My friend Bob Tiede loves questions. He’s built a whole leadership ministry around questions. And he actively looks for others who put questions to good use. I’m still trying to learn from Bob and others how to effectively use questions in leadership. I’m more prone to tell others what to do than lead them by asking them key questions.

Recently Bob highlighted questions by Courtney Sargent, a graphics and web designer and successful entrepreneur. He recently put out a whole list of questions that can change your leadership, your ministry, and your life. Here are a few to consider and ponder:

  1. What is it that is keeping you from being great?
  2. What is your purpose and are you fulfilling it?
  3. What are your values?
  4. If you knew you would be successful, what would you do?
  5. What is your “why?”
  6. Who did you make better today?
  7. What would you want people to remember about you?

Those are great questions to spend time with, maybe even write out answers for. And not short essay answers, but long paragraphs, maybe pages. And they are great questions to ask some of the key people on your staff. You may be amazed at the answers, and you may learn things about your team that you did not understand before.

One set of Courtney’s questions caught my special attention:

  • What did I learn today?
  • Who did I help?
  • What made me laugh?

Asked at the end of a day, those questions can help us summarize our day. We all should be learning, leading, and laughing. God reminds us in His Word that “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” And Paul instructed us to “rejoice in the Lord always….” Jesus often used phrases and told parables that should bring a smile to our face, if not outright laughter. The Lord used zingers about people who strain out gnats and swallow camels. He said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Imagine those scenes and try not to smile.

Maybe another question might be, “Who did you make laugh today?”

God’s best…