Unleashing a Great Power !

So what is this great power? A few clues… we are born with it! it separates us from other animals and you need it to be a great leader. Yet it seems to be something greatly underutilised and absolutely crucial to our industries greater competitiveness.

It is the power to question. We are indeed born with it and comes naturally to children. In fact, research shows curious children ask as many as 73 questions a day! Which is exhausting for their parents and thankfully for them this tends to peak at age 4. I asked my 10 year old daughter whether she asks questions in class and was told no it is the teacher who asks the questions that they have to answer. Wondering what happened there? have kids by age 10 lost the power to question ? Are we are encouraging our kids to question?

It is a very important power and the mark of a great leader. In fact, to be a great leader you need to ask questions. The linked article has a great info graphic courtesy of the ANZ Bank and as the article suggests, a good leader doesn’t have all the answers, are humble enough to admit they don’t know what the answer is. They instead engage their team with questions so they can work together to find solutions for the betterment of the whole organisation.

Solving problems is the absolute key to our industries greater competitiveness. A simple, effective and engaging problem-solving methodology is the 5 whys developed by Sakuchi Toyoda in the 1930s. It is extremely effective as fundamental to it is asking the question why? I learnt the other week from our Founder Bill Holmes, who developed the RCA Rt process to support industry to solve problems, that the biggest problem in solving problems is bias. Bias where we believe we already know what the solution is even before we try and solve a problem. However, I also learnt that the best way to combat bias is to question! It eliminates this bias to make us truly question and actually solve the problem.

But what if you are still left with a problem you are struggling to solve? For that, SIRF also has a very powerful tool in our midst called Ask Rt. SIRF for more than 2 decades has been helping industry share knowledge and expertise to learn off each other and drive greater competitiveness and Ask Rt as an important component takes this to another level. It puts the power in your hands to ask a question that can be posed to industry around Australia and New Zealand and have answers back within minutes. I am always humbled by the response and absolute generosity of people to want to help their fellow colleagues in finding answers to their questions.

So, I encourage you to use the great power within… unleash it! Be a great leader and ask questions to engage your team to solve problems to the benefit of your organisation and drive the greater competitiveness of industry you are in.

Ask…