Three Minute Wisdom Knowledge is not enough. True leadership is informed by wisdom. The ideas presented here are intended to arouse your curiosity, provoke your thinking and encourage insightful action to help you achieve the things that matter.
Far more important than giving answers, effective leaders are good at asking questions. Asking questions leverages the talents of those around you. While answers limit peoples’ thinking, questions spark creative problem solving in others.
There are two important kinds of questions a leader can ask. First are the “What and How” questions, which ask about making and implementing decisions. Second are the “Who and Why” questions, which ask why the decisions are important. Both types are necessary but many leaders spend too much time on the former and not enough on the latter. “Who and Why” questions take more time and may create more tension but also reap larger rewards.
Two Kinds of Questions “What and How” questions focus on the specifics of fixing a problem or executing a plan: What is going on? What are the facts? What is the problem? What should we do? How do we fix it? How should we allocate resources? How should we implement? etc., etc. The “What and How” questions are vitally important to success. They elicit answers that are focused, specific and concrete. People want leaders who can guide their efforts in practical ways that achieve results, and that’s what these questions do.
“Who and Why” questions evoke a different kind of thinking that emphasizes self-identity, purpose and vision: Who am I? Who could I be? Who will my work affect? Why is it important? Why am I committed to this effort? Why should I care? etc., etc. These questions are also vitally important to success. They elicit answers that help clarify direction and create meaning. While the “What and How” questions are realistic, the “Who and Why” questions are inspirational. They create the energy that motivates people to bring forth their best. People want leaders who can remind them that their work matters, and that is what these questions do.
Most leaders concentrate on the “What and How” questions. This is understandable because these are the questions we have the most experience and comfort with. Also, leaders face constant pressure to achieve results in ever-shortening time frames, so they turn quickly to the “What and How” questions for immediate answers that help get the job done.
But forgetting the “Who and Why” questions can leave people feeling drained and rudderless, dragging down people’s performance as well as their spirits. These questions are often neglected during times of upheaval and dramatic change, the very times when employees most need to be reinvigorated and reconnected to the “Who and Why” of their jobs.
The Who “Who” questions require people to articulate their self-identify. Who are you? What is most important to you? How do you define yourself? Far from being lofty or irrelevant, “Who” questions are practical because they help people see an organizational goal as an extension of themselves. When someone understands how achieving a goal fulfills their own desire to make a valuable contribution to a worthy effort, they feel a sense of commitment and dedication to that goal.
Leaders need to answer the “Who” questions for themselves first. Employees want to know who a leader is and what they stand for before they commit to following that person. This does not have to be a vague or self-indulgent process. Let me make one specific suggestion here: invest the time to write a personal mission statement.
Don’t think for an instant that a mission statement is not for you. Everyone has talents they want to use, contributions they want to make, dreams and goals they want to realize. Writing a mission statement collects the inspirational parts of you that are already there and synthesizes them so that you can reconnect quickly to your primary sources of motivation and direction.
A personal mission statement gives you a brief way to describe who you are and what drives you. Sharing this with your staff gives them insight into how you answer “Who” questions for yourself. But even more important than the finished product is the thought process you go through in writing and editing your mission statement.
As one example, here is my personal mission statement: “To learn, model and teach the power of our potential.” It is short enough to be easily remembered, is inspirational and most important, it is a sincere expression of how I see myself. For me, the brevity does not detract from its authenticity. Each word in my mission statement distills a larger thought-stream that is meaningful to me.
There are many books and online resources that can help you build your own mission statement. Let me share one here that I particularly like. This link is to an exercise on the Franklin Covey website. (Be forewarned, if you follow on this link, you may inspired to complete your personal mission statement today!)
http://www.franklincovey.com/fc/library_and_resources/mission_statement_builder
When you are done, share your finished mission statement with your staff and invite them to write their own. A team building session that begins with each member sharing their mission statement can lead to a creative and energizing session with your staff.
The Why Where is your company going? What is the greater vision you are asking people to serve? Why should people join you in the struggles ahead and share in the aspirations of your organization? These are all variations of the “Why” questions, and if people don’t get convincing answers, they tend to flounder.
When people don’t understand the reasoning behind a strategy or decision, they are often leery of committing themselves to it. On the other hand, when people feel excited about the vision of a company, and see how a decision helps achieve the vision, they will dedicate themselves to it with redoubled efforts. People want to connect to the vision of a company. They want the vision to be a vivid picture of a noble goal and they want to know how their work helps the company make progress in this worthy endeavor.
One mistake leaders make when discussing vision is to rely on flowery phrases and platitudes. Vision is communicated much more effectively when a leader speaks authentically from her own experience and explains why the vision is personally meaningful to her. People are not inspired by a vision statement because it contains noble words, they are inspired when another person explains why the vision is noble to her.
This is especially true when an organization is undergoing dramatic, transformational change. When people experience drastic change in their work environment, feelings of fear and chaos can paralyze them. A communication plan for major changes and new initiatives should include an explanation of how the changes further the company’s vision. The best communication plans establish channels for two-way communication that allow a conversation between staff and management to ensure that the intended message is the one that is heard.
The “What and How” questions will always get asked because they are too concrete and practical to be ignored. These questions elicit answers that solve problems and produce results. But the “Who and Why” questions are often forgotten and the power and energy they could have generated are lost. Artfully balancing both kinds of questions is a leader’s primary job. Ignoring either one means getting it only half right.
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