The leader of the past

knew how to tell.

The leader of the future
will know how to ask.

Peter Drucker

Leading with
Questions
by Michael Marquardt
Presented by:
Rich Bateman
Anna Brown
Pam Martinez

Overview
The Power of Questions
Asking Questions Effectively
A Guide for Leaders on Using
Questions

The Power of
Questions

Underused Management Tool

Pressure to provide fast answers

Tendency to ask ineffective questions
Fear of an unwanted answer
Social restrictions on question-asking
Inability to see others perspectives

In a Questioning Culture

Be willing to admit you dont know

Encourage questions
Teach/develop questioning skills
Focus on empowering questions
Emphasize questions, not answers
Reward risk taking efforts

Organizational Benefits of a
Questioning Culture

Improved decision making and

problem solving
Greater adaptability and acceptance
of organizational change
Improved motivation and
empowerment of employees
Stronger teamwork
Enhanced innovation

Individual Benefits of a
Questioning Culture

Greater selfawareness
Greater selfconfidence,
openness, flexibility
Better listening and
communication
Improved conflict
management

Greater
understanding and
skills in
organizational and
political realities
Stronger
commitment to
learn and develop
Stronger selfleadership

Asking Questions
Effectively

Trouble with Questions

Our desire to protect ourselves

We are too often in a rush
Lack of skills in asking questions
Corporate culture can discourage
questions

Unhelpful Questions

Disempowering questions
Leading questions
Multiple questions

Asking the Right Questions

Empowering questions
Open-ended questions
Why questions
Affective questions
Reflective questions
Clarifying questions

Closed questions

Great Questions

Selfless, in the spirit of sharing

Asked at the right time
Fresh and insightful
Both supportive and challenging

The Art of Asking Questions

The art of questioning can lead to
impressive results, asking inappropriate
questions usually closes off learning.
Good questions can become great
questions when the science of inquiring
is blended with the art of questioning.

Learning vs. Judging:

The Mindset for Asking Questions
Adam (2004) emphasizes, our mindset frames how we see
the world.
Our Mindset:

Programs our limitations

Allows us to see our possibilities
Defines the parameter of our actions and interactions
Our mindset is determinant in the types of questions we ask
others and ourselves. Our individual mindset determines
how we observe, understand, and accept others and
ourselves.

The Learner
Leaders who focus on learning rather than judging
can be flexible and relate to others. They operate in
collaborative and innovative mode.
Leads others to:
Thinking objectively,
Creating solutions,
Relating in a win-win way.
They ask genuine questions, they don't question
something they already know the answer to and never
to embarrass someone.

The Judger
Leaders who are judgmental put employees on
the defensive.
Leads others to:
Hide their mistakes,
Defend their behavior
Refusal to ask for help.
(Vicious cycle)

Steps in Questioning
Process:

Break the ice get the conversation going

Set the stage explain the topic
o The point is to let others know where you are
coming from
Ask what you want to ask
o Make sure your questions are empowering
rather than disempowering
Listen attentively to the answers
o Respect peoples thought process.

Most important Follow up

Creating a Questioning
Culture
The goal for the inquiring leader is to
change the corporate culture from one
of telling to one of asking, to help
everyone see and understand that
questions need to become their primary
communications tool. (2005)

Strategies to Build a
Questioning Culture.

Start at the top.

Create an environment that enables people to take risks
and ask more questions.
Connect the values and processes of the organization to
the use of questions.
Optimize the opportunities to ask questions by building
questions into every business activity.
Reward and appreciate questioner;promote risk taking and
tolerate mistakes.
Provide training for people to be better at and more
comfortable in asking questions.
Each of these strategies reinforces behavior connected to
the six hallmarks of a questioning culture.

Make Sure Values and

Processes Do Not Conflict
with Questions
Learning to lead is about discovering what you care about and
what you value.
What inspires us?
What challenges us?
What encourages us?
How will we handle setbacks & disappointments?
What are our strengths and weaknesses?
How can we keep motivated and encouraged?

Asking these questions will help everyonea team, a department

an entire organizationdiscover who they really are and what
they value as a group.

Provide Training in
Questioning
Encourage fresh questions by
highlighting the benefits of questions
and the tragedies caused when
questions were not asked (such as the
Titanic, Challenger, and Bay of Pigs
stories in Chapter 1)

Resistance to a Questioning
Culture
Leaders who try to build a questioning culture are
likely to see two kinds of resistance.
Those that are taken aback by a leader who
begins asking questions regularly, who are used
to the leader tell them answers instead of ask
questions. (answer dependency)

Other leaders in the organization who are

uncomfortable in adopting a questioning style
themselves, who see their source of power as
stemming from giving answers. (telling
dependency)

A Guide for Leaders on Using

Questions

Using Questions in
Managing People
Each question a leader asks can provide a
wonderful opportunity for the recipients to
become empowered, to do something that
they would not do before. Questions have
the potential to create confidence, to
enhance learning, to develop confidence,
to engender insights.

Encouraging Action and

Innovation
Questions transform problem- and
possibility-talk into action as they move
people from present to future.
To encourage innovation and action,
leaders should encourage people to
think about their own solutions, instead
of giving them solutions to problems.

Questions to Build
Leadership
Leadership isinspiring and showing
others new places where they havent
been earlier. Good leadership is
showing the way to self leadership.
Pennti Sydanmaanlakka,
former HR director at Nokia

Using Questions to Build

Teams

Leading Teams as a CoachQuestioner G-R-O-W

Encouraging Open Discussion and
Debate
Energizing Team Meetings
Technical and Adaptive types of
Problem Solving

Using Questions to Shape

Strategy and Enable Change

Questions for Customers

Questions for Vendors and Partners
Questions for the Community
Develop, Lead, and Transform the
Organization

Two Training Programs for

Questioning Leaders

Action Learning Leadership

- The Leader as an Action Coach
Inquiring Leadership
- Develop 8 Characteristics for
being an Inquiring Leader

Summary

Becoming a Questioning Leader

Becoming a Leader Who Asks
Questions
Leading in the Twenty-First Century
with Questions
Respond to this Question How can you use this question - ?

Poor leaders rarely ask questions

of themselves or others. Good
leaders, on the other hand, ask
many questions. Great leaders ask
the great questions.

Michael Marquardt