The Question Quest

Leaders within an organization have many responsibilities.  Leaders who efficiently and effectively execute their responsibilities are highly sought after for employment.  Leaders work with a team of people and are the person responsible for setting the expectations and holding individuals accountable for the completion of assigned projects.  For a successful assignment, it is vital that both the leader and the people responsible for the work understand the project thoroughly.  The article, “Leadership and Direction,” provides basic guidelines for setting this understanding and helps leaders to understand the necessity of asking the right questions. 

Whether beginning a new project or tackling an old problem, the leader sets the pace by asking the right questions to ensure the success of the project.  The Shewhart Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and the Deming Wheel (Plan, Do, Study, Act) both provide a formulistic approach to problem solving (Clark, 1997).  Both cycles begin with the planning stage.  In the planning stage, brainstorming occurs which helps generate new ideas and involves all members of the process in working towards the solution (Clark, 1997).  By crowd sourcing the project through this brainstorming process, new ideas bubble to the surface and moments of inspiration can take place as one idea builds on another.  Questions should go both ways in the conversation with the team asking questions to develop an understanding of the goal and the leader asking questions to generate ideas and test the understanding of the crew.  The leader also has a responsibility to provide context through the questions in order to optimize the decision making process (Marx, 2006, p. 26).  With context, the team responsible for the successful completion of the project will be able to make higher quality decisions autonomously and with only occasional guidance from the leader who has devised a solid leadership development plan.

Brainstorming may be the beginning of the process, but when it comes to formulating an actionable plan, a more systematic and thorough form of questioning is required.  From this perspective, leaders can utilize several different lines of questioning.  Some leaders prefer the SWOT method of analysis.  SWOT helps identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in a decision (Quast, 2013).  For example, if the project is to analyze and present a new accounting process to the company, a SWOT analysis may help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each of the different accounting procedures, as well as identify threats (this accounting method is not Sarbannes-Oxley compliant) or opportunities (using straight line depreciation could save the company thousands each year).  

Other types of questions may include open or closed questions.  In open-ended questions, answers require thought and complexity.  Closed-end questions have a simple answer like “yes,” “no,” “red,” or “six.”  A leader can maximize the creativity and involvement of the team by using open-ended questions whenever possible.  A third system of questioning includes the who, what, when, where, and why of the situation (Clark, 1997).  This method is beneficial to help narrow down the scope of the project and assign specific actions to each segment of the plan.

While a leader may understand the importance of asking questions and using several different styles of questioning, how does the leader know if all the right questions have been asked?  The answer to that question depends on the complexity of the project.  The complexity of the project determines the level of involvement from the leader.  A complex project will continue to evolve as a series of mini-problems and projects arise at each step of the process.  The leader’s involvement will be necessary throughout the entire series of problems to continue asking the right questions and providing context for the solutions.  In truth, the only time the leader may know that he or she asked the right questions is upon the successful completion of the project.  A good leader will also be open to the feedback from the team as to what kind of questions will help the crew find solutions for future projects.  

There may also be times where a leader has to adjust a goal or decide against doing a project based on the answers to the questions.  As the fact-finding process continues, the leader may come to the determination that the project is outside of the scope of the mission of the company.  Perhaps the leader realizes that the skills of the team are not compatible with the assignment and he or she will need to make other arrangements for the completion of the assignment.  There may also be times when the goal is unrealistic and by listening to the responses of the team, the leader may need to adjust the goal.  The leader carries the responsibility for the successful completion of the project and it is the knowledge and experience of the leader that leads their team to greatness in the final decisions.

Asking the right questions is vital to the success of any project.  Brainstorming will help creative ideas to bubble to the surface but strategic, thoughtful questions will help lay out the plan in a systematic, actionable manner.  Strategic questions involve open and closed-ended questions, SWOT methodology and the who, what, when, why, where and how system.  Leaders know the right questions have been asked when the project is successfully completed.  Sometimes, the scope of the assignment will need to be adjusted based on the answers to the questions asked by the leader.  Finally, leaders have to be open to feedback from the team and learn from each experience in order to improve upon the question asking process for future projects.  By following these tenants of the questioning process, a leader increases the odds of successfully executing a plan and completing a project in an efficient and effective manner.

References

Clark, D. (1997, May 11). Leadership and direction. NW Link. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leaddir.html

Marx, K. (2006). Future-focused leadership: Preparing schools, students, and communities for tomorrow’s realities. Alexandra, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Quast, L. (2013, April 15). How to conduct a personal SWOT analysis. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2013/04/15/how-to-conduct-a-personal-s-w-o-t-analysis/