Leading Strong PT 2. Tough Questions
I love getting people riled up!
What I should be saying is I love to get people thinking. I love to get my team to think outside of the box, beyond what they can imagine and help them find better solutions to bigger and more important tasks.
How have I been doing it? Asking Tough Questions……
Jesus was the perfect example of asking tough questions look at some of these….
- “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions…” (The boy Jesus in the temple, Luke 2:46)
- “But who do you say that I am?” (Peter’s great confession, Luke 9:20)
- “What do you seek?” (To the disciples of John who followed him, John 1:38)
- “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (To the woman caught in adultery, John 8:10)
- “What is written in the law? How do you read?” (Jesus replies to a lawyer who puts him to the test, Luke 10:26)
- “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk?’” (At the healing of the paralytic, Luke 5:23)
- “Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man…?” (The Good Samaritan, Luke 10:36)
- “I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” (Healing on the Sabbath, Luke 6:9)
When my team has looked at the situation to a certain depth, but with that level of information, they can’t come up with a workable solution. I often begin to ask tough questions.
The bigger the question, the more ways it can be answered.
Your questions must be carefully constructed to create a climate for free exploration. Below are three characteristics of great probing questions:
They use the words your team is already using
They are crisp and concise
They are neutral
Here are a few of my favorites
- How does that decision align with your values?
- Sounds interesting. How does it work?
- What’s behind this? If making this change was easy, you ‘d have done it already and without my help.
- What makes it difficult?
- Why is this important to you?
What are your thoughts on how to Lead Strong?
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