This is a dangerous question to ask and if you haven’t established a reputation as a careful listener, a credible confidant, and a thought-ful leader, don’t ask it. If you do ask it without these credentials, you will be perceived as nosey, intrusive, and even phony.
Walk into your favorite bookstore or log on to Amazon.com and look for books about meaning and purpose in your life and work.
You’ll find lots of them. Even if you can’t bring yourself to leave the business books, you’ll find chapters on purpose and meaning in almost all those books too. Finding meaning in life is important.
Before you run around dropping this question on others, you need to answer it for yourself. It’s okay if you can’t answer this ques-tion when you ask it for the first time of others, so long as you are willing to share your ongoing quest for your own answer. This ques-tion is actually more about the process then an answer. Some peo-ple find their purpose early in life, some grow into an understanding, and others need many years and experiences to reach an Aha!It is the people who never ask themselves the question who miss out.
Find Viktor Frankel’s book Man’s Search for Meaning,read it, and give copies away. Ponder Socrates’ words, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and have it printed on cards that you can give to others. Listen to what others say (and don’t say) when you ask this question, and be willing to ask it of yourself.
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❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ WHAT DID YOU LEARN? ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚
Okay, you’ve asked a lot of varied questions. Now what? Well, first, ask yourself what you learned—about yourself.
What did it feel like asking all these questions? Was it uncom-fortable at first and easier as you practiced? Maybe you discovered that you got impatient having to listen as people went on and on with their answers. Perhaps you’re not as good a listener as you thought you were. You might have found yourself eagerly listening to something you never dreamed could capture your interest. I hope you found that people became more eager to talk to you and that your reputation as a leader grew—not because you had all the answers, but because you asked the very best questions.
What did you learn about the people in your organization? How different are they and how much do they have in common? How often were you surprised by something you didn’t know about their
work, their concerns, and their caring? I hope you have a better understanding about the responsibilities of a leader. Of course, you need to make sure the work gets done and your customers are sat-isfied, but your job is more than that. The bottom line for a leader covers it all, finances and fears, productivity and passion, share-holder value and living your values.
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That is the essence of science:
Ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.
—Jacob Bronowski, Polish mathematician
What are you going to do with the answers? Is it time for an action plan, a leadership team retreat, or an all-employee meeting?
Do you need to revisit your mission, vision, and value statements?
Revamp your training programs? Or reconfigure your offices? You’re the only one who can figure it out, but you know what you need to do. So, start doing it. And while you’re at it, keep asking questions.
You’ll be a better leader for it!
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1.Which of the questions in this chapter did you find most chal-lenging? Why?
2.What other questions did this chapter make you think of?
3.How do you feel about asking more personal questions of the people who work for you? Why?
4.How did your people react to your asking these kinds of questions?
5.Why do you think they had that reaction?
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6.What is the one thing you want to remember most from this chapter?
OTHER NOTES
LEADERS RARELYget days filled with business as usual. A leader’s day often consists of a string of unique situations that they are expected to handle. What better way to prepare for these special situations than to think about the questions you might want to have ready when any of these common leader-ship interactions happen? I’ve defined four Special Situations when having questions at the ready will be a real benefit.
1.QUESTIONS FOR NEW EMPLOYEES.One of the best parts of a leader’s job is to welcome new employees to
questions to ask in special situations
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their team. My assumption is that your organization has a formal orientation program for your new hires. (If it doesn’t, you’re the one who brings up the need for such a session at every opportunity, aren’t you?) The questions in this section are about the time you personally devote to wel-coming someone new to your team. Nothing will have a
greater impact on a new hire than that first, personal inter-action with their new boss. Use the questions in this section as a way to start an interesting dialogue with the new mem-bers of your team.
2.QUESTIONS FOR COACHING AND MENTORING SESSIONS. In most organizations, leaders participate in some form of coaching and mentoring sessions for the people on their team and possibly for people on other teams. These programs can range from formal systems to informal, spontaneous hall-way conversations. Leaders are assigned or sought out.
Leaders who take this role seriously (my bias is that if you call yourself a leader, you do) will find the questions in this section helpful.
3.QUESTIONS FOR NEWLY PROMOTED LEADERS. One of your key responsibilities as a leader will be to identify, nurture, and
It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.
—Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist
mentor new leaders. Moving someone into a place where they can be considered and promoted to leadership posi-tions can be a source of great pride. The quesposi-tions in this section will help your new leaders build their confidence and see their roles as leaders from a fresh perspective.
Taking the time to ask these questions will be a meaningful investment in the future of your organization.
4.QUESTIONS DURING A CRISIS. It would be nice to believe that you could be a leader and never have to deal with a serious crisis. Nice to believe, but probably unrealistic. Thinking about your responsibilities before a crisis is infinitely better than trying to determine them during the crisis. The ques-tions in this section will help you if and when a crisis hits your team or organization.
Your willingness to take the time and find the places to use the questions in this chapter says a lot about your personal commitment to leadership. Other questions in this book may stretch your courage when you ask them, may be just plain tough to ask, or may challenge the status quo of your organization. The questions in this chapter will be helpful to ask and need to be part of your stock-in-trade.
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