Every leader, no matter who they are or whom they lead must ask themselves five questions beginning with the word way in order to gain good judgment. You may not feel like a leader but you are. Everyone has influence at some level. You may lead only a small group or are respected within a small group of people but nevertheless, you are a leader. You make decisions each and every day.
That’s why I am sharing this article today in hopes that every person giving some level of leader ship will consider reading and making application to this article. This approach is not new as you will see by this link but it is important nonetheless. Check out further information here.
Take for example a leader who is having to decide whether to bring their people back to the office or the assembly line. Perhaps it’s church leaders who are having to ask the questions necessary to re-assimilate their people into a public gathering for Sunday worship. Maybe it’s a parent who is trying to quickly decide when it’s appropriate for their teenager to leave the house during the days of this pandemic.
Leaders that can think clearly and quickly assess every situation can provide sound judgment and appropriate decision making qualities. Most leaders I believe are criticized not for their decision but often because of their indecision. People may want to be armchair quarterbacks, criticizing the decisions after they have been made but most criticisms that linger are those that are about leaders that waiver and their decision-making.
Leadership is about influence and the capacity to make decisions. A good leader must ask good questions. I believe these questions begin with the word why. More and more are convinced that it’s the 5-why’s that we normally suspect but it is our ability to push through, with discipline hey series of questions related to each step along the way. Check out this video for clarity.
It is easy to ask the typical questions of, who, what, where, when but it is more difficult to ask the question why. I also want to suppose that it is the discipline of asking why that makes the biggest impact in healthy judgment.
Depending on your leadership style, you may be autocratic or democratic in style, but, every good leader should be surrounded by good input and honest feedback. The Bible says that wisdom is generally accompanied by others.
A great article from Bible Money Matters quotes:
Proverbs 15:22 - Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 19:2 - Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps errs. Proverbs 12:15 - The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
These five questions that you ask yourself begin with why. Each step in the process must be questioned. as you dive deeper into your objective or project, asking why is it significant part of the process. Asking these five questions encourage us to get to the root of solving the problem and then clearly articulating the objective.
Let me explain. Perhaps there is an objective that somebody raises about a process. Each time that you state an objective that delves deeper into the final goal, ask yourself why is this important or why are we taking this step? If you delve into the objective of project at the fifth level, this is when you get to the core of the motivation and clear objective.
We see that during the days of the pandemic that there are certain questions raised about when and how groups should gather during this pandemic. Churches are meeting the subjective in very different ways based on their local circumstances but as committees begin to dialogue about the objectives, it is important that each step is questioned beginning with the word why. It may sound annoying but as you answer why with each step you ultimately will be able to find objective reason and clear motive for the outcome.
Another way to look at it is that as you are trying to decide on a particular step, ask yourself why is this important? You may also ask the question of why are we taking this step? Each question that meets with the objective helps you to bring clarity to your purpose and evaluate the objective against your mission.
Here are a few relevant questions beginning with why:
Why is this important?
Why do we need to have this approach?
Why do we feel that this is a good or bad decision?
Why do we not have everyone’s consent to move forward?
Why do we need to take this action at this time?
There are many more questions to begin with why in my encouragement is for you to delve into each level to at least ask yourself five relevant questions that begin with why at each step.
