Matt's Muzings
The Power of an Effective Question
July 2007 Volume 9 Issue 78
Greetings!
I read a story the other day about one of the premier leaders in the world and his leadership. I want to give you the highlights.
He walked into work one day and everything had changed. And in that change, all his hopes and dreams for the company were completely wiped out. His company was declared bankrupt and his relationships were broken.
He went from wealth beyond our wildest dreams, to everything wiped out in one day.
So how did he deal with it?
How he dealt with it, was what interested me the most as I read the story. We all know it is easy to deal with success. Just let it come and we do what we want. But failure seems to reveal the very essence of who we are? It is like a window to our soul.
I was stunned when I read that he walked into the boardroom, knowing the consequences and saw it was all gone. His dreams and hopes washed away. No anger, no tantrums, no hysteria, no self-pity. He called everyone together out of their own hysteria, hiding and blaming each other and the first thing he did was ask questions.
Who is this leader?
In one sense, what he did does not sound so profound. We all use questions when we have to get information. But let's look closer at this leader. The story is found in Genesis 3 and the leader is God. He knew all things, the very essence of life and wisdom walking into a situation where eternity took a new direction. What does he do? He begins by asking questions.
Now the simple truth is that I believe he didn't do it for his benefit (obviously, he is God and has all the answers), but he did it for our benefit. He was giving us the first and I believe most important tool a leader can have in the midst of change. He was modeling to us how to do it. It begins by asking effective questions.
The power of an effective question
It validates those involved.
It plants seeds for future growth.
It encourages hope.
It creates space.
It challenges assumptions.
It creates an opportunity for dialogue or at least communication.
It creates a focus.
It reveals where we are.
Are you stuck? Do you feel you are in the wrong place? Is change going on all around you? Are you asking, what do I do now?
A leader knows that the first place to begin is not to begin a frantic search for answers, but to look behind the need for an answer to check if you are asking the right question. It takes a moment longer. It requires a deep breath. It means we must step back for a second and look behind our instant need for an answer and investigate the question we are asking. If we don't get the question right, we will never get the right answer.
John Kotter, the noted Harvard professor and author on leadership, writes that "the key difference between leaders and managers is that leaders focus on getting the right questions whereas managers focus on finding solutions to those questions."
It is such a simple tool, I am almost embarrassed to write about it. Except when I go to God and find out how he dealt with change I see he modeled asking questions as the place to start. If it is his first response, I want to learn from it and figure out how to use questions myself.
May God give you courage to ask questions, even the tough questions so that we as his image bearers could truly model his beauty to all around us in our leadership.
May God richly bless you,
Matt Rawlins
Green Bench Consulting