78 Important Questions Every Leader Should Ask and Answer

240 Pages·2002·2.584 MB·English

by  Chris Clarke-Epstein

78
Important Questions
Every Leader Should
Ask and Answer
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78
Important Questions
Every Leader Should
Ask and Answer
CHRIS CLARKE-EPSTEIN
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
New York(cid:2)Atlanta(cid:2)Brussels(cid:2)Buenos Aires(cid:2)Chicago
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clarke-Epstein, Chris.
78 important questions every leader should ask and answer / Chris
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8144-7162-5
1. Leadership. 2. Communication in organizations. 3. Corporate culture.
4. Public relations. I. Title: Seventy eight important questions every leader
should ask and answer. II. Title.
HD57.7. C539 2002
658.4'092--dc21
2002008308
© 2002 Chris Clarke-Epstein.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division of
American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother, June Blomberg, who raised me in an envi-
ronment that encouraged me to ask questions…lots of them.
To Stel Epstein and Miriam Phillips, who read everything I
write and have the courage to ask, “What were you thinking?”
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contents
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .XIII
How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV
A Warning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XVII
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .XIX
INTRODUCTION: ANSWERS, YOU WANT ANSWERS . . . . . . . . . . .1
The Power and Problem of Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1
QUESTIONS LEADERS NEED TO ASK THEMSELVES . . . . . . . . . . .9
1. What does leadership mean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2. How do you feel about being a leader?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3. What do you want to be remembered for?. . . . . . . . . . . 15
VIII
CONTENTS
4. Are you happy?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5. What are you afraid of? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6. Are you sure you want to ask questions?. . . . . . . . . . . . 21
WHATDIDYOULEARN?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTERONEWORKSHEET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2
QUESTIONS LEADERS NEED TO ASK CUSTOMERS . . . . . . . . . . .27
7. Why do you do business with us?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8. Why do you do business with our competition?. . . . . . 31
9. How and when have we made it hard for you to
do business with us?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
10. What will you need from us in the future?. . . . . . . . . . 35
11. If you were me, what’s one thing you’d change about
my organization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
12. How can we effectively tell you that we’re grateful
for your business?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
WHATDIDYOULEARN?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
CHAPTERTWOWORKSHEET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3
QUESTIONS LEADERS NEED TO ASK EMPLOYEES
ABOUT THE BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
13. How do we make money?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
14. How does your work contribute to our success?. . . . . . 50
15. How could we save money? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
16. How could you make your job more effective?. . . . . . . 54
17. What’s the most important thing you know about our
customers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
18. What’s something we could offer to our customers?. . . 57
IX
CONTENTS
19. Who do you see as our competition, and what do you
know about them? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
WHATDIDYOULEARN?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
CHAPTERTHREEWORKSHEET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4
DEEPER QUESTIONS LEADERS NEED TO ASK EMPLOYEES . . . . .63
20. What gets in the way of your doing your job? . . . . . . . 67
21. What does our leadership team do that gets in the
way of your doing your job?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
22. What’s a recent management decision you didn’t
understand? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
23. How could we communicate management decisions
more effectively?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
24. If you could change one thing about our organization’s
collective behavior, what would it be?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
25. What’s a potential benefit we could offer that would be
helpful to you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
26. What is it like to work on a team in our organization?. 79
27. How do you feel at the start of your workweek?. . . . . . 81
28. How do you feel at the end of your workweek? . . . . . . 83
29. What volunteer work do you do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
30. What makes you proud of working as a part of our
organization?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
31. What’s something you’ve learned in the past week?. . . 88
32. What brings you joy in your work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
33. What do you do just for the fun of it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
34. What gives your life meaning?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
WHATDIDYOULEARN?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
CHAPTERFOURWORKSHEET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96