Leaders, empower others by asking questions
Do you want to empower others? Do
you want to empower others to focus, solve
problems, and achieve their goals? If
so, provoke them. Provoke them to reflect.
Reflection is powerful. Personally speaking, reflection helps me clarify my ministry goals, increase awareness of my progress, identify things that are hindering my progress, and develop action steps. In short, reflection helps me do ministry.
I’ve seen reflection help fellow staff members at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ). After reflecting, staff members were more focused on their goals, managed their time better, and led meetings more effectively.
But don’t take my word for it. I asked CAJ staff members to tell me how reflection empowers them. Here’s what they said: “Reflection helps me get clear on what’s going on so I can make effective decisions.” “Reflection helps me organize my tasks and next actions.” “Reflection helps me handle situations more effectively.”
So, how can you provoke reflection? By asking open-ended questions:
*Want to empower others to ask questions? Then ask them questions like:
Reflection is powerful. Personally speaking, reflection helps me clarify my ministry goals, increase awareness of my progress, identify things that are hindering my progress, and develop action steps. In short, reflection helps me do ministry.
I’ve seen reflection help fellow staff members at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ). After reflecting, staff members were more focused on their goals, managed their time better, and led meetings more effectively.
But don’t take my word for it. I asked CAJ staff members to tell me how reflection empowers them. Here’s what they said: “Reflection helps me get clear on what’s going on so I can make effective decisions.” “Reflection helps me organize my tasks and next actions.” “Reflection helps me handle situations more effectively.”
So, how can you provoke reflection? By asking open-ended questions:
- If your co-worker wants to more effectively disciple others, ask: How do you disciple people now? What’s causing you to want to improve? What’s “more effective discipleship” look like? What can you do?
- If your team is planning an event, ask: What do we want to see happen? What will help this go well? Who’s going to do what?
- If a pastor is dealing with conflict, ask: What happened? How do you feel? How does the other person see the situation? How can you demonstrate Christ’s love?
- If a small group leader wants to help her members to be more engaged, ask: If your members got more engaged, what might happen? What helps your members get engaged? When are your participants not engaged? What can you do?
*Want to empower others to ask questions? Then ask them questions like:
- What problems are those around you facing?
- What goals are they trying to achieve?
- What excites/concerns you about empowering others by asking questions?
- To what extent do you ask questions to help others focus? Prioritize? Solve problems?
- How could you more effectively use questions to empower others?
- What will you do?
