Archives January 2025

How many open-ended, idea-prompting questions do you ask every day?

Do you ask more questions than you give orders or provide answers?

Recently, I worked with a client, and we explored the vital topic of curiosity as a leadership attribute and questioning as a behaviour.

At the start of the work, most individuals assumed their ratio of questions-to-orders/answers would be high.

Read about why leaders need to be curious.

It was their belief they were curious and used open-ended, provocative questions about customers, markets, competitors, processes and so forth. One manager offered, “It’s my job to help them think about the possibilities, not provide the answers.“

Imagine their surprise when a survey of their direct reports demonstrated that their directives and answers significantly outnumbered questions.

I was once called out for blathering instead of listening. I was disappointed to admit that I tended to opine and answer rather than stimulate thinking through listening and questions.

Moving the ratio in the right direction became a developmental exercise for me.

And here’s why I believe this is so important.

Questions are the Seeds of Ideas and Innovations

In a world drunk on the speed of change and filled with uncertainty, the right questions provoke thinking and give way to actions, experiments, and ideas that provoke more questions and beget more ideas.

As the leader, you set the tone for curiosity in your team. Questions free people to think, speculate, and follow threads to strengthen some aspect of the business.

Read about the power of silence in conversations

What Is Your  Ratio?

For the next few days, keep a log of the number of times you ask open-ended, exploratory questions (“Did you finish that work?” doesn’t count!) versus issuing answers or directives.

If your ratio is skewed toward the questions, keep it up. If not, here are some question prompts to put to work as part of your developmental activity.

7 Questions to Stimulate Curiosity on Your Team

1. “What if?”

• “What if we develop a new product that eats our old one in the marketplace. Will it eat the competitor’s as well?”
• “What if we changed this process to empower our employees to make decisions directly with customers without seeking approval from a manager?
• “What if we changed our view of who our real competition is in the marketplace?”

 2. “What do you know that is new?” Former GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch, upon first meeting someone would ask, “What do you know that is new?” and took the time to listen to the answers.

6 essential questions that are good for children & employees

3. “What do we need to know to make this decision?” Most decision-making processes are fraught with incomplete data, opinions, and biases. This simple question challenges groups and individuals to consider a problem before making an informed choice.

4. “What does this mean for us/our customers?” I use this question liberally when changes in the external environment, industry, or competitor announcements send everyone into panic mode.

5. “How would you approach this situation if you framed it as an opportunity instead of a problem?” This question forces people to move beyond their defensive mode and into the world of possibilities.

6. “What events in markets and technologies will change everything? This question moves people beyond the four-wall and inside-out thinking.

7. “What are the real burdens our customers hire our products to remove?” Reframing questions about what your products and services do to resolve customers’ problems is a great way to rethink your innovation efforts.

 Read about leadership regrets.

Closing Thoughts

If you ask more open-ended, thought-provoking questions, the number of ideas people and teams generate will grow.

Of course, you have to bring those ideas to life.

But for the moment, focus on asking more and directing less.

And see where it takes you.

Remember, your curiosity is contagious.

I have worked with dozens of companies and organizations, addressing team and organizational challenges.

I am always surprised that most leadership teams have no idea who their ‘First Team’ is.

The ‘First Team‘—best articulated by Patrick Lencioni—is the idea that true leaders prioritize supporting their fellow leaders over their direct reports. They are more responsible to their peers than their individual or “Second” teams.

One of the first areas I address in our client consulting sessions is organizational clarity.

I need to know if the executive team are on the same page regarding foundational concepts of their business.

How do these teams answer questions such as: Why does this organization exist? What is our strategy? What are our goals? Etc.

Confusion and hesitation begin to plague an organization without clear, consistent answers to these questions.

Read more about to create leaders, not followers

Creating alignment at the executive level is essential to building and maintaining a healthy organization.

Imagine employees’ frustration navigating the politics and confusion caused by misaligned leaders.

The slightest bit of daylight between executive team members can overwhelmingly impact employees below.

The Six Critical Questions

In our sessions, I facilitate the exploration of the following six questions:

• Why do we exist? Beyond making money
• What do we do? What is it we exist to do?
• How will we behave? What are our core values
• How will we succeed? How do we make the best decision?
• What important work do we need to achieve right now? The one thing that, when accomplished, will significantly advance the company
• Who does what? Roles and responsibilities

Like in much of leadership, these questions may appear simple on the surface but are profoundly difficult to answer.r

And even more challenging to adhere to.

Test your Team

Many executives assume that they are on the same page as their peers, but this is not the case once they get in a room together and openly discuss these concepts.

Interested in conducting a simple but eye-opening experiment?

Have your team members sit together.

Give everyone a sheet of paper and five minutes to write down their answers to the question, “What do we do?”

Have each person read their answer out and listen to each answer in silence.

Read more about the power of silence.

I think you will be shocked by the discrepancies amongstyouru leadership team members.

Then consider this …

If the key leaders in your organization are not in agreement about “What do we do? How on earth could anyone else understand?

Seize the Advantage

If you ensure your team and company are clear and aligned from the top down on the answers to these six critical questions, you will have an insurmountable advantage over your competition.