What is the right question?

Good leaders don’t have to have all the answers

Pia Lauritzen, in this Strategy+Business article, makes the bold statement that “effective leadership isn’t about giving or taking responsibility—it’s about sharing it.”

Lauritzen focusses on the leader’s use of questions as a major factor in effectively sharing responsibility. She notes from her research that leaders typically respond to more questions than they ask. Usually, leaders feel they need to have all the answers and “pride themselves on responding quickly and accurately—and they feel ashamed if they are too busy or otherwise unable to provide satisfactory answers to their employees and superiors.”

Using the following figure, Lauritzen shows the type of questions typically associated with these approaches and the ability to effectively distribute responsibility.

1. I am responsible (for knowing the right answers)
   • The leader is the centre of attention.
   • Questions they ask are to test if employees are seeing the world in the same way as the leader.
   • Employees become uncomfortable asking their questions and sharing their perspectives.
     
     
2. You are responsible (for providing your own answer)
   • The individual needs to find their own answers and make their own decisions.
   • Questions are more about coaching.
   • Employees potentially do not align on what is important because everyone is focussed on succeeding with their own projects and priorities.
     
     
3. We are responsible (for co-creating the best possible answer)
   • Questions are topic-focussed and designed to make everyone concentrate on the same things at the same time.
   • Importantly, using “we” instead of “you” enables more and better quality responses.
   • “We” is “more likely to help people connect with each other and connect to a shared purpose—and shared responsibility.”

To appropriately expect employees to be accountable, leaders need to ensure the conversation and answers do not end with them as leader. It may mean leaders putting their own solutions on hold and “not taking sole responsibility by setting themselves up as the ultimate authority.” The ideal is to “create a culture where no one is ashamed of not having all the answers.”

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Photograph: [email protected] on Unsplash.