When was the last time you gave yourself time to just focus on asking questions without pressure to get to the answers?
In the most recent meeting of the current cohort of Developing a Coaching Approach to Leadership, we spent some time discussing The art of powerful questions: Catalyzing insight, innovation, & action. This paper is 20 years old, but the main points still hold true.
North American culture rewards having answers, not questions. Those of us who grew up taking standardized tests were trained from an early age that there is always a correct answer, and the way to earn a reward is to identify that correct answer quickly and effectively. Beyond just standardized tests, grading systems that rely on quizzes and tests reinforce this mindset. And then, it’s easy to carry that mindset forward into jobs that reward us for having the answers.
But so much gets lost when we rush to an answer without taking the time to focus on asking useful questions.
One of the topics we discussed in relation to this was managing library staff who are quick to take on new projects and just jump right into deciding how to do them without pausing to ask questions around whether they really should. How does this new project add value and support the library’s mission? What are we already doing to accomplish that goal and what other possible ways are there to add that value? What may need to be discontinued to make space for this new work? How are we going to know whether this project is having the impact we hope it will?
Creating space to ask, and really think through, these questions does take a little more time than it would to just jump into planning how to get the project done. But when we skip the big questions and just jump into figuring out the logistics, it’s really easy to wind up going in too many different directions and getting stretched too thin. Taking the time to ask big questions and be strategic leads to higher quality services and a more cohesive message about how your library supports your community.
Of course, taking a little more time doesn’t have to mean hours. Sometimes, spending 30 minutes discussing big questions up front winds up actually saving hours that could have been wasted over the course of the project.
A core part of developing a coaching mindset is embracing curiosity and making time to ask powerful questions.
How will you make more time in your day for questions?