By Executive Director, Claire Louge
When I first became Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona, I had the good fortune of having an executive coach named Eileen Rogers. Eileen offered me powerful guidance, often nudging me to make courageous choices rather than comfortable ones.
One of her insights is coming up a lot for me lately. She told me that one of the most important leadership skills is the ability to ask the right questions. It’s a skill I’ve been working to improve ever since.
It’s always harder than I want it to be, but it’s worth practicing. It’s worth it because questions have the power to shape possibility. Questions guide answers, and answers design solutions. Asking a question the right way can broaden thinking and inspire imagination, but asking the wrong way can quiet creativity or solve the wrong problem.
No pressure, right?
Take this simple example: A common question asked by speakers at the end of presentations is this one: “Does anyone have any questions?”
Now, this isn’t a bad question, but I’ve found that asking it in a different way brings out more of what I’m looking for, which is audience understanding and participation. Instead, I’ve learned to frame the question this way: “What questions do you have?”
The way this question is asked expects that people want to know more, and that expectation brings out more participation, particularly from people who may not be as talkative.
Just with a few wording changes, the question creates more inclusivity.
That’s one small example. The right question can not only influence behavior, it can define whole movements.
I realized this in 2020 when pandemic lock downs started, and there was a question that dominated child welfare conversations. It sounded something like this: since children are no longer visible to mandated reporters, how will we continue to spot child abuse?
An understandable question. People were worried about kids. But this question was too narrow, and it wasn’t getting us anywhere.
A few months into lock downs, I was in a virtual meeting having the same conversation when someone asked a different question: instead of continuing to ask ourselves how we can report something we can’t see, why aren’t we first asking ourselves how we can support families during this time?
That question completely changed the energy of the conversation and the direction of the group. It resulted in the launch of a project called Lean On Me AZ, which asked community members from across the state to share how everyday people can support families in their everyday lives. We packaged these messages as a source of inspiration and guidance for our work, and for the work of everyone who cares about children. Lean On Me has now been adopted and implemented in eight other states. That’s the power of a question.
What questions are you asking, and how are they shaping what you do? Are we asking ourselves the right questions to get the results we want?
We all have the ability to wield the power of a question. It may be effortful to craft the right question, but it’s a worthy practice. What we ask has the power to shape our possibilities, our reality, and our shared future.