Nine Questions You Need To Ask Yourself - Leadership Minute

Questions all leaders should themselves daily, weekly or yearly

There’s a reason the Socratic Method has endured for thousands of years: questions spark the most valuable thinking and outcomes in life.

Leaders rely on questions to understand what’s going on in their teams and what problems they need to solve. They use questions to pressure test organizational strategy and to connect with their teams on a personal level.

However, the most valuable questions for a leader are often the ones they ask themselves.

Questioning yourself unearths the truth you might be hiding from in your personal or professional. Questioning is also an accountability mechanism that shapes your actions and keeps you on the right course in life.

Below are a few questions every leader should regularly ask themselves on a daily, weekly or yearly basis. It’s often easiest to answer them as part of a journaling habit, so that you can write your answers down and revisit them the next day, month or year.

Daily (Especially as part of a morning routine)

What are the three most important things I have to do today? This draws from the Commit To Three strategy I’ve written about before. Identify what you absolutely have to do to be successful each day, and those gains will compound immensely over time.

How will I show up today? This is a good way to check your attitude and behavior. Sometimes, you’ll wake up irritable and ready to lash out at the first person who crosses you. By asking yourself this question, you’re reclaiming your agency over the day and forcing yourself to make a conscious choice: are you going to let your attitude drag you down, or are you going to push it aside and be the best for the people who are counting on you? Once you force that choice, the right answer is obvious.