Did you know that the United States' founding fathers put portraits of themselves in books and then distributed them to each state capital? Why would they do this? What is the purpose? If the fathers of the nation did something like this...should we? They essentially sent selfies to other government officials for records. Do you want to know why? Click on the link at the bottom of this article to learn more!
Our brains are wired to solve complex problems and to find patterns. Questions are the conduit for those connections to be made. When someone provides a question/problem, our brains put in the work to find a solution/answer. When working on a life coaching certification, the presenter posed an exercise to show the power of questions.
"Close your eyes, don't say the answer. Don't even think it. What is the color of your eyes?" There was a pause and the entire class admitted to thinking of the answer. This simple request shows us that our brains work incredibly fast, but cannot resist finding the answers to questions.
How does this apply to leadership? Well...simple. When one starts developing a leadership culture of growth, one must create ways to restructure the way people think. How does one do that? Through asking questions that guide people to making sound conclusions.
I have been working on developing one of my team members into a leader. I have regular discussions with him about ways he can redirect his team's thinking and create a culture of growth. My advice is simple, yet so powerful which he has proven.
My first piece of advice: never ask people questions that start with "why" when asking about their performance. When people hear a question with "why," they tend to get defensive. Once they are in a defensive state, their brains shy away from developing patterns; rather, they start to react to a fight or flight reflex which hinders their development.
My next piece of advice is to ask questions rather than tell people how to fix an issue. "What can we do to improve this process? What are your thoughts on how we are doing things? Have you seen where the struggle is coming from?" Questions encourage us to think. Once we start finding patterns and solving these problems, our brains will be rerouted so that the information is more permanent. If someone were to simply tell someone how to fix an issue, it is likely that it would be forgotten in less than a few hours.
Questions allow us to rewire our mindsets. Without changing our mindsets, behaviors will not change.
Thank you!
P.s. If you haven't done so already, don't click on the link. It's a friendly exercise to see how powerful questions are. If you click on it, you will be directed to a friendly music video. Some people can't resist the need to answer a question, so they click on the link first before reading this post. It's a little funny for me but also shows you how questions make us lose control sometimes.
Thank you!
Link to video (Selfies in Government):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
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