”A fool can ask more questions than 7 wise men can answer” is what the Germans say. Luckily most people know their business, so they are not fools! All they need are good answers. For those they need people with experience and knowledge. People who can also understand what to ask if the question needs clarification.
Questions are a very important part of leadership and management. Not just the questions people are asking. But the questions leaders and managers ask themselves. Those questions are the key to their development, eventually the key to their success. The challenge there is comes form our brain. We have the tendency to use the old answers. Because our brain has learnt that it protects us. This is a very important piece of information. Our brain, specially under stressful situations, focus often on the wrong thing. Protection which is not the same as building success. You and I know, that with old solutions we get old results. Old solutions need to be challenged. And this is where the external questions and answers come in.
You have your question, or questions. When you get an external answer, you start to review the situation from a new viewpoint. If you get a new question, you will start a new process. You start to build the new solutions which deliver new results, opens the door for new success. This is why the most successful people and organizations use external resources, consultants and coaches. Not because they would have perfect answers. But because they will help you build your unique new solution.
One of the biggest mistakes is related to the perfect answer. Too many organisations are working on making it. Which leads to procrastination and failing in meeting what the customers really need and want. There is no such thing as perfect answer. There are the best possible answers within the given framework with the acquired knowledge. The framework is in constant move. There is all the time coming knew knowledge. Therefore you need to ask questions, check your assumptions and review answer accordingly.
That is the beauty and the challenge of leadership. You can always learn more. And you need to learn more, in order to succeed. One of the beauties of today’s world is, that you can find any question and any answer. Artificial intelligence finds, shares and creates knowledge. You just need to use it. But you also need to understand, that your competition is doing the same. Winners use the power of AI connected with crowd-intelligence.
Crowd and artificial intelligence added to your unique personality based processing is what gives the winning edge. I have a couple of questions for you: 1. do you really understand how your personality runs your brain (like the EBW system) 2. are you having a constant process of reviewing your questions and answers (i.e. using coaching way of working) 3. are you utilising crowd sourced question and answer platform (like the ”Ask Anything” system we have created)?
In business and leadership, there is no such thing as being able to run every day faster than yesterday. Your cannot build your success on that. There is one thing where no one can beat you. That is being you. Questions and answers processed through you individual mind are the source of success. Working smarter with questions and answers is the most valuable, and impossible to copy, road to win the game.
Making your success happen, with emotional intelligence, Kari I. Mattila
