We expect a leader to have answers.
I think their real superpower is having the right questions.
A few weeks ago, a company I work with regularly asked me to contribute to its thinking on how its management culture is evolving.
Among the themes chosen to inspire their project team, there were six.
Including leadership. And questiology.
Questiology.
I’m a coach. I work with questions every day.
I’ve learned to ask them, to work with them, to sense the ones that open something up.
But I’d never heard this word.
And yet, I love what it brings to light.
The idea that a question is never trivial.
Depending on how it’s asked, it can open or close thinking.
Trigger a justification or a step back.
Point towards the problem or towards possibilities.
Create dependence or help people grow.
In practice:
“Why did you do that?” doesn’t open the same space as “What led you to make that choice?”
It’s subtle. And yet, it changes a lot.
Because the leader’s role isn’t always to provide answers.
Even when they think they have one.
Even when they know it.
They can know. And still choose to ask the question.
Not to pretend they don’t know.
But so as not to systematically become the one everyone turns to in order to think, decide or solve.
To get people thinking.
To develop discernment.
To bring other options to the surface.
To build autonomy.
To allow the other person to find their own answer and grow with it.
Leadership isn’t only about having something to say.
It’s about knowing how to create the space in which others can think.
And sometimes, letting your own answer shine a little less so the other person can shine more.
So here’s a question for you, and I think you already have some answers.
What question do you ask your teams… when you could perfectly well give them the answer?