{"id":2048,"date":"2022-11-18T19:29:57","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2023-08-29T21:56:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T21:56:10","slug":"good-leadership-the-art-of-asking-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/?p=2048","title":{"rendered":"Good Leadership: The Art of Asking Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. James Dittmar<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a questioner. I ask questions. I don\u2019t mean the type that always express skepticism\u2013that I don\u2019t believe what someone is saying\u2013and that put people on the defensive. Rather, I ask questions to find out what someone is thinking. I ask questions to get them to think, to help them discover something they already know, to encourage them to contribute to the discussion, or for me to inquire more deeply into what they are saying.
\nOver the years, I\u2019ve tried to get better at asking questions. I\u2019ve tried to learn how to engage people through asking questions. I\u2019ve tried to figure out how to make people feel as comfortable as possible when answering my questions, and not to fear the \u201cI don\u2019t know the answer and I\u2019ll feel stupid\u201d syndrome. I\u2019ve tried to assure them that I value their answers to my questions and that I genuinely want to know what they know.
\nWhether when working with students or colleagues, I do my best to demonstrate openness to what they have to say and the ideas they have to share through asking questions. I still make mistakes at this, but my commitment is to really understand what the \u201cart\u201d of asking questions is all about.<\/p>\n

I also learned about asking questions from my father who was a pastor. Understandably, at times, folks in his congregations and from the community would come to him for advice. Typically they would ask, \u201cWhat should I do? What do you think the Bible says about this? Is this right or wrong?\u201d More often than not, his first reply to their questions was, \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d before offering any \u201crighteous\u201d response of his own and just telling them what to do or how to think.<\/p>\n

So how can we, especially as leaders, increase our ability to ask good questions and, in doing so, become better leaders. Here are a few basic ideas for you to consider:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be humble.<\/strong> Get rid of your ego. Admit to yourself and others that you don\u2019t know everything and that you need the input of others to make the best decision.<\/li>\n
  2. Wait for a response.<\/strong> Give those to whom you are asking questions time to reflect and consider what to say. We\u2019re way too quick to jump in and begin talking after we ask a question. Studies of teachers on this topic of \u201cwait time\u201d find that the average pause between asking a question and then chiming in is less than 2 seconds. Sounds crazy but it\u2019s true\u20132 seconds. Be patient and get comfortable with silence.<\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0Develop a sense of curiosity.<\/strong> Ask questions to satisfy your desire to \u201cknow\u201d and discover new information from others.<\/li>\n
  4. Be present when you ask questions.<\/strong> Give your full attention. Let them know you are really listening to what they have to say by your body language. Lean in a little, have that \u201cinterested\u201d look in your face, nod and affirm when they respond. Put your cell phone down. Come out from behind the desk. All of these things let them know that what they have to say is important and you want to hear it.<\/li>\n
  5. Ask open-ended questions<\/strong> such as: \u201cWhat about\u2026?; Have you every thought of\u2026?; Tell me what you mean by\u2026?; How do you feel\u2026?\u201d; What would happen if\u2026?,\u201d etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I conclude with a few final thoughts.<\/p>\n

    Asking questions doesn\u2019t make you appear less competent, nor is it an abrogation of your responsibility to make decisions.<\/p>\n

    Asking others for their input makes them feel part of the process, feel more engaged, and likely to have greater ownership of a decision. It helps to fulfill the desire \u201cto be heard.\u201d
    \nAll of this can create and maintain trustworthiness in you and those with whom you work. It can also increase the likeliness that they will be more open to feedback from you and that you are open to feedback from them.<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s a great quote about this subject from Peter Drucker:
    \n\u201cMy greatest strength is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.\u201d
    \nGreat advice, Peter.<\/p>\n

    Take care and stay safe.
    \nJim Dittmar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Dr. James Dittmar I am a questioner. I ask questions. I don\u2019t mean the type that always express skepticism\u2013that I don\u2019t believe what someone is saying\u2013and that put people on the defensive. Rather, I ask questions to find out what someone is thinking. I ask questions to get them to think, to help them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/brett-jordan-8Fzn3XsIbxI-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divineinterventionministries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}