A number of years ago, I was getting my car repaired. As I stood at the counter to pay my bill, I noticed a large picture of a gorilla on the wall behind the counter.  He was all dressed up in a suit, sitting on a street curb with his huge head in his hands with a look of discouragement on his face.

The caption under the attention-getting picture read, “Just when I thought I had all of life’s answers, someone went and changed all the questions.”

I have felt that way numerous times in my life and ministry. Perhaps you have as well. We spend large chunks of time trying to find answers to life’s perplexing and troubling questions and the questions seem to change so that the answers we thought we had don’t work anymore; or we are answering questions that nobody is asking and are, for all practical purposes, out of touch and irrelevant regarding what is really going on.

An excellent leader is not only good at delivering excellent ideas, vision, content, etc., but is also good at asking the right question(s), in the right way, at the right time, of the right people.

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I am happy to announce a new feature at “Leadership From The Heart:”   

—>Q&A  

You will find this tab at the top of the home page.

We are now open and ready for business.  You may go there at any time and pose a question that we can all respond to and get an excellent dialogue going.

Sometimes the best learning takes place as we ask questions of people–not just pontificate. Learning how to formulate questions to encourage thinking and learning is an art that is worth acquiring.

There is a book under “Book Notes” on the blog site entitled, “Leading Through Questions” which is the best book I have ever read on the art of question asking.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you use the new Q&A feature:

  1. Please limit your questions to leadership-related issues.  I want to stay true to the purpose of the blog site and not be all over the map
  2. Please don’t use the Q&A to vent your political views or to push your pet project. Simply ask a leadership-related question you are wrestling with
  3. Please enter one simple and easy to understand question, not multiple questions
  4. Please don’t use language and content that would be offensive or worthy of censor
  5. I have the right to remove a question if I feel it is inappropriate or risqué in any way.

+ I am looking forward to a good dialogue on questions you have on your mind that you may have wanted to ask for a long time!