A leader questions everything: belief systems; “we’ve done it this way forever”; “why do we do it that way?” etc. I know it can be viewed as annoying, confrontational and even frustratingly negative. But if you do not question the status quo you are not a leader. Let me say that again: if you do not question the status quo you are not a leader.
Leaders see change. They see potential. They look into the future and see how something should be or could be. All of that starts with asking the right questions.
Being a leader means you have to ask questions about how something is being done. Without that, how can you make changes for the future? How can anything improve? How can new solutions emerge for old problems?
Leaders see things as they should be and question why we’re not doing it that way now in order to achieve the understood objectives.
I often tell people that I ask questions not to get a particular answer but to get them to think about the ‘why’ they are doing something the way they are doing it.
Here are some roadblocks to asking good questions:
- Fear of man – afraid to challenge the status quo. Afraid of what they will say. Afraid of how they will react.
- Lack of curiosity in how to make things better tomorrow than they are today.
- The tyranny of the urgent causes you to fail to question the future.
- Inability to see above the problems you face.
Leadership requires thicker skin than the average person might have. You cannot be a leader and worry too much about what others think of you. You may have the position of leader but it will be in name only. You truly cannot influence or lead people towards a destination when you care more about what someone might think about you than you do about actually solving the problem you want to address.
Being a leader requires you to learn the skill of asking questions.
Being A Leader 