapiro told me, "The principle role of a leader is to ask relevant questions." Relevant questions get to the heart of things. Relevant questions get to the motivations, needs, and causes of things. Ask relevant questions. Another great mentor, Andrew Oxley, told me "If you don't like the answer to a question, ask a better question." Powerful stuff. And here's the thing: there are always better questions. We need never be the victim of someone else's poor communication skills again. Simply ask better questions. It's up to us as leaders to keep the inquiry going long enough to complete a satisfactory dialogue. It can be hard work. The work is worth it. Part of those questions includes the most demanding question of all, the deepest question of all, the question most likely to trigger def...