Ask more questions.

Why leadership should ask more questions, than give answers.

Ok, here's a deployment story for you.

I was in Oman, many years ago.

While there, I met this kid from, I'm not sure where, but we deployed together.

Super nice guy, smart, and approachable.

Then one day I started to realize something

…

He would get very excited in conversations and share all about his ideas, and how much he knew about technology, and history, and baseball, and badminton, and the history of chess, and how to properly grow strawberries, and....well you get the point.

When we would sit and chat as a team the conversations became about him and how much he knows about the topic, and any other topic.

After a while, people started to leave the room every time he entered to avoid the possibility of getting "trapped" (as we called it eventually) in a conversation about his breadth of knowledge on things.

So what’s the lesson here?

Leadership is about asking questions, not just giving answers. When you give too many answers it could turn into something negative that pushes people away.

Literally.

People will LITERALLY LEAVE THE ROOM BECAUSE OF YOU.

Here are three benefits of asking more questions than you give answers to:

1 - Better decision-making

Collecting data is the unsung hero of thousands of celebrities, doctors, and many prestigious jobs in the world. These professions collect data and make decisions that save lives or change the world.

We don’t often look at what people are saying as data, though

We discount it, we ignore it, and often don’t even pay attention.

But what if the things people are saying are what we need to make sure we make the right decisions?

This is why asking questions and paying attention is important. When you listen to enough perspectives, you’ll start to notice patterns.

And those patterns tell you what you need to do next.

2 - Teammates Feel Heard

When you over talk you take away that person's voice.

They start feeling like they can’t talk about anything and also question why they should be talking.

The feeling of being unheard is something every human being shares and it comes out in quiet behaviors, sometimes in loud behaviors but it’s always something each one of us struggles with.

So when you ask questions and listen to what they say, you are opening the door for a very human experience that we all desire.

To be heard.

3 - Creates an environment of curiosity and innovation

Leaders create the environment.

Now, could you imagine what it would be like if we could create an environment where the future looks bright and where we can overcome challenges that come our way?

Thinking of how to best serve the future and prepare ourselves is crucial because how we develop curiosity, innovation, and creativity, is what helps us drive a forward-thinking group.

The habits of pioneers involve being curious and humble about not knowing all the information and it’s also what helps us build habits within our environments that encourage growth, innovation, action, and problem-solving.

The environment is so powerful. Let’s do more about it!

So, overtalking comes with its negatives. Doing it over and over again means people stop coming around. Or in my case study, people will leave the room when you show up.

And that's not good.

So ask more questions than you give answers and involve others in the conversation.

This way...they stick around.