LEADERS ASK THEIR TEAMMATES CHALLENGING QUESTIONS

This past week I watched a Zoom webinar aimed at coaches around the world. The title of the webinar was “Transforming Work: A Gift of Better Conversations at Work.” The presenter was Haesun Moon from Toronto, an esteemed professor, author and coach.

Her subject was aimed at coaches asking more meaningful questions of clients, questions that would help the clients move forward in their personal lives and their careers. After I reviewed my webinar notes, I realized that the kind of questions Professor Moon suggested would also aid leaders in motivating and empowering their teammates.

Here are a few of the questions I found helpful and I encourage you to consider using them the next time you have a one-on-one meeting with one of your teammates:

-What are your hopes for the next year?

-What would that look like a year from now?

-What is your feeling about that/or your skillset right now on a scale of 1 to 10?

-Where would you like to be on that scale?

-How could you move that number up the scale toward 10?

-What would a higher number look like for you?

-How did you get to where you are now on that 1 to 10 scale?

-When was the last time you had success at this kind of project or task?

-What strategies or skills did you use to achieve that success?

-What do you want from this job at this juncture?

-What are you doing to move in that direction?

As leaders, it is our job to engage in empowering behavior rather than enabling behavior. We want our teammates to grow their skills, their knowledge, their curiosity and their creativity. If we utilize challenging and thought-provoking questions, we can help them achieve those goals.

What questions will you pose to your teammates this coming week?