John Pringle

Most leaders know how important it is to get really clear on the future they want and are leading for. But what I have seen happen too often is that when they then share this vision with their teams there is little real engagement. I believe the reason for this is that they have not left enough room for their people to add, explore and co-invent.

Leadership is about being clear both on what we know but also what we do not know. A poem by Rilke comes to mind: “To be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try and love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.”

In other words the challenge for leaders is to stop trying to bring answers and instead learn to ask those questions that will engage their people. And furthermore to then hold these questions long enough so that further and even more powerful and purposeful questions emerge; questions that engage not just people’s intellectual energy, but their emotion and their spirit energy as well. Questions, which because they are being given space to breathe invite fresh thinking and innovation.

So how are questions rewarded in your team and your organisation? How much space do you as a leader create for exploration and open thinking? How driven are you to find answers? As a leadership practice this week please notice how many questions you ask of people that you genuinely do not know the answer to.

Learn more about John Pringle, the author of this article – click here