Leadership is the art of mobilizing people to achieve a common goal and comes in many forms.  Sometimes with authority, sometimes with ability to articulate a vision, and sometimes with the ability to ask the right question.

I began to develop my own leadership style after learning a taxonomy of question types:

• Open: These questions take more than a “yes” or “no” to answer.  They invite open ended answers.
• Closed:  These questions drive to a “yes/no”.
• Clean:  these are questions that the asker genuinely doesn’t know the answer to.
• Dirty:  these are questions that are designed to herd someone towards a particular position.

Examples

There are times when it is good and appropriate to use Closed/Dirty questions.  A lawyer in a courtroom would rarely ask an open/clean question.  They will need to herd the witness to agree to a particular statement using closed/dirty questions.

Frequently in driving a meeting, if we are in the opening / divergent portion, open and clean questions are the way to go.  And, when the time comes to begin to test for consensus and finally close out the time it is important to switch to closed question style.  (Ever been in a meeting that just wouldn’t end even thought every one had agreed?)

Pay attention for a couple of meetings to the types of questions yourself and others use and explore how you might ask the same questions in a different way.

So, what do you think, how does knowing more about question craft help you create opportunities to be a better leader?