Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask, Revised and Updated

Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask, Revised and Updated

by Michael J. Marquardt
Released February 2014
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9781118658130

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Book description

Many leaders are unaware of the amazing power of questions. Our conversations may be full of requests and demands, but all too often we are not asking for honest and informative answers, and we don't know how to listen effectively to responses. When leaders start encouraging questions from their teams, however, they begin to see amazing results. Knowing the right questions to ask—and the right way to listen—will give any leader the skills to perform well in any situation, effectively communicate a vision to the team, and achieve lasting success across the organization.

Thoroughly revised and updated, Leading with Questions will help you encourage participation and teamwork, foster outside-the-box thinking, empower others, build relationships with customers, solve problems, and more. Michael Marquardt reveals how to determine which questions will lead to solutions to even the most challenging issues. He outlines specific techniques of active listening and follow-up, and helps you understand how questions can improve the way you work with individuals, teams, and organizations.

This new edition of Leading with Questions draws on interviews with thirty leaders, including eight whose stories are new to this edition. These interviews tell stories from a range of countries, including Singapore, Guyana, Korea, and Switzerland, and feature case studies from prominent firms such as DuPont, Alcoa, Novartis, and Cargill. A new chapter on problem-solving will help you apply questions to your toughest situations as a leader, and a new "Questions for Reflection" section at the end of each chapter will help you bring Marquardt's message into all of your work as a leader.

Now more than ever, Leading with Questions is the definitive guide for becoming a stronger leader by identifying—and asking—the right questions.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. More Praise for Leading with Questions
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Introduction
    1. Research on Leaders Who Lead with Questions
    2. Key Aspects of Leading with Questions
    3. A New Level of Leadership
    4. Notes
  7. Part I: The Power of Questions
    1. Chapter 1: An Underused Management Tool
      1. What Happens When Leaders Do Not Ask Questions
      2. Day-to-Day Disaster Prevention
      3. Facing Reality
      4. Questions as the Ultimate Leadership Tool
      5. Great Questions Define Great Leaders
      6. Looking Ahead
      7. Questions for Reflection
      8. Notes
    2. Chapter 2: Benefits of a Questioning Culture
      1. What Is a Questioning Culture?
      2. Organizational Benefits of a Questioning Culture
      3. Individual Benefits of a Questioning Culture
      4. Looking Ahead
      5. Questions for Reflection
      6. Notes
  8. Part II: Asking Questions Effectively
    1. Chapter 3: Why We Have Trouble with Questions
      1. Our Desire to Protect Ourselves
      2. We Are Too Often in a Rush
      3. Lack of Skills in Asking Questions
      4. Corporate Cultures Can Discourage Questions
      5. Confronting Our Discomfort with Questions
      6. Questions for Reflection
      7. Notes
    2. Chapter 4: Asking the Right Questions
      1. Questions That Empower or Disempower
      2. Roots of Great Questions
      3. Types of Effective Questions
      4. Unhelpful Questions
      5. Finding Great Questions
      6. Questions for Reflection
      7. Notes
    3. Chapter 5: The Art of Asking Questions
      1. Judger Versus Learner: The Mindset for Asking Questions
      2. Adopting a Learner Mindset
      3. How to Frame Questions
      4. Timing for Questions
      5. Steps in the Questioning Process
      6. Sincere Listening and Learning
      7. Questions for Reflection
      8. Notes
    4. Chapter 6: Creating a Questioning Culture
      1. The Leader's Role in Shaping a Questioning Culture
      2. Handling Resistance to a Questioning Culture
      3. Start the Journey
      4. Questions for Reflection
      5. Notes
  9. Part III: A Guide for Leaders on When and How to Ask Powerful Questions
    1. Chapter 7: Using Questions in Managing People
      1. Building Relationships That Empower
      2. Establishing a Coaching Relationship with Direct Reports
      3. Fostering Reflection and Learning
      4. Encouraging Action and Innovation
      5. Managing Key Employee Interactions
      6. A Final Word
      7. Questions for Reflection
      8. Notes
    2. Chapter 8: Using Questions to Build Teams
      1. Leading Teams as a Coach-Questioner
      2. Questions Help You Manage Team Conflict
      3. Sharing Responsibility
      4. Questions for Reflection
      5. Notes
    3. Chapter 9: Using Questions to Solve Problems
      1. Technical and Adaptive Problems
      2. Gaining an Understanding of the Real Problem through Questions
      3. Questions as the Essence for Breakthrough Problem Solving
      4. Questions at Various Stages of Problem Solving
      5. What Enables a Group to Ask Questions When Solving Problems?
      6. Improving Questions While Problem Solving
      7. Questions for Reflection
      8. Notes
    4. Chapter 10: Using Questions to Shape Strategy and Enable Change
      1. Using Questions to Bring Fresh Perspective
      2. Questioning Stakeholders Outside the Organization
      3. Developing Strategic Vision and Values
      4. Leading Organizational Change
      5. Questions Transform Organizations
      6. Questions for Reflection
      7. Notes
  10. Conclusion: Becoming a Questioning Leader
    1. Asking Questions Changes Us
    2. Becoming a Leader Who Asks Questions
    3. Leading with Questions in the Twenty-First Century
    4. Questions for Reflection
    5. Notes
  11. Resource A: Biographies of Leaders Interviewed
  12. Resource B: Action Learning: A Powerful Training Program for Developing Questioning Leaders
    1. How Action Learning Develops Questioning Leaders
    2. What Are the Essential Elements of Action Learning?
    3. How Does an Action Learning Program Work?
    4. How and Why Action Learning Develops Inquiry Leadership
    5. Questions First in Action Learning
    6. The Action Learning Coach as a Questioning Leader
    7. Notes
  13. Resource C: Resources for Training and Information on Questioning Leadership
    1. World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL)
    2. Inquiry Institute
    3. Leading with Questions Academy/PACE-OD Singapore
    4. Leading with Questions Website/Blog
  14. Acknowledgments
  15. About the Author
  16. More from Wiley
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask, Revised and Updated
  • Author(s): Michael J. Marquardt
  • Release date: February 2014
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9781118658130