One big mistake that many Leaders make, but shouldn’t!

There’s one big leadership mistake that many Leaders make, but shouldn’t, as they scramble further up the corporate staircase to the Top…..

Too many cultures expect their Leaders to be wiser than their people – they expect them to know it all! The result is that Leaders tend to TELL their team what to do on the basis of little knowledge.   On the contrary. the Smart Leader ask why are we doing this? How have you arrived at this solution or what if we did it this way.

Smart Leaders recognise that they cannot be the font of all knowledge and sometimes the experts are their team.

The art of questioning decreases as a Leader’s status increases!

The fact is that we make poorer decisions if we haven’t really understood the ins and outs of why a solution is being proposed. Seems to me that the art of questioning decreases as a Leader’s status increases!

Smart Leaders know that new ways of working require a culture of openness. When Leaders ask the right questions they build positive, trusting relationships and enable good upward communication. This is at the heart of a successful smart working model.

Asking questions in the right way enables a team member to feel valued and share valuable insight that a Leader needs to enable he or she to make a good decision. The individual will want to help you understand and that creates a vital connection between the two of you.

When Leaders connect with their people in this way and make them feel value – well that is when the magic begins to happen.

The simple question

It lights up rooms, minds, businesses and lives! But crafting the right question, finding the right way it should be asked of the individual or team is an art form.

That’s why the ‘Smart Questioning Workout’ is core to our Smart Leader programme.

Read more about the Programme here.