As a leader, asking questions is one of the most important leadership skills to develop.
Many times, as leaders we believe it is easier to just tell someone something vs using questions to help people understand what you want them to do. One of the great lessons I have learned in my leadership journey is that if you want people’s buy-in to what you want them to do, you must involve them in the process. This is the easiest way to engage your team members in what you are trying to accomplish. Using questions is the easiest way to do this. Instead of “You messed this up, fix it.” You can ask questions like; “What happened in this situation? Why did it occur? What can we do to make sure it does not happen again?” Questions are non-confrontational. They can disarm a tense situation and arm the leader with tools to coach their team members versus trying to manage them. The more they can discover the right answer themselves, the more likely they will learn what you want them to learn and remember what you want them to do. It is a powerful leadership tool. Bob Tiede is a recognized expert on asking questions in leadership. You can get some valuable materials to help you develop those question-asking skills at Bob’s website. https://leadingwithquestions.com/ You can also download his books.
Start asking questions as part of your leadership style. It is a skill you can use in every relationship we have.
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