Leading with Questions

Over years of leading others, I’ve found it’s helpful to have a list of questions that are always asked in a given situation. In both coaching and mentoring contexts I have a specific

set of questions. They are good for not only helping lead the person to realizations about themselves, they are also helpful to build common ground and to begin to teach the other person how to self-manage. That’s the great thing about questions, when they’re simple and memorable, then the other person can pick up on them quickly and do for themselves what you have been doing, which is really just asking some key questions. This is a great way of multiplying yourself out of the coaching role and teaching others to do just the same thing. I’ll talk more about the questions I use in the next few posts. Questions are great and necessary for teaching the mentee to be a mentor and for teaching a team member to coach others.