Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes
Author Gary B. Cohen came across Reflection Leadership several weeks after I launched the blog. He asked me if he sent me his book, would I be interested in reading it and sharing my thoughts. I agreed and have decided to devote this week’s articles to his book and how it intersects with Reflection Leadership.
Gary’s book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions comes from his own experience as well as interviewing effective leaders from the varying areas of Fortune 500 companies, small business, military, religious organizations and nonprofit organizations.
The common theme that all of these leaders shared, which matched his own experience is that effective leading is more about leaders asking the right questions instead of using a more direct command and control style.
Organization of the Book
After an Introduction that explains where Gary is coming from, both with his own history and his understanding of why Just Ask Leadership is important, the book is organized into five chapters covering the five main areas that he suggests are the most important things that leaders need to pay attention to: Improve Vision, Ensure Accountability, Build Unity and Cooperation, Create Better Decisions, and Motivate to Action.
Each chapter has a short, one paragraph explanation of the area being covered, a list of between 12 and 25 questions, and a detailed explanation of what each question means and why it is important for leaders to ask it.
The Improve Vision chapter has questions that allow leaders to look at both their own values and those of the organization, as well as how those values intersect. There are also questions about the vision and culture of the organization.
The Ensure Accountability chapter has questions that try to help leaders distinguish between ensuring accountability by looking at procedures in place and ensuring accountability by focusing on the work ethic of coworkers.
The Build Unity chapter has questions that leaders can use to develop better and more meaningful interactions with coworkers.
The Create Better Decisions chapter is broken into three parts: Context, Clarity and Objectivity. The questions in this chapter revolve around how decisions are made in the organization and how to have better decision-making happening at all levels.
The Motivate to Action chapter has questions that help leaders move the organization forward through motivating coworkers to move forward.
The questions in each chapter are mixed between those questions leaders need to ask themselves and those questions that leaders need to ask their coworkers. In some cases the questions are for leaders about the questions they need to ask coworkers.
My Thoughts About the Book
The organization of the book makes it easy to read in short bursts. Each chapter has questions and each question has a page or two of explanation. You are able to jump through the book just looking for the questions you want to focus on or you can start at the beginning and read through to the end.
However, the questions don’t seem to follow any particular order, or better said I couldn’t figure out any discernible pattern to the order the questions were in, but this only adds to the value of being able to jump around the book looking for the questions you want.
In some cases I think there were too many questions, perhaps some that were being forced into a topic. I would have liked to have maybe seen fewer questions and more written about each question.
I did have some trouble reading this book but not because of the material or the book itself, rather because my own world view of organizations and leadership seems to be different from Gary’s.
There were some questions, that when I read the question based on my view of things, I expected him to talk about one thing and he went in a totally different direction. So, to me the trouble I had reading the book was a good thing because it allowed me to broaden my view and think about things differently or that I rarely think about.
In my opinion, Just Ask Leadership is a great start for those that are either new to a leadership position or those who are stuck in a command and control mindset that know they need to change their style to be effective.
The organization of the book allows the reader to page through and quickly find the kinds of questions that need to be asked based on the leaders own situation.
Leader’s Reflection: Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions is by no means the be all and end all book on leadership, but it does a great job of introducing leaders and would be leaders to the idea that asking questions is a valuable leadership skill and asking the right questions is what makes for effective leadership.
Gary B. Cohen cofounded ACI Telecentrics, Inc. and help grow the company from 2 employees to 2,200 by changing the way they looked at the call center business. As a result of these efforts, ACI grew at an average compounded rate of over 50 percent for almost 13 years and at it’s peak reached $32 million dollars in revenue. Currently, Gary is a consultant and executive coach at CO2 Partners, LLC a firm he founded and is a partner in Minneapolis, MN. You can learn more at www.justaskleadership.com
Good post. Reminds me of the Tony Robbins quote: “If you want a better answer, ask a better question.”
Tom, thanks for the review. I’ve been wondering about this book, and you answered many questions.
I’m not sure if it’s the kind of clients I attract, or if there is a preponderance of “command and control”, directive management styles out there – at all levels. However, in almost every client case, we work on learning to soften their style – using listening and questions. We often have very pointed feedback from others that this is what is missing for them, or there is evidence in some way that these skills will help them to be more effective.
And amazingly, I find these skills are needed at all levels (even more, sometimes, in the C-suite. For some reason, once a person is promoted to that level, they get the notion that they have all the answers and knowledge and are obliged to let everyone else know this!).
Perhaps this book will assist in “spreading the word”. I am concerned about a mass exodus of baby-boomer leaders whose mantle will be taken up – using the same style – by the next generation. This might be a good book for ANYONE in leadership to read. We can all get better at listening and inquiry.
Thanks again.
I talk with one of my co-workers often about this and we tend to wonder if it has to do with folks acting defensively and trying to protect themselves from others thinking that they don’t know what they are doing; that they don’t have all the answers. We’ve seen folks that when they feel the most vulnerable to looking bad, they go on the attack and start commanding things be done just because they say so. Their thinking seems to be that this bit of “misdirection” can prevent others from finding out that they don’t know it all and are therefore a fraud. Certainly not rational thinking, but there you go.
Tom, Mary Jo, and Tom,
Appreciate your comments and could not agree more with them. Some explanation around the format of the book. Originally when writing the book we did not begin with the questions as the titles for each entry. It just seemed to emphasize the importance questions have in our life. The unintended consequence is the interpretation is that the book is seen much more as a list of questions with explanation. What really interests me about this is that we had this book reviewed by over 400 leaders and academics by conducting focus groups, online surveys, and a grading process on each chapter and never in the closed review process did this ever come out. Additionally the organization that we wanted to organize the book under was based on our PEAK Model that came from this research. Our concern is that adult learns need associative links to connect with the material. We thought that this was not a conducive learning model to follow in the book. So we went with much more traditional leadership chapter headings that are much more traditional.
I once study with Bob Boylan who wrote the book “What’s Your Point?” We hired him as a speech coach for my business partner and myself. He drilled into us the importance in a speech to have one singular point of view. I really was trying to practice this within the book. The point that I would like like made is “Just Ask” it builds alignment, engagement, and accountability.
I would agree with Mary Jo – it is all about spreading the word that there is a different way of leading. In many ways an easier way to lead and on the other ways more difficult for many because it requires trusting others, and being willing to admit you don’t have all the answers.