When in doubt, ask a question.
My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, ‘So, Did you learn anything today?’ But not my mother, ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’
-- Isidor Rabi, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1944
I don't know about you, but when I am feeling confident and empowered, I don’t feel intense pressure to have answers. I can ask lots of questions and be crazy curious.
When my confidence is in a slump, I feel pressure to have (all the) answers.
It's a funny habit - the more my ego is under attack the more my ego imagines it should be all knowing and all powerful. Does this happen to you too?
Have you ever been caught up thinking that you need to:
Share something helpful or wise?
Come up with a new, creative idea?
Provide gems of insight or inspiration?
Turns out asking great questions is important (helpful, insightful, innovative...) than having great answers.
Here is a great example from the book The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner.
For context, Bell Labs was responsible for developing the laser, the transistor, and the photovoltaic cell (i.e. a solar powered battery) among other things. The work coming out of Bell Labs earned 9 Nobel Prizes.
Side note: Probably the biggest ‘secret’ to their innovation was that they were able to take a long-term view of their research and development efforts because they had a monopoly.
Anyway, in this bastion of innovation with an unmatched research and development department, there was an effort by some of the lawyers in the patent department to try and figure out why certain engineers were more productive than others. Was it their educational pedigree? A place they sat in the building? A personality type?
Turns out the biggest predictor of an engineer’s success was that they regularly had lunch or breakfast with an electrical engineer named Harry Nyquist.
And why was that?
Harry had a gift for asking great questions. “He drew them out and got them thinking.”
So have you asked any great questions today? Of others? Of yourself?
Next time someone comes to you with a dilemma – or you find yourself stuck – could you try asking a good question rather than stressing about the right answer?
Here is a list of great questions that can "draw people out and get them thinking" - adapted from a training I participated in ages ago but really stands the test of time!
Whether you feel compelled to lead a team in a new and dynamic way or feel pressured to be clever and wise – flip the story and challenge yourself to think about what great questions you can ask.
Love,
Marijke Ocean
P.S. Do you know anyone interested in taking their leadership and professional skills to the next level? Executive coaching is a lot like having a personal trainer for your professional life. 💪 If there is someone that you think I should meet, contact me here and let's talk about whether an introduction makes sense!