I trust you are starting to get a feel for how important questions are to good leaders. I have yet to meet a great leader who didn’t ask insightful and probing questions. The best leaders know that questions open doors for good leadership, promote great collaboration, and bring about solid teamwork.
If your goal is to be the best leader you can be, I hope you are already asking yourself the tough questions leaders must ask to be successful. And I hope you’re asking every member of your team strategic questions continually. Remember, you get answers only to questions you ask.
When my team and I first started to discuss Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, I knew I wanted to help you become a better leader not only by teaching you how to ask better questions, but also by answering some of the most common and pressing leadership questions I frequently get asked.
As I mentioned in the opening of chapter one, people at conferences and events ask me questions all the time. But I wanted to open the door to questions even wider. So I asked Stephanie Wetzel, my social media manager, to solicit people’s questions via Twitter, Facebook, and my blog. We also invited my four thousand John Maxwell Team–certified coaches to ask questions.
In only days we received hundreds upon hundreds of great questions, ranging from the basic to the sophisticated. The team and I spent weeks going through them, categorizing them, and selecting what would be the most helpful to leaders. I then set about writing the chapters by answering every question. You’ll find that each of the following chapters begins with a list of the questions that were asked on the subject, in the order in which they are answered.
As you read, I believe you will find the most practical and useful leadership advice I’ve ever given. Some of the answers I give will affirm your leadership instincts. I hope many others will provide you with new insights and stir your thinking. Maybe they will prompt you to begin asking more leadership questions yourself and exploring new areas of growth. My goal is to jump-start your leadership skills and help you develop your leadership potential.
I would like to thank the hundreds of people who asked questions for this book and especially the following individuals whose great questions appear in the following chapters. The answers given are only as good as the questions asked. If this book serves people well, it is because of the quality of your questions.
Farshad Asl*
Andrew Axon
Rudolf Bakkara
John Barrett*
Art Barter
Betsi Bixby*
David Cipura
Beckie Cisler
Brandon Cockrell
Mark Cole
Jose Cordova
Anthony Coyoy
John DeWalle
David Emmanuel
Andre Finley
Aaron Frizzelle
Arnulfo Jose Suarez Gaeke
Brittany Gardner
Suvasish Ghosh
George Gomes
Ralph Govea
Deja Green
Virginia Gronley*
Charles Grubb
Penny Guinnette
Dean Haberlock
Peter Harding
Nathan Hellman
Eric Herrick
David Igbanoi
Loh Jen-Li Jenline
Osia Jerry
Laura Lambert
Rick Lester*
Lynette Little
Trudy Menke*
Benedick Naceno
Lusanda Ncapayi
Cyril Okeke
Rick Olson
Jenny Pace
Marc Pope
Lister Rayner
Dan Reiland
D. Roberts
Lynsey Robinson
Monika Patricia Rohr
Diane Runge
Amine Sahel
Vanessa Sanchez*
Eileen Schwartz*
Israel Silva*
Barry Smith*
David Specht
Sarah Stanley
David Stone
Timothy Teasdale*
Elias Tona
Jason Viergutz
Mike Walt
Misty West
Jeff Williams
Dale Witherington
Fernando Zambrano*