A Question Mark

My friend Bob Tiede’s whole life is a question mark. And his ministry is rather “question-able.” Really. Thankfully, I’m not talking about his character or his decision-making process. It has nothing to do with his choices in life. But it does have to do with Bob’s ministry.

Bob Tiede has an organization called Leading with Questions and he encourages the rest of us to take a question mark along with us in our daily lives and in our leadership. It is Bob’s premise that asking questions…good questions…builds others up and multiplies the impact of ministry. Tiede sees this as a mark of a good leader. He is not alone.

Peter Drucker wrote, “The leader of the past may have been a person who knew how to tell, but certainly the leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.”

Bob’s new book is Now That’s a Great Question. (More on that later.) It is filled with great questions to use in many areas of our leadership and life. One area that caught my eye that can help all of us as we lead others was under the heading, “Three Simple Questions to Sharpen Your Goal-Setting Skills.” In order to get from X to Y, you need to ask some questions. Here they are.

• Where are you now? (X) What is your current reality?
• Where do you want to go? (Y) What will be your finish line?
• By when? When is the exact date you want to cross the finish line?

Tiede uses as an example U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s public pronouncement on sending a man to the moon. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress, and among other things, made this challenge:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

Bob Tiede points out that Kennedy’s speech in one sentence answered all three of these goal-setting questions.

1. Where are you now? On earth.
2. Where do you want to go? What will be the finish line? Send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth.
3. By when? Before the end of the decade…December 31, 1969.

How did the U.S. respond? On July 20, 1969…five months before the end of the decade, Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon, saying, “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”

Clear goal and timetable. Challenge met. Mission accomplished!

What questions do you have for your team? What challenge will you set before them? It could result in something historic for the Kingdom of God. May the Lord lead you in the process, that His will might be accomplished through you.

Now…some exciting news!

My friend Bob Tiede is making his book, Now That’s a Great Question, available to you for FREE. You can download an eBook version of this outstanding and helpful work by clicking HERE.

LeadingWithQuestions.com/resources

My thanks to Bob for making this valuable resource available to you.