Unlocking the Power of Great Questions

• I wanna talk to you about one of the most powerful leadership tools that is strategic, impactful, deeply relational. Getting it right can transform your leadership. Getting it wrong is guaranteed to limit your leadership. Today we’re talking about one of the most underrated leadership skills. We’re gonna talk about how to ask better questions, because the right question at the right time can change everything.
• (upbeat whimsical music) Today, this is part one of a two part leadership teaching, and we’re talking about how to ask better questions. (music ending) What do we know about most leaders? Most leaders are obsessed with having the right answers, right? But we have to acknowledge that you’ll never get the right answers without asking the right questions.
• What’s interesting is that I’m really honored to have done leadership Q&A’s at different places around the world. And every time we do a Q&A, people ask some version of about the same 12 or 15 questions, I mean, over and over and over and over again. They’re gonna ask, “Tell me about your schedule.” “How do you delegate?” “How do you stay mentally healthy?” “How do you develop a great culture?” “How do you increase the vision?” “How do you appropriately allocate resources?” “How do you stay motivated? Scale up?”
• “How do you handle criticism?” “How do you deal with conflict?” “How do you not grow crazy leading for years and years?” And we get a version of those over and over and over again. In all my years of doing Q&A’s, I don’t remember anyone ever asking, “How do you ask better leadership questions?” How do you ask questions to get really the deep and the best answers? And people should ask that, because it’s so, so, so important.
• And if you wonder like, why should we focus on leadership questions? I’ll tell you why. Because your leadership potential will never exceed the quality of the questions that you ask. If you want stronger relationships, better outcomes, and to make a bigger impact, ask better questions. The quality of the questions that you ask determine the quality of the information that you get.
• In many ways, the potential impact of your leadership is based on the quality of the questions that you ask. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna get very, very practical. We’re gonna talk about the why, the how, and the what. In other words, like why? Why do you want to ask more questions? Like why do you wanna shut your face and listen more than you talk? Because you need to do that.