The Power of Questions in Building Engaged Teams
How might your management style change if you started using more empowering questions? One client told me the difference was significant. As he started to focus on listening and being attentive (rather than directing and talking), he felt like he was more approachable to his team, saw increased “buy in” and engagement, more accountability, and said “it really felt good”. As managers, we still need to provide information and identify resources to support our teams, yet –with empowering questions—we may find our conversations will be more collaborative.
So, the next time you gather your team, try a few of my go-to empowering questions or try a few of your own.
What is the next step? (or Where do you go from here?)
What is another way of looking at this?
What is preventing us from moving forward?
What can we change to make this happen?
What have we tried so far?
Why is this important?
How will you proceed if . . .?
How do you suppose you can find more about it?
How could we improve the situation?
How important is it that . . . ?