Abstract: The author argues that one of the most effective, least understood and seldom used leadership tools is the question mark. Here is a systematic way to use the question mark in your everyday driving activities that will allow for a more effective leader.
I am often asked to come and organizations, and maintain a motivational speech to their employees. I reply that I am not a motivational speaker. I've never been. It will never be. Do not want to be. Do something different. I teach their people how to become motivational leaders. This is an effort far more productive.
The concept and application of motivation are misunderstood in most organizations. The motivational industry is based on a fundamental contradiction, because the core of motivation is misplaced. After all, leaders (salespeople included) should be given. If not, should not be leaders.
Here is where attention should be: not in themselves leaders, but the people they lead. Can those leaders transfer their motivation to other people so those people are as motivated as are the challenges that they face?
Also: who can "catch" the motivation of their leaders then go out and motivate others - and the other to get out themselves and motivate others ... and so on?
Finally, individuals may at any stage of this cascade of animals due to "translate into action on the ground that achieves results - and not just average, but the results faster results on an ongoing basis?
All my books, articles, courses, seminars, workbooks and interviews are based on the simple sequence of ideas.
I have written many articles on motivation and how to transfer your motivation to others.
But there is another way to transform your motivation to others who do not take much to explain. It 'amazingly simple, easy to use and effective. Yet few leaders I have met use it, and those who use it, do not use well.
It's the way the question mark. "Way" is a lifetime one is committed to progress in a particular discipline.
So it is with the Way of the question. It is not simply a technique, there is actually a course of disciplined life. (I use it for years and are still far from mastering it. Why the question mark is often particularly appropriate in a situation of great emotional charge. However, in such situations, when strong emotions are always the better of me it takes practice and discipline to step back, collect my thoughts, and ask a question.)
Practicing the Way of the question can improve your relationships with people that lead to results much more like a leader.
From now on all your efforts and leadership, make a conscious effort to put a question mark which would otherwise declarative sentences.
Put the matter rather than using a declarative is usually more effective because people get reflecting on their situation. After all, you can not motivate anyone to do anything. They have to motivate themselves. It is better to motivate themselves when they reflect on their character and their situation. The application prompts people to respond, and when I call, can engage in a discussion like that. You may not like the answer, but often their answer, no matter what it is, is better in terms of advancing results than your declaration. Moreover, their answer to the question may cause them to think that I came with a good idea. People are less enamored of your great ideas than are their ideas, even if the ideas are simply average.
For example, your organization needs to have people from point A to point B. A leader might say, "Go from A to B."
Practicing the Way, one might ask: "Tell me what you think of going from A to B?" or "What is the best way to get from A to B?" or "Tell me how I can support you're going from A to B?" or "How do you take leadership of others going from A to B?"
Mind you, I'm not talking to pander to the whims of the people. I'm talking motivation, motivating people to get more results faster on a continual basis. (Actually, you can not order people to get more results faster time. Only motivated people can do.) I'm talking about stimulating people to take extraordinary things to be better They think They are.
The question, as opposed to simple declarative, opens a world of possibilities to produce results. It is a world based on their choices.
Make way question your way. Discipline yourself to ask questions rather than making statements. You will start getting more results.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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