Leaders ask great questions
Leaders ask great questions
Some questions have quick answers, and some questions change everything. Which are you asking?
Good questions are more important than good answers. Better stated, you can’t get good answers until you ask good questions. The problem is that we rarely slow down long enough to think through and ask them.
Instead, we ask easy questions like, “what meetings do I have today?” Or “what is on my to-do list for today?” Maybe a better question would be, “should I have meetings today?” Or “what are the three things critical to my business that need to be done today?”
Easy questions keep us busy. Thoughtful questions drive us forward. Which will you ask today?
Great leadership reading from this week
3 Questions You Must Say Yes to If You Call Yourself a Leader - The question on this list that is most important to ask is, “Are you seeking to understand other people's perspectives?” The best leaders seek to understand as much as they seek to be understood.
If You Say Yes to These 7 Questions, You're a Much Better Leader Than You Think - These questions are related to how you interact and lead team members. These are a great measure to understand how supportive you are as a leader.
If You’re Not Valued, You’re in the Wrong Place - This article was a bit of a parable, but I still thought it was great.
Remote Workers Need Small Talk, Too - According to Harvard Business Review, small talk is uplifting and distracting. So yay? I guess this means a little small talk on Zoom is good, but a lot is not. You’ll have to read the article to learn more.
Does Your Office Have a Jargon Problem? - Let me answer this for you, yes. Most offices and organizations have a jargon problem. The question is, what will you do about it?
This week I’m thinking about:
Having a default answer.
I believe we often will make better decisions when we have a pre-determined, default answer. Not only does this help us make decisions more quickly, but it also eliminates the mental energy needed to deliberate over something.
Other great reading from the week
7 Little Things That Can Tell You A Lot About Someone - The one I like best is #3, how their car looks. Also, completely unrelated, does anyone know the best car cleaning accessories? (asking for a friend)
The Completely Bonkers History of the Bathroom Scale - So, this is kinda crazy. People waited in line for hours to use the first scale, which was in a building lobby. Seriously?
Too Much Focusing Is Draining. Here's A Better Strategy - The best strategy here is to “unfocus your brain,” giving you the creative time needed to solve problems in unique ways. It’s that morning walk that gives you a flash of insight. We all need more walks like that.
Podcasts to check out
Tech Talk Y’all - My tech/comedy news podcast
I am always a magical robot... but no free cars
This week we talk about a Twitter hacker going to jail, US banks offering bitcoin funds, a new way to detect deep fakes, plus weird and wacky, and tech recs!TogetherLetters - My podcast about the app that I’m helping build to keep people better connected.
Let's talk privacy
In this episode, we talk about user privacy and how we will move away from Google products to protect user privacy.
That’s a wrap!
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