Want Some Night Vision? Improve Your Questions
Posted by Oliver Nyumbu
August 26th, 2009
I am sure you too have come across situations where, in hindsight, senior managers seem to have missed the obvious. It was hidden in plain sight. But, while other members of the organisation could see what was going on, the leaders needed hearing aids and night vision.
For a leader seeking collective wisdom on a particular situation, what questions might they use as part of their night vision? In her book ‘Motivate like a CEO’ Suzanne Bates suggests the following questions:
What’s not going well? Why?
What would you change if you could?
What would be the impact of that?
How would you go about that?
What other ideas do you have?
Why would we do that?
What would be the impact?
How would you know we had succeeded?
What role would you enjoy playing?
How would you like to apply your talents and skills?
What else should I know about this that you haven’t already told me?
It is very easy, as a leader, to be seduced by the idea of having all the answers all the time. In a recent conversation, a senior executive put it rather well when he said, “in this industry, if you don’t appear confident you will be swiftly replaced by someone who does”.
Perhaps an interesting place to start is with a question like, “What was the most effective question I asked during this last month in my role as a leader?”
Enjoy your night vision.
Taken from Caret’s Catalyst Magazine Issue 20
Tags: suzanne+bates
