Leadership Happens One Conversation at a Time

Amy Hutchens, Founder and Intelligence Activist, amyk, inc., got me to think at 4:15 p.m. in the afternoon at a breakout session at the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) conference in Dallas. Me and many others and that is not easy to do late afternoon.

She repeated this throughout:

"Leadership happens one conversation at a time and you are responsible for the quality of that conversation."

Basically, leaders need to ask better questions. Most questions (92%) that leaders ask are low level questions. Like bring me up to date. Give me a status report. Hutchens contends that there is little critical thinking. She suggested some questions, all of which have ten more questions that need probing. Consider these critical questions for leaders:

• How do you define a company's culture?


• How do you judge great leadership?


• How do you judge a great client relationship?


• How do you define great performance?

She suggested that leaders develop meeting agendas based on questions. Be sly. Distribute them on a Friday for a Monday meeting. People WILL ponder them over the weekend. They then come to the meeting ready to play, ready to think.

Critical questions have a place in the hiring process too. Interviewing is about discovery. Can candidates talk about their passion and purpose? How do they think? How do they express themselves? That is the essence of a good hire. We all know we can screen for competence and even hard wire courtesy. This goes deeper.

A leaders job is to make employees feel and be part of the solution. It's not about what is wrong in the organization but how can we make it better. Making it better requires innovation and she spoke about this as well.

The essence - creativity is an internal idea. Innovation is the ability to actually bring the idea to market. Critical questions become:

• How might we create a culture that generates more than our fair share of smart ideas?


• How might we create systems that encourage collaboration for more innovative behaviors?


• How will we decide which ideas are the right ideas in which to invest and bring to market?


• How will we move ideas through our organization that are not only creative but fast to market?

Google does it with 20% time.

The biggest buzz I heard at ALFA was about how the industry was going to have to evolve. Cultures must change and that involves leadership.

Ask better questions.

Learn more ~ or join the conversation!

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@Amy Hutchens