Why Good Leaders Ask Great Questions
?Good leaders ask great questions.?
This was an idea coined by John Maxwell, leadership expert and author ? but it remains true to this day. 
In the past, great managers were expected to have all the answers. It was their job to know, and to tell.
Decades of research, trial-and-error and change have instead shown us that the best leaders are those that embrace coaching as a leadership style, and know how to ask, not tell.
Coaching as a leadership style
It was Daniel Goleman that popularised the idea of coaching as a leadership style. He wrote about six leadership styles in the Harvard Business Review almost twenty years ago, citing a coaching style as the most effective (but least used) style of them all. Fast forward to today, this still remains true.
In our experience, many leaders and managers have built the concept of coaching up to be this all-consuming venture that sucks up time and resources. In reality, it’s simple.
Coaching is all about asking questions.
How to be an effective coach: ask questions
?What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question? ? Jonas Salk
Coaching is all about connecting with people, and creating the space for them to learn. By shifting from a style where you are telling your team what to do, you are releasing yourself from needing to have all the answers, while empowering your team to learn, grow and understand how to seek their own answers.
Next week, try framing your instructions as questions to your team and see the difference it makes.
Here are a couple of examples of great coaching questions:
- What do you think needs to happen next?
- What could you do about that right now?
- How will you overcome that? What have you learned from this?
- How would you do it differently next time?
?Answers are closed rooms and questions are open doors that invite us in.? ? Nancy Willard
We’ve had some fantastic successes so far with our Coaching for Managers program. Find out about the ripple effect we?re helping to create in organisations across the Pacific ? contact me on jean@peopleconnexion.com or visit www.peopleconnexion.com/coaching-mentoring