"What would Max ask?"
Column 6 on Max De Pree's Leadership Jazz
January
What would Max ask?
In the chapter, “What Would Bucky Say?” Leadership Jazz touches on the essence of Max De Pree: questions. For Max, leadership is more about asking the right questions than having the right answers. Over the past twenty years I have gone often to Max seeking answers to the problems of life and leadership. Inevitably he turns my search back to me asking the questions that lead me to discover my own answers. Because Max De Pree believes deeply that: “The quality of our work as leaders and the quality of our lives depends significantly on the questions we ask and the people about whom we ask the questions.” (117)
It is a new year. In Pasadena, California where I write this column, the new year starts with a world-class parade. The 2006 Tournament of Roses theme, “It’s Magical” invites participants and spectators to reflect on what is magical as we open a new calendar for the year. Traditionally the transition from year to year is celebrated in some form, often with nostalgic reflection on time that has passed and new resolutions for the journey ahead. Reading Leadership Jazz again suggests to me that Max might not enter a new year with a set of resolutions. Most likely he would write down a list of questions to ponder as the days unfold. So perhaps an appropriate approach for this article at the beginning of a new year is the question: What would Max ask?
The following questions emerge from the book and from years of conversations with Max about life and leadership, success and failure, performance and potential. As you consider these questions what else comes to mind? If he sat down with you this month, what would Max ask?
When did I last call someone to say thank you?
How often do I say, “I don’t know”?
Who matters?
What matters?
Am I hiring people better than me?
Am I making it possible for the organization to succeed after I leave?
What do we measure?
What does this suggest are our driving forces?
How does this align with our stated mission?
Are we measuring strategies or results?
What measurement has meaning to me?
How do we measure employee fulfillment?
What do performance reviews teach?
What do employees learn?
What does the organization learn?
What do we celebrate?
Am I willing to let others see how I wish to be measured?
What really is important here?
What do I learn by watching people at work?
What is the connection between voice and touch?
What can get someone fired?
What do you need to do to thrive here?
How do we measure leadership?
Who identifies leaders?
Where do we look for leaders?
Do we grow our own?
Do we grow leaders for someone else?
How do we select leaders?
Do we want someone who knows how to do the job?
Do we want someone who can learn how to do the job?
How risky is learning?
How do we manage expectations?
How do we guarantee someone’s success?
What happens when the leader fails?
Who stands with the leader?
Whose fault is it if the leader fails?
How risky is failure?
What is the relationship between learning and failure?
How do we measure leadership potential in the people we lead?
Who are their mentors?
What values do their past behaviors suggest they hold?
What is their emotional competency?
What is their philosophy of management?
Have they reflected on the values behind their intended leadership?
Have they reflected on the values being taught by their actions?
Do they know the difference?
How do we measure integrity of character?
How diverse is their following?
Do they influence only people like themselves?
Who are they mentoring?
How much interest do they show in growing other leaders?
How good are their questions?
Are they still learning?
What did they do on their last vacation?
How do they balance work, play, family, relationships and renewal?
How do we hold leaders responsible and assess contribution?
How healthy is our organization?
Who are the organizational mentors?
How is the history and culture passed on?
Who makes the introductions? To whom?
How are decisions made?
Who owns the organization’s outcomes?
How does the organization communicate?
What is taught by leadership transitions?
Peter Block is another writer who underlines the importance of questions. He believes that “transformation comes more from pursuing profound questions than seeking practical answers.” (The Answer to How? Is Yes!, Berrett-Koehler, 2002). He adds several questions to our list for the year:
What refusal have I been postponing?
What commitment am I willing to make?
What is the price I am willing to pay?
What is my contribution to the problem I am concerned with?
What is the crossroad at which I find myself at this point in my life/work?
What do we want to create together?
And Block’s bonus question: What is the question that, if I had the answer, would set me free?
Two of my favorite questions in Leadership Jazz are the ones posed by Charles Eames when considering towns in which Herman Miller might build their manufacturing plants: “What is the quality of their bread?” and “What is the quality of their parades?” – questions that move beyond leadership to the character of community life – the venue of municipal leadership. I told you about the parade with which Pasadena starts its new year. I could also tell you some wonderful places to find great bread.
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