Want To Be A Better Leader? Ask Better Questions

Gordon McGovern was a relatively quiet and unassuming kind of guy. But as president and chief executive at Campbell Soup Company, one of the world’s most iconic brands, he led with a style and approach that challenged others to bring their best game.

Gordon asked questions. A lot of questions.

Unlike some leaders, he never asked “gotcha” questions. His inquiries were never intended to embarrass or to suggest that he was the smartest person in the room. Gordon respected the perspectives of others. He eagerly invited people to challenge his viewpoints. If someone disagreed with him (which he made safe to do), he typically responded with, “Terrific. You see it differently! Tell me more.” The result was better decisions and smarter execution of business strategies.

No one understands the power of good questions more than Michael J. Marquardt and Bob Tiede, authors of Leading With Questions: How Leaders Discover Powerful Answers by Knowing How and What to Ask.

Marquardt is professor of Human Resource Development and International Affairs at George Washington University and co-founder of the World Institute of Action Learning. Prior to joining the GWU faculty, he trained more than 100,000 managers in nearly 150 countries. Tiede is Director of Global Operations Leadership Development at Cru, an interdenominational Christian parachurch organization. His blog leadingwithquestions.com is followed by leaders in more than 190 countries.

It makes common sense that good questions—thoughtfully asked with a genuine desire to learn—can stimulate thinking, build relationships, and produce better results. But as most of us have observed, common sense is sometimes not all that common.

So, what kind of questions tend to inspire and encourage others?

“Positive, empowering questions generate creativity,” says Marquardt. He recommends questions like, “What are your hopes for this organization?” “What resources can be helpful?” “How can I enable you to achieve your best results?” He also suggests questions that enable people to learn and grow, such as, “What did you learn from this experience?” and “How could your learning be shared with other people in the organization?”

Marquardt and Tiede list seven benefits of good questions:

1. Complex and difficult problems are solved in an innovative, systems way.

2. High performing teams are formed.

3. A culture of openness, sharing, and learning is created.

4. Positive relationships and strong friendships are built.

5. Leadership skills are built throughout the organization.

6. Everyone in the organization becomes continuous and better learners.

7. Energy is created to help people take meaningful and sustainable action.

That part about culture is especially critical. Leaders must create an environment in which people feel safe in challenging the status quo. That includes challenging the opinions of leaders.

“Leaders need to model and demonstrate the importance of asking questions,” Marquardt says. “They should ask questions at meetings, in one-on-one conversations, in memos to staff. In addition, they should encourage people to ask questions of them. People who ask good questions should be recognized and rewarded. Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Google, once said that ‘We run this company on questions, not by answers.’ That type of leadership would certainly create an environment of encouraging questions.”

There’s no doubt that a free flow of user-friendly questions can help build trust, which in turn influences people to ask good questions.

Tiede suggests questions like, “What do you think?” and “What experience have you had that might be helpful in this situation or to solve this problem?”

When you ask someone a curious and open question, Tiede says, you’re “showing that you’re interested in them, that you care for them, and that you trust them. When a person feels that they’re respected and trusted, they tend to listen better themselves as well as ask better questions.”

Unfortunately, Tiede says, many organizational cultures discourage questioning. The leaders fail to model a questioning mindset. Questions are rarely used in meetings because they’re regarded as slowing things down or granting too much time and attention to “unimportant” people with “unimportant” perspectives.

“Employees in a non-learning, non-questioning culture tend to shut down,” Tiede says. “They avoid taking chances and refrain from challenging mistakes. Non-questioning cultures lead to lost opportunities for growth and success. They lead to crises and repeated mistakes. They produce low morale and the ultimate departure of the best people.”

Marquardt says the way a question is “framed” is always important. “Unfortunately, many people tend to ask questions that are unempowering and judging,” he says. Examples would be “Why are you behind schedule?” and “How could you make such a mistake?” These kinds of questions, he says, cause people to become defensive, immobilized, and afraid to take chances. He suggests rephrasing questions to make them empowering. Examples: “How can we learn from this experience?” “What possibilities does this open?” “How can we stay on track?” “What kind of support do you need to ensure success?” “What have you accomplished so far that you’re most pleased with?” and “What key thing needs to happen to achieve the objectives?”

In most any environment, including those with smart people who generally get along well, occasional conflict is inevitable. Skill with questions is handy to have in your conflict resolution toolkit.

“In conflict situations,”Tiede says, “people tend to make statements for the purpose of justifying their positions and highlighting the relevance of their ideas and experiences. They don’t seek to understand the other person’s perspective.”

Emphasizing statements, he says, tends to heat up rather than cool down conflict.

“Questions enable people to invest their time and energy in seeking to understand the other person’s perspective and rationale. Sincere questions demonstrate that we’re open to hearing the other person and even willing to be wrong,” he says.

It’s reminiscent of a verse from the Persian poet Rumi—“Beyond right thinking and wrong thinking, there is a field. I will meet you there.”

“When you show interest in the other person’s perspective, they tend to drop their defenses and begin to ask more about your perspective,” Tiede says. “Questions open up the perspectives of both sides of the conflict and close down tendencies toward judgment, superiority, and immobility.”

Good questions can also add value to a performance review, a conversation that a lot of people seem to dread whether on the giving or receiving end of the feedback.

“Great leaders use questions throughout the performance review,” Tiede says. The initial question might be as simple as “How can we make this performance review a valuable experience for you?” Then subsequent questions can be door-openers like “What did you do well?” and “What can you improve?”

Tiede says the recipient of the review should also ask questions. Possibilities include, “What can I do better?” and “How can we work better together between performance reviews?”

Okay, if questions are so important, what about listening?

“One can never become a good questioner without carefully listening to others,” Marquardt says. “Listening includes the ability to read, understand, and assess the environment in which statements are being made. Careful, deep listening enables one to hear what’s being said—and not said—as well as to demonstrate to other people that they’re respected.” This, in turn, Marquardt suggests, allows people to be more comfortable and more clear in their speaking. “Deep listening, he says, will ensure that you are hearing what the other person has actually said rather than what you think you heard. Most great questions are follow-up questions, which are based on what you have just heard.”