Good Leaders Ask Great Questions Novels & Stories

Scott released a sigh, catching her by the shoulders and turning her to face him. "All you have to do is circulate and listen. If you know what they’re talking about, join in. If you don’t know what they’re talking about, then ask questions," he relayed as if it was really that simple. "People don’t mind being asked questions. In fact, they like to show off their knowledge. What they don’t like is someone pretending to know what they’re talking about when they don’t. OK?" Pressing the tremor out of her lips Vivian nodded.

He had not expected her to reframe the third section. He asked questions now. This was new. He had been, for most of his professional and personal life, the one with answers. Questions had been a tool for the performance of engagement rather than a genuine pursuit of information. He had learned the difference. He asked things because he wanted to know the answers rather than because asking performed a particular quality of listening. He asked her about her mother once. He had never asked before. She answered carefully, in the way she answered things that mattered, and he listened to all of it.

The one the whole conversation had been building toward. I looked at him. Not the eager urgency of the Cruz who had come into this club three years ago with too much energy and not enough direction. The focused specific question of someone who had developed into the ability to ask precisely what they needed to know. "You are ready when you are asking this question from the inside of competence rather than the outside of ambition," I said. "The question you just asked is the right question asked from the right place." I paused. "The Cruz who arrived three years ago would have asked when do I get to be president. The Cruz sitting in this chair asks what does it cost and what does it feel like.

"Yеаh?" I pаuse fоr whаt fееls likе а beаt tоо long, wondеring if I should еvеn аsk thе question thаt's been nаgging mе. Curiosity gеts thе bеttеr оf mе. "Hаve yоu ever treаted аnyone thе wаy yоu treаt mе?"

"What am I doing wrong?" It was the most important governance question I had heard in three years. Not because it was sophisticated — it was the most basic question possible. But because of who was asking it and in what spirit it was being asked. An Alpha of twelve years, voluntarily, in a kitchen far from his pack, asking not what his pack was doing wrong in ways that could be listed and corrected but what he was doing wrong in a way that required genuine self-understanding rather than procedural improvement.

The kind that came from the inside rather than from the discipline applied to the outside, the stillness of someone who had arrived at a place where there was nothing left to manage because everything had been seen. He did not speak for a long time. Marcus, in the corridor, counted the silence. He did not tell Lily how long it was, but he described it as the longest voluntary silence he had heard from Alexander in four years of standing adjacent to his significant moments. When Alexander spoke, he asked a single question. "What would you have me do." Not what should I do, not what are my options, not any of the leadership-framing questions that Alexander had been trained to ask about difficu

He folded his hands loosely in front of him. "Five years ago," he began, "I believed leadership meant having the right answers." A large screen behind the stage displayed his face. "I believed the CEO was supposed to be the smartest person in every room." He smiled at himself. "I spent years trying to prove that." The audience listened attentively. "Today..." "I don't think leadership is about having all the answers." "It's about asking whether you're listening to the people who already have them." Several people nodded. Pens moved across notebooks.

“People who pretend to know everything.” “I definitely won’t have that problem.” “And applicants who ask too many questions.” “Do I ask too many questions?” “Well, asking questions is better than asking none. So I guess I also hate people who don’t ask questions.” I eyed him. “Now, I’m confused.” Gary made a gesture with his fingers. “If you want me to go any further, I expect consulting fees.” “I can pay you with microwaved pancakes.” “I’ll decline.” “They’re pretty good.”

My hand is cramping from gripping the stylus for so long, and my eyes are burning from staring at the screen. But I keep going until I get to question ninety six. And then ninety seven and ninety eight. Question ninety-nine is a multi-part critical thinking scenario involving pack politics and diplomatic relations. I read the question three times to make sure I understand what is being asked before I carefully construct my answer. Done writing out the answer, question one hundred finally appears. *In your own words, define what it means to be a true leader. Draw from personal experience and provide specific examples.* An essay question. Of course the final question would be an essay.