Smart managers never ask these 4 stupid questions

I often meet friends who ask me: What is a good leader? What can I do to make my employees think I am a good leader?

Of course, I can't give a definitive, satisfying answer to such a general topic, but I often tell them to show employees that you're a good leader with a proven track record. Being a top-notch leader, or having top-notch leadership qualities, has one thing in common: They're all very good at asking questions.

Asking questions is undoubtedly an effective way to improve leadership. The right questions can help business leaders anticipate change, seize opportunities, and lead their organizations in new directions. However, how to ask questions is crucial. Good questions can greatly motivate employees and boost their motivation, but bad questions can also turn into confrontation or accusation, shifting sentiment from positive to negative.

The first step to being good at asking questions is to stop asking stupid questions. So, what problems should leaders avoid? Here, Lao Jiang gives four of the most common examples. These issues often backfire and end in the wrong direction.

Stupid Question 1: Whose fault is this?

In reality, when there is a failure or a problem, there is usually a lot of blame. The key to this question is to find a scapegoat. When leaders question whose fault it is, they are often trying to distance themselves from the blame and deflect it.

Smart question: How can we work together to strengthen our weaknesses?

This not only points out weak links and areas that need to be strengthened, but also avoids excessive criticism.

Stupid Question 2: Is there a problem?

Business leaders may ask, "What went wrong?" What is the loss? What is the biggest threat we face? Unfortunately, about 80% of management meetings begin this way. However, if a business leader is always asking questions and weaknesses, the entire organization tends to focus on these rather than identifying strengths and opportunities.

Instead of asking "what's wrong?" or dwelling on problems, ask positive questions that use your strengths to achieve your goals.

Smart questions: What are we doing well? What else can we do on top of that? What is the desired outcome? How can we get closer to that goal?

Stupid Question 3: Why don't you do it?

The question looks like a suggestion, but when it comes from a leader, it becomes an imperative, a way of imposing the leader's ideas on others. Worse, if you ask the question after the fact, the subtext is "why didn't you do this?". Then the question turned into criticism.

This problem is actually an implicit control. If a leader hires the right people, he or she shouldn't control the details of how the job gets done.

It's best to get employees to think about their own ideas and practices, even if you can sometimes help them.

Stupid Question 4: Haven't we already tried it?

An equally bad question is: "Why do you think this works? Hasn't this been proven impossible before?" That's not to say that leaders shouldn't question employees' strategies, especially ones that have been tried before, but Pay attention to your tone.

Questions like this often feel condescending and even frustrating. Seems like all things considered, because a tried method doesn't work, it should be abolished forever.

In fact, leaders may not realize that certain approaches have not worked well in the past, perhaps because of poor timing or poor execution, rather than because the idea itself was wrong.

Smart question: If we did it again this time, would it be different? How would the results change?

Leaders should avoid “push-not-ask” questions, those that feel like parents and children. Finally, if you don't want to know the answer to a question, just let it rot in your stomach.

Asking the right questions, and more importantly, asking them in the right way, is a fundamental achievement of a good leader.