Shaking up thinking & questioning how we impact in leading others?

The challenge faced by anyone a leadership position is immense and in a new age, their needs to be a better way to make an impact. The luxury of just being “Good” is gone, on the flip side Apple, Innocent & Dyson are successful, because they push at the edges and dare to disrupt the standards, we need to learn from them and do the same for “safety” challenge Industry Practice – BE BOLD.

 Being an effective leader is not about having all the answers as asking the right questions, we need to be potential game-changer and help others to identify where opportunities lie and how to seize them:

1. When confronted with almost any demanding situation, the act of questioning can help guide us to smarter decisions.
2. By asking questions we can analyse, learn and move forward in the face of uncertainty.

Those with the greatest flexibility will have the greatest influence

The hardest part for many leaders is being seen as na?ve and vulnerable (When asking “Why” or “What if", I have often found by asking those dumb questions can produce insights not only about yourself but open up a window of possibilities’.

Ask yourself the following questions:

•  Am I willing to be seen as naive?
• Am I comfortable raising questions with no immediate answers?

Am I willing to move away from what I think I know?

• Am I open to admit I may be wrong?
• Am I willing to slow down and consider new ways of thinking?

 Motion creates Emotion. By getting up and doing, walking the talk, start to begin not only others, but as well to thinking, attitude, mood, and emotion.

Don't take my word for it. Take your word for it!

The more visionary and proactive leaders of today and tomorrow must be able to identify and then challenge the assumptions that may be limiting the potential of there teams and their companies, organisation, and even their entire industry.

That is why we have to commit to advance and upgrade and then be accountable for what we/you do and don't deliver!

 We need to ask and focus on four key areas:

1) Decision Making (Can I see this with fresh eyes identify opportunities)

2) Creativity (Do I need to generate fresh ideas & creative openings)

3) Relationships (Check biases to make better judgments and decisions)

4) Leadership Create windows for communicating and connecting to others)

1) Decision Making

a)   It seems we are wired to make quick, instinctive decisions, often based on limited information and favor information that confirms our preexisting assumptions biases, supported by people we trust who think just like us?

b)  Moving from “What” to “Why” we return to by questioning if our beliefs or gut feeling hold up to scrutiny and that facts support our reasoning.

Four questions to check your bias and beliefs:

1. What am I inclined to believe in this particular issue?
2. Why do I believe what I believe?
3. What would I like to be true?
4. What if the opposite is true?

c)   Am I being open-minded and am I using my emotional intelligence to challenge my own beliefs and reasoning.

d)  Sometimes the problem with the information is not what is there, but what is missing and am I relying on flawed or outdated information. 

From within the depths of your mind, your own THINKING (your Values and Beliefs) will be guiding your daily ACTIONS

Ask yourself these five questions to detect if your reasoning is correct:

1. How strong is the evidence – is it factual?
2. What are people not telling me – are they biased as well?
3. Does it logically flow –or do they have a different agenda?
4. What is the opposing view – consider it with an open mind?
5. Which conflicting views have merit - does it add value?

e)   Our natural aversion to change and risk sometimes steers us away from choices that could improve 

f)    To make bold and better choices

2) Creativity

I have been asked the reason why I wanted to create this group is, how can we help as many people as possible rediscover their safety creative confidence. My best moments are when “Light Bulb turns on” and people run with an idea.

Just by asking the right questions can inspire creativity, asking wrong ones rooted in faulty assumptions can inhibit creativity

To see the world differently ask yourself

• What may I notice if I were encountering this for the first time?
• What if I look at it from my client’s point of view?
• What is in the background and has been ignored?
• What would fascinate the person on the street about this?
• What would the cynical media pick up on and report?
• What would the innovator’s eye notice and be frustrated by?

Making a change to any level will affect your OUTCOME, and higher the level you make some change and adaptation, the more SUSTAINABLE it will be.

What any business should be asking is “What is missing” on consistent, ongoing bases, and ask how can we fill in the blank spaces. Should I be more like a “hummingbird or a jackhammer” and as a group we can share creativity questions as a collective and join the dots to create new ways of thinking?

 Change your THINKING and you open up the possibility to change your ACTIONS

3) Connections

The world is taking on a new way of “connecting” in the age of Linked In, Facebook, and other forms of highly connected social media make new connections all of the time, where a handful of intimate, deep relationships are worth more than five hundred “friends” on Facebook, and for millennials and small business supply chains, is becoming more critical and the long term view is considered more important than the size of the paycheck.

It’s not what happens TO you, it’s what you CHOOSE to do about it.

Questions to ask instead of how are you?

• What’s the best thing that happened to you today?
• What are you excited about in your business right now?
• What are you most looking for in our partnership together?

And instead of what you do?

• What are you passionate about 

The trick is how can you “lead a horse towards water” and the common mistake people make is trying to force the horse then drink the water, its better to let the horse take those last few steps themselves towards the water, and if they are really thirsty they will drink (If they don't want to drink – you haven’t got to the real problem)

Have they got their own ideas and you have not found them out yet – Ask them what they think the solution goals are?

Then ask them what have they tried before (Why had they not worked) then twist the question around – So if you could try anything and money were no object, what 5 ideas you would do instead (list their ideas – then read them back to them.

Now ask them which one they think sounds best to them)

1.  So how would you set that up?
2.  What would you need to get started?
3.  What problems may get in the way of this idea?
4.  What are the first steps you can take, right away?
5.   So you have a plan of action then

Do you see how you have twisted the subject around to gain insight at the midway point and draw out ideas without being judgmental, and you have made them dig deeper for better thoughts and the real things that are on their mind. 

The answers and solutions are out there waiting to be discovered if only you will dare yourself to begin.

Same take - but these seven questions let them figure it out themselves

1. What is the challenge you are facing?
2. What have you tried out already?
3. If you could try out anything to solve this, what would you try?
4. And what else? (You may have to repeat two or three times to drill down)
5. Which of these options interests you the most?
6. What may stand in the way of these ideas and what can be done about that?
7. What is one step you could take to begin acting on this right away:

Think about doing things differently, not about doing more. 

How often do you regularly turn the table on your Leader and draw out of them, what is most important to them you could help with (Big Brownie points here)

Questions that your boss will love

1. What would you do in my position (opening the door for you)?
2. What does your ideal employee look like (Changing the tack)?
3. If I did something differently would make a difference to you (Gotcha)?
4. What is the most important on your list to accomplish today (I can help you)?

This way you are really focusing on their key needs and priorities, as people above you are often juggling multiple tasks and their priorities keep shifting.

It’s hard to know what they might need most from at any given time unless you ask.

Think about CHANGE FEEDBACK to FEED-FORWARD (Where in the future there is a constant stream of dialogue that encourages development and people feel free to share their views). 

A culture where the tough conversations are both offered and invited

4) Leadership

I learned long ago from my own mentor that I had, was what a questioning leader looks like, they would walk the talk and look at people in the eye and would ask non-judgmentally if they saw something wrong, “what they could do and how it could be put right”

This way they would get to the root cause, from the horse's mouth and how they could find solutions about guide potential solutions.

• We need to engage in thoughtful conversations, and part of our overall mission is to create an environment where enquiring is used to develop critical thinkers.
• If you are the leader, you must be seen to lead – You must show your face if you want to transform your stakeholders that this really matters to you.
• As a 21st-century leader are you demanding of your working partners, and create a sense of purpose and responsibility, and stop people from burning out.

Extraordinary moments are created by willingness to share your options and to welcome the options of others

I want this article to be a catalyst for conversation, and I hope it will open up dialogue not just between us but the teams you work with, and in your wider specialist fields. This is something that has always bugged me with the other streams of Linkedin miss out on.

We need to see change, but it must start from within us all

PLEASE ADD YOUR VOICE TO THIS DEBATE