I’m Glad You Asked

June 5, 2024
Leadership, Making a Profit- Business Excellence

The Power of Questions

As we seek to grow in the leadership of the missional enterprises God has entrusted to us, one of the most critical skills we can develop is the ability to ask powerful questions. Why is that?

We’re glad you asked.

For one, as followers of Jesus, we are apprentices to the most gifted asker of questions ever:

Martin Copenhaver, a retired president of Andover Newton Theological School, claims in his book “Jesus Is the Question” that Jesus was more than 40 times as likely to ask a question as answer one directly, and he was 20 times as likely to offer an indirect answer as a direct one.1

Unlike us, Jesus knows the answer to every question. Yet, in his earthly ministry, he was much more likely to interact with others by asking questions than answering them. That truth alone should be sufficient to encourage us to grow in both the quantity and quality of our questions.

Questions for Business Leaders

Powerful questions are beneficial in every aspect of our lives, and the business world has also recognized this truth. In their article entitled “The Surprising Power of Questions,” Harvard Business School professors Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John report:

Questioning is a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations: It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and performance improvement, it builds rapport and trust among team members. And it can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards.2

These professors also point out that even those of us who may not naturally excel at asking questions can experience significant improvement in that skill, simply by beginning to ask more. As we do, “we naturally improve our emotional intelligence” and experience a “virtuous cycle,” becoming increasingly better questioners. Their article gives guidance based on behavioral science research regarding how to choose the right kinds of questions for each setting.

As we seek to love God and our neighbors by pursuing each aspect of the triple bottom line in business, well-asked questions will often be the way that love is expressed. As author David Augsburger said, “Being heard is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.”3

So, we’ll end with a question.

What steps can you take this week to improve your question-asking?

Verse of the Week:

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger James 1:19 (ESV)

May God grant us grace to be quick to hear and slow to speak this week in every aspect of our lives, including the enterprises we lead.

1 From “Why Jesus Never Stopped Asking Questions,” an essay by Peter Wehner, featured in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/opinion/christmas-jesus-questions.html)
2 See https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-surprising-power-of-questions
3 See Caring Enough to Hear and Be Heard, by David Augsburger (https://www.amazon.com/Caring-Enough-Hear-Heard-Communication/dp/0830708367)

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