Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Essential Questions Leaders Ask Now

Q. With accelerating change, disruption, and global instability, we’re stuck in indecision and weary. How do we pivot?

A. With shifting pressures and an unclear path forward, there is no roadmap or blueprint. A powerful tool for leaders and their teams will be continual, clarifying communication and a strategic compass. 

Using a compass means adapt as you learn. Learn quickly, share information, try new possibilities, and ask strategic questions. Leaders must ask strategic questions that reveal the systems (and what results they’re producing), beliefs and assumptions (that may have worked in the past, but don’t work now), and blind spots (but often those can’t be seen internally; you need a facilitator to ask different questions.) 

Strategic questions shift thinking and present new opportunities. They help teams move from reacting to reflecting. They move from seeing superficial symptoms of a problem to root causes. Short-term thinking and firefighting can shift to what you can anticipate, to longer term and meaningful decisions. 

As Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught when transforming Japan after WWII or with the transformation of the American auto industry, leaders first need to understand their system (that they created) and what it can and cannot deliver. 

Boards can be aware of emerging risks and opportunities. Executives stop chasing metrics and the bottom line and deliver meaningful results. Organizations are relevant and resilient. 

Strategic questions clarify direction and purpose. They challenge assumptions and prevent “business as usual” thinking. They open perspective and collaboration that will drive innovation. The questions identify where silos, dysfunction, barrios, waste, complexity, and short-term goals obstruct progress. Leaders are continually developing as they are strategizing, and encouraging courage, humility, and long-term vision. 

Great leaders ask powerful, probing, deep, reflective, and unsettling questions. That’s their role. Quick problem solving is thinking too short term. But discovering where the limits to progress are and being a catalyst to move an organization past those is critical. 

Here are some strategic questions that can lead to transformation: Are we getting the results we want? Are we serving our customers with the highest quality, innovating to create new markets, and transforming and scaling our business in a healthy culture? Are we able to accelerate our decision-making and put them into action? Are we anticipating what’s coming and planning for it? 

Do we accurately identify the root causes of our problems/pain points and know how to tackle them together? Are we discussing “business as usual” or are we discussing the 10 to 20 urgent issues that can disrupt us? Do we know how to pivot? Does anyone care about profits? Do we have the vision, the calm, the clarity, the effective communication to lead through the next few months and years? 

There are always more questions than answers. While there are risks, there are also opportunities. Great leaders persevere together.