The only six questions a leader will ever need

Today sharing some depth around a key set of skills I find essential for leaders. I hope to explain them concisely and for you to also, through reading this, understand that there is much depth beneath this in the application of what you may learn here. Enjoy!

The coffee shop at the RSA in London serves their coffee in cups which each have a one-word question on them. There are six variants of cups, as there are only six questions in the universe. These are also the six questions that journalists need to have answered in order to have a story. They are: Why, What, How, When, Where, Who

However, all questions are not created equal. There are three core levels of context you may choose to have a conversation at., as illustrated by this screenshot of a flipchart from a past coaching skills event where we taught country leaders from a global professional services firm the essence of coaching skills to assist them in their leadership roles.

I note that this was something taught at a coaching skills event, as, in my experience, these are the only six questions you will ever need in order to both ask the right contextual question for each moment as well as to lead change.

Though there is much depth to teach around this, today I will stick to three areas of learning around this, with some tips also added for you when using these questions:

• Contextual levels
  • Why is the highest context here, or as I put it, “when you get clear on the why, the how is easy”.
  • What drops the context down from the core “WHY”, yet remains contextual, eg “what three areas will we focus on in order to deliver the vision?”
  • How (and Who, Where, When) questions will get you detailed answers that may go into too much detail for your needs at the time, though often they are valuable in order for people to be able to “download” and so get comfortable in the conversation
  • Tip: CEOs and other senior leaders are well served to stay almost always at the WHY and WHAT levels.
• Think Feel Know and Six Questions
  • Think Feel Know (TFK is a powerful tool to understand our communication preferences and methods and it overlays perfectly with “Six Questions”. For more on Think Feel Know, visit the “TFK” site here where you can also buy TFK indicators.
  • Why
    • Why is a “Knowing” question, it cuts right to the heart of the matter and will typically elicit a short, “bullet point” response
    • Tip: Be careful when you use “Why” as it can be too direct and may shut people down in terms of their being able and willing to give you an answer. You can always reframe a “Why” question as a “What”, eg “what were the reasons why we made that error?” instead of “why did we make that error?”
  • What
    • What is a “Feel” question, it is, as already noted, the context between WHY and HOW. It is one you can use to manage the energy (which is simply another word for feelings, after all!) in the room or group, as a “bridge” when moving between the high-level WHY (eg Vision, Strategy etc) level before dropping to the HOW, the detail.
    • Tip: Be aware of your own energy when asking a “What” question, as this may also guide the level of context (detailed or not for example) of the answer you may then receive.
  • How
    • How (and Who, Where, When) are the questions that will elicit detailed responses.
    • These responses are typically absent of any energy/feeling, simply rational, analytical data and facts to be shared. They are “Think” answers to Think questions
    • Tip: People often want to be able to share information in order to feel included and otherwise comfortable in the room. You can give them space to do this with “Think” questions such as How, Where, When, and Who.
• Three Tenets of Leadership
  • Keeper of the Vision
    • Several years ago I wrote a post in which I noted: “I’m about to give you the sum total of all my learning on leadership from many decades of devoted work, research, curiosity etc. Want the secret to great leadership? The role of a leader is a one-line job description: Keeper of the Vision”
  • Three Tenets
    • In order to deliver on the role of “Keeper of the Vision”, a leader must adhere to the three tenets of leadership.
    • It will not surprise you that these three tenets also link to a) the three levels of context (WHY, WHAT, HOW), as well as b) the three TFK styles of KNOW, FEEL, THINK.
    • Those three tenets are simple.
      • Set and Hold the Context (WHY/KNOW).
      • Manage the Energy (WHAT/FEEL)
      • Coach, Don’t Play (stay out of the doing, the “HOW”!)
    • Tip: for more on this, read the earlier post: “Managing Energy – Learning from Comedians“.There is much to be learned from comedians, they are masters at leading an audience.