POWERFUL QUESTIONS & WHERE TO FIND THEM

by Leslie Rohonczy, Executive Coach, IMC, PCC | ©2024 | www.leslierohonczy.com 

As a leader, your role often involves sharing your wisdom and experience with employees, peers, partners, and superiors. But before offering advice, ask yourself a powerful question: “How might I help this person to create insights and grow awareness through asking a powerful question?”

You’ll know you’re on the receiving end of a powerful question by the impact you feel from its weight. A powerful question sparks significant "a-ha" moments, suddenly illuminating new perspectives, provoking insight and new awareness, and acting as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. The power of a powerful question is undeniable.

When we’re on the receiving end of a powerful question, our brains naturally go looking for an answer. We’re wired for it. But the effectiveness of this process largely depends on how, when, and what type of question is asked.

One of the most common questions I encounter in my coaching and leadership training sessions is, “What makes a question ‘powerful,’ and where can I find them?” Unfortunately, there’s no standard cheat sheet of powerful questions you can tuck into your back pocket and whip out when you need a good one – it just doesn’t work that way. The most powerful questions are created in the moment, born of genuine curiosity, emerging from what we’re hearing, and intended to create new insights.

THE NATURE OF POWERFUL QUESTIONS

Powerful questions prompt people to think in new ways, leading to new insights, actions, or commitments. They are delivered with a keen sense of timing and rapport, respecting the individual's current state. For instance, consider asking, “I understand this is a big decision for you and that it naturally causes some anxiety. How do you think you’ll feel once the decision is made and you’re ready to move forward?” This question acknowledges the present concern and guides the person towards visualizing a positive outcome.

Questions can vary greatly in their effectiveness. Closed-ended questions typically yield yes or no answers and may not encourage deeper thought. On the other hand, 'good enough' questions offer some value, helping individuals explore their feelings or instincts. For example, asking a colleague, “What does your instinct tell you to try next?” might help them tune into their intuition. However, the most impactful questions expand awareness while inspiring action. Avoid questions that merely suggest a course of action or present a laundry list of possible solutions without engaging deeper thinking.

WHAT MAKES A QUESTION POWERFUL?

The intention behind your question is critical; it should be to create new awareness in the other person. This requires genuine care and curiosity, with questions often starting with "What," "When," "How," "Who," or "If." Notice that “Why” isn’t listed. If you ask your employee "Why haven't you made a decision?", they may not know why. A more powerful question might be, “What are you most concerned about in making this decision?” This encourages the person to reflect on underlying fears or concerns.

DISCOVERING POWERFUL QUESTIONS

To find powerful questions, you must listen carefully to uncover the real issue and what's beneath the surface of what's being said. Stretch your thinking and encourage others to do the same. Often, the simplest questions are the most powerful. “What’s next?” “How will you do that?” “What might get in your way?” and “What do you want?” Listening attentively allows you to tailor your questions to the person's unique situation.

But not all questions are created equal. Avoid closed-ended questions and those that suggest solutions disguised as questions. For instance, asking, “Why don’t you try X?” is not as effective as asking, “What options have you considered?” Additionally, avoid multiple-choice questions that can overwhelm the person with choices. The most effective questions are open-ended and invite exploration, without fishing for specific answers.

EXAMPLES OF POWERFUL QUESTIONS

• "What would you like to achieve by the end of this 1:1 coaching conversation?"

• "What would you like more of in your life? Less of?"

• "If you could change just one thing right now, what would it be?"

• "What's the first (or easiest) step you could take within the next week?"

• “What are you avoiding? What do you NOT want to look at or talk about?”

• "How does that serve you?"

• “How might you show up differently if you weren’t worried about being judged”?

• "How will you celebrate reaching that milestone? Describe how it will feel to achieve it."

• “What do you need to see, feel, have, or do, in order to be brave?

• "What are you taking away from this conversation today?"

CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT QUESTIONS

Three aspects make questions great: curiosity, authenticity, and fluidity. Great questions are curious: they reflect a genuine interest in the person’s experiences, beliefs, and assumptions. It’s essential to be comfortable with silence after asking a question and avoid filling the space with more words. Great questions are authentic: they do not lead the person to a preconceived answer.

Instead, they are open and exploratory. And great questions are fluid: they adapt, based on the responses you receive as the conversation evolves. If a question doesn’t yield a clear answer or deeper insight, approach the issue from a different angle.

TIPS FOR ASKING POWERFUL QUESTIONS

1. Minimize "why" questions: These can often be unproductive for two reasons: they may put the person on the defensive; or the person may not know ‘why’ they behave a certain way. Instead, get more specific in your question.

2. Avoid sharing similar experiences: Resist the ‘me too’ urge and stay in exploration mode with your employee. Their experience may feel familiar, but it’s not the same as your experience. Sharing your experience may come across as ‘counterfeit empathy’, stealing the learning opportunity away from your employee, and the coaching opportunity away from you.

3. Embrace silence: Give the person time to think and respond without rushing to fill the gap. This is especially true for more introverted types, who prefer to think before speaking. If you ask a great question, and then add more details to fill the silence, you’re interrupting their think time. Learn to sit in silence while someone processes your question.

4. Avoid multiple-choice questions: It isn’t helpful to offer potential ‘right answers’ (e.g.: “Did you miss the deadline because you’re over-capacity, or just not interested in this project?”). The truth may be completely different than the two choices you offered, but the question has them focused on which choice is closest to their truth. Multiple-choice questions can limit exploration and overwhelm the person.

THE COURAGE TO ASK QUESTIONS
Asking questions rather than offering advice takes courage. It requires you to resist the urge to provide solutions and instead foster a space where others can develop their own understanding and solutions. This process not only helps them grow, but also strengthens your mentoring and coaching abilities.

While there is no handy, back-pocket list of powerful questions (because they arise from what you’re hearing), Michael Bungay Stanier’s book "The Coaching Habit" is an excellent resource for learning how to amp up your question game. It delves into the various question types and provides practical examples to enhance your skills.

SEVEN AWESOME QUESTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED
While there isn’t a handy ‘cheat sheet of powerful questions’ to pull out when you’re stuck, thanks to Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit, here are seven CATEGORIES of questions that can be super helpful:

1. The KICKSTARTER Question: It's a great opening question that replaces small talk with something a little crunchier. For example, ‘So what's on your mind today?’ This question says, "Let's talk about the thing that matters most to you."

2. The AWE Question: That's A.W.E., which is an acronym for ‘and what else?’ This magic little question creates a lot more wisdom, insight, self-awareness, and possibilities out of thin air. ‘And what else’ can also be ‘and who else’, or ‘and why else’, or ‘how else’.

3. The FOCUS Question: This helps you to help someone focus on and solve the right problem. It can help them grow a new problem-solving muscle while demonstrating that you're really interested in their input and can also help drive accountability and engagement.

4. The FOUNDATION Question: Sometimes this can cause a deer-in-the-headlights reaction in that the person may not be able to answer your question. That's okay… ask it anyway. It's planting a seed that they can reflect on which will create new insight for them and help them untangle their wants from their needs. For example, ‘What do you want and what is really driving that want?’

5. The LAZY Question: Sometimes, in our good intentions to be helpful, we can kind of get in the way. If, for example, we step in and take over or become too directive, it can create an unintended but uncomfortable power dynamic between the two of you. Instead, simply ask, ‘How can I help?’ An even more direct version of this is ‘What do you want from me?’ Just make sure that your tone is positive on that one.

6. The STRATEGIC Question: This is focused on what NOT to do. It helps your employee to be really clear and committed to their yeses, bringing clarity to both of you. For example, you can ask, ‘So if you're saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?’

7. The LEARNING Question: According to neuroscience research, most classroom learners will not retain most of the content they’re taught, unless they can put it into action quickly, actively processing and integrating the information. You can help to create the space for those learning moments when meeting with your employees. When they return from a conference, training session, or workshop, ask what was most useful to them in that learning experience. This helps them really make the connection between new information, and what's already within their awareness.

THE SUCCESSION DILEMMA

Succession Planning: Leadership, Mindset, Culture, Strategy

by Leslie Rohonczy, Executive Coach, IMC, PCC | ©2023 | www.leslierohonczy.com

Many organizations are struggling with succession planning currently – even those with robust leadership development and succession planning activities are experiencing an exodus of their people. What I’ve noticed is that the organization’s culture can make a big difference in retention and succession: things like fostering psychological safety and openness to experimentation, integrated career development that combines experiential learning programs and direct recognition and constructive feedback from leaders.

As noted in the Conference Board of Canada research released earlier this year, talent retention is one of the top challenges for CEOs. But with well-cultivated succession planning strategies typically requiring 12 to 36 months of preparation and development, that can seem daunting when your organization is facing a leadership pipeline crisis.

In fact, I’ve heard comments from senior leaders like, “We know we need to focus on succession planning, but we’re fire-fighting constantly.” “We’re so short-staffed, there’s no time or resources for this level of strategic planning.” “We just don’t know where to start.”

If that feels familiar, you’re not alone. So what do we do about it? Here are four areas of focus for you to consider, along with some deep reflection questions in this article, to help you think about how to apply these best practices to your own specific organizations.

1.  TAKE A STRATEGIC VIEW OF SUCCESSION PLANNING

• Build your succession plans for the organization you’re GOING to be in 5 years. What leadership attributes will THOSE future leaders need to have to be successful in that new version of your organization? Then make sure those attributes are reflected in your business strategy, operational plans, and leadership development systems. And if you bring someone in from outside your organization, make sure they have the scarce skills that will be needed in 5 years, AND that they’re willing to coach and mentor their peers and direct reports.

• Move succession planning from a reactive activity to a proactive strategic enabler, so you don’t scramble every time an executive or expert threatens departure. High performing organizations make succession planning part of their culture: everyone is aware it exists, and for what purpose. And be as transparent as possible with your succession plans, to create “succession-awareness”. Sometimes departments end up competing for the same person because they haven’t talked about which position would be most beneficial for the organization AND the individual, which can cause rework, frustration, and engagement challenges.

• Link succession planning to career development: This one is typically under-leveraged: more and more, employees expect organizations to provide career development as part of their employment experience. The companies I’ve seen that are doing this really well link succession planning activities to career development, as an investment in growing their employees’ careers.  This is especially true with the younger generation of leaders, who will leave for other opportunities if they feel their leader or organization isn’t investing in their development.

• Create partnerships with similar organizations to exchange resources for cross-pollination and learning assignments, which can help engagement and retention. Some of these individuals who come from different sectors can be a great source of new leaders into your succession pipeline.

2.  RETIREMENT AND VOLUNTARY TURNOVER

• Leverage the deep experience of retirees, semi-retired, or imminent retirees with a very specific purpose: to develop and mentor employees with high leadership potential and to identify gaps in your current succession planning strategy.

• In return, provide flexibility and support to them: part-time work, self-employment, “bridge jobs,” fully remote work; improved ergonomics, increased flexibility, and vacation time. Increase your support and coverage for psychological services such as paid mental health and wellness days, personal days, or physical wellness activities.

• Review your compensation strategy and recognition programs to make sure you’re offering competitive salaries, benefits, and bonuses. Review your recognition program (or implement one if you don’t have one) to retain high quality talent.

• Provide role-specific training and development opportunities and listen to your younger leaders – they are looking for specific things in their training and development. Prepare people to take over jobs that they’re not yet obvious successors for. Intentionally start growing people several layers down in your organizations, so that they are ready and prepared to take over future roles. Consider implementing an Emerging Leaders program.

• Create intentional cross-pollination assignments within your organization that allow high-potential individuals to diversify their awareness and experience, embedding internal mobility into the culture. This helps them feel that the organization is investing in them, and it typically boosts employee experience scores as well, and helps with overall organizational resilience.

• Review the outgoing person’s portfolio of work and methods to determine what work that can stop, and which knowledge and tasks should be transferred to their successor. Include the accountability for key relationship transfer: determine the relationships that are key to high performance in this role and expect departing leaders to hand off these key relationships as part of their succession plan.

3. HOLISTIC SUCCESSION PLANNING & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

• Practice transparency about the intentions behind succession planning and how it works, to normalize the idea of succession planning as a career enabler. It’ll also mitigate employee anxieties around job security and changing roles.

• Expand succession planning to all leadership levels, not just executive- and senior management-level roles. Some of the best leaders I’ve seen were junior managers that were given the opportunity to grow their leadership chops through succession opportunities.

• And while you’re at it, train all leaders on the best practices for succession planning – it will have 2 important benefits: 1) they can improve their methods for replacing team members, which builds team agility and resilience, and helps them handle fluctuations in staffing, and 2) it grows leaders with a ‘succession-planning mindset’ as they climb their own leadership ladders. When they end up in a top job, they will have embodied succession planning as part of the leadership culture, because they’ve seen firsthand how it is a key success enabler.

• Speaking of leadership development, require every leader to have an individual development plan (IDP) which includes career aspirations, gaps, strengths as identified by assessment tools, training required, experiential learning assignments, coaching, and mentoring. This will help decision-makers and sponsors know where interests lie. Leaders should have regular one-on-one discussions with their own leaders using the IDP document as a framework for the discussion.

• Expect leaders to identify and actively develop their future successors. Of course, you’ll need to make sure that the selection process is unbiased, and that you have a formal competency framework that defines the skills, experience, and expertise required for promotion.

• Measure KBIs: You’re probably quite familiar with KPIs – key performance indicators that track financial and operational progress. But try experimenting with KBIs: key behavioural indicators will tell you about the health of your organization’s leadership cadre, and how your strategy is being understood, implemented, and executed. Consider doing ‘stay interviews’ (for example, www.StayTalent.com), to identify the leadership behaviours of your top performers, and then use those attributes for recruitment and succession selection.

4. COMMON SUCCESSION PLANNING PITFALLS

What I’ve shared above are some of the succession best practices, but let’s look at what often holds companies back from doing succession planning well. Here are a few of the pitfalls I’ve seen:

• Not planning for the future version of your organization: Your organization is not static; nor are your customers, suppliers, or your industry. Plan for the organization you will be (or want to be) in five years and build your leadership role profiles and recruiting strategy accordingly.

• Lack of implementation & administrative resources: An effective succession program can be costly. Lack of resources is the most common pitfall I’ve seen and can cause or certainly exacerbate the gaps in your leadership succession pipeline.

• Misplaced ownership of succession planning: this is not a task to be delegated to HR. Succession plans must be owned and managed by the organization’s leadership team. Ideally, the process can be facilitated by HR or an external consultant, to ensure assessments are equitable and relative, using proven evaluation criteria.

• Focusing on senior leadership only instead of investing in growing individuals with potential earlier in their careers is a short-sighted pitfall.

• Hunting Unicorns: Avoid ‘idealizing’ the role, especially by expecting the incoming person to have what the outgoing leader had. This may disqualify great potential candidates.

• Sponsorship & Advocacy: When deciding who to promote to leadership, some decision-makers may not be as familiar with individuals’ potential. Direct leaders often feel they must advocate for their employee’s promotion to leadership. Sometimes egos are involved, and the leader with the best pitch (not necessarily the best candidate) gets their person promoted.

• Not leveraging retirees: untapped gold, as previously mentioned.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Now that you’ve read some of the best practices and pitfalls, it’s time to reflect on your own organization. Take the necessary time to reflect on each of these fifteen questions. Use them to spark discussions at your management meetings. Get input from your leadership cadres and employees. Use them to make some strategic decisions about how you will implement a succession mindset into your corporate culture.

1. What leadership behaviours and attributes are most valued in your organization currently? Which of these attributes will likely still be relevant to your organization in five years, and which are currently outdated, weak, or missing altogether?

2. How could your organization explicitly link career development opportunities with succession planning? How might you message that to your leaders and employees?

3. What training, development opportunities & feedback do high performers at your organization get?

4. How will you decide whether to hire externally, or develop and grow your succession pipeline from within? And what will you equip your organization with, to grow the next generation of leaders?

5. What communication messaging will help you create a culture of succession transparency and awareness in your organization? What might get in your way?

6. As a leader exits, what methods, criteria, and discussions will help you determine what practices, leadership functions, or tasks can be reduced or eliminated?

7. Consider the robustness of your leadership development system: what aspects are strong (or are over-strengths)? What aspects need strengthening? What aspects need to be implemented?

8. How do you currently grow and develop emerging leaders through formal training, experiential learning, coaching & mentoring, and on-the-job stretch assignments?

9. What’s your organization’s current leadership development balance, and what would help move you closer to the ideal 70-20-10? (70% on-the-job knowledge experiences, 20% interactions with others (coaching & mentoring), 10%: formal learning events.)

10. What problems keep the senior leadership team up at night, and who might have a unique perspective on what to do about it, as part of a stretch growth assignment to incubate new leaders?

11. How does your organization view experimentation? Would unintended results from flexing new muscles or trying out a new behaviour be considered failure? If so, how might the senior leaders of your organization model it for the rest of the leadership cadre?

12. How are you normalizing succession planning in your organization, and what indicators are you watching that will tell you it is becoming part of your leadership culture?

13. What are the top 3 reasons that people leave your organization? What are your mitigants?

14. What action can you take within your sphere of influence to reduce this voluntary turnover?

15. What systems need to be updated to meet your organization’s projected reality in 5 years? (eg: compensation strategy, flex hours, training and development opportunities, workplace mental health support, recognition programs)?