Be an Active Questioner!

Yesterday I listened to an excellent one-hour web conversation hosted by the leadership experts Marshall Goldsmith and Kevin Eikenberry on the topic of Coaching in organizations.  In the course of their freewheeling talk, Goldsmith shared an intriguing concept that nicely expands on the YES! Leader concept of accountability that I described in my previous article.

As I mentioned last time, many of us prefer to rail against the way things are rather than to ask ourselves, “What can I do to make the situation better?”  Goldsmith touched on a similar thought when he described a concept called Active Questioning.

As Goldsmith described it, in the context of an employee engagement survey, a Passive Question might take the form of: How engaged are you? By contrast, an Active Question would be: What are you doing to engage yourself? Passive Question: How happy are you? Active Question: What are you doing to increase your happiness?

I understood Goldsmith’s point to be this: By asking Passive Questions, we set a subtle expectation with employees that engagement is all about something that someone else needs to do in order to engage them. On the other hand, when we ask Active Questions, we plant the seed with employees that engagement is a two-way street.  More than a two-way street, in fact, because Goldsmith also makes the point that the individual needs to be the primary driver of any change he truly wants to see. As the saying goes, "If it's going to be, it's up to me!"  

We can also apply the Active Questioning approach to our own self-reflection. So, rather than ask ourselves Am I happy?, ask How am I increasing my happiness? By doing this, we can remind ourselves of our own accountability for making change happen.

  

Goldsmith mentioned that the concept of Active Questioning (and the employee-engagement research he’s conducted to demonstrate it) will be included in his new book, aptly titled Ask What You Can Do. I can’t wait!  (er, I mean, What can I do to get the book asap?)