{"id":341,"date":"2012-08-10T15:38:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/?p=341"},"modified":"2012-08-10T15:38:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T20:38:08","slug":"two-questions-every-leader-should-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/two-questions-every-leader-should-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Questions Every Leader Should Ask"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"project management podcast\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/DoNothingCast\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 8px; border: 1px solid black;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.i-leadonline.com\/images\/covers\/DoNothingCover.jpg?resize=77%2C115\" alt=\"\" width=\"77\" height=\"115\" \/><\/a>In my <a title=\"Project management keynotes presentations\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/DoNothingCast\" target=\"_blank\">interview with Keith Murnighan<\/a> about his book <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/NclmW1\" target=\"_blank\">Do Nothing!\u00a0 How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader<\/a>, he mentioned two questions a CEO should ask people every day:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;How are you?&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0 This may seem rather obvious. However, the more responsibility we get, the easier it is to start thinking of people as resources or FTE&#8217;s or directs.\u00a0 They are people. Sincerely asking someone how they are doing, we show that we understand they are a person.*<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<strong>What can I do to make your job easier?&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0Too often we get this wrong. We think our direct reports work for us.\u00a0Dee Hock,\u00a0founder and former CEO of VISA said in a FastCompany\u00a0interview years ago,\u00a0&#8220;if you don&#8217;t understand that you should be working for your mislabeled &#8216;subordinates,&#8217; you haven&#8217;t understood anything.&#8221;\u00a0 We work for them, and there&#8217;s a way we can make their job easier, it should get our attention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You may not be\u00a0a CEO but these two questions can help any one who\u00a0in a management role to be a more effective leader. Do everything you can to show you care about the people you serve. Find ways to free them up to do their best. These are the marks of a great leader.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>* I&#8217;ve had the privilege to teach many project management workshops in Eastern Europe. During one session, while talking about personalities and their impact on projects, a participant brought up an observation about Americans. His approximate quote was, &#8220;You Americans always ask people, &#8216;How&#8217;s it going?&#8217; But you never really want an answer!&#8221;\u00a0 Granted, it is a cultural thing here in the States. That&#8217;s why I mentioned that we need to <em>sincerely<\/em> ask the question. Yet regardless, I&#8217;ve had people tell me their boss walks right by them without even saying anything! Day after day they walk right on by. Even a passing &#8220;How&#8217;s your day going?&#8221; would be a major upgrade!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my interview with Keith Murnighan about his book Do Nothing!\u00a0 How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader, he mentioned two questions a CEO should ask people every day: &#8220;How are you?&#8221;\u00a0 This may seem rather obvious. However, the more responsibility we get, the easier it is to start thinking of people as&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/two-questions-every-leader-should-ask\/#more-341\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[72,6],"tags":[122,99,109,124,113],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p488Wj-5v","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}