People at any age or level of seniority can benefit from asking more clarifying questions, but if you’re a senior leader, you really need to start doing it. Research suggests that asking questions and showing curiosity is a powerful leadership tool, one that most leaders tend to ignore, perhaps because it’s not part of their training. Trial lawyers and reporters learn how to pose questions, but young people taking business courses in college or pursuing their MBAs generally don’t. Many people in business think that they and their organizations are more curious than they really are. As one survey found, 83 percent of senior leaders reported believing that their companies foster curiosity, while just over half of employees agreed.
Two professors at Harvard Business School, Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John, have argued forcefully that leaders would benefit from posing more questions. “Questioning is a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations,” they wrote. “It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and performance improvement, it builds rapport and trust among team members. And it can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards.”
The claim that something as simple as asking a question unlocks economic value might seem excessive, but I can tell you firsthand that it does. At one company that I help run, our team established a training program for the young analysts the company hires. One day at the office, I passed by a conference room where a group of four new anaysts were sitting together. Poking my head in, I made a lighthearted remark about their recent arrival at the company and told them how happy I was to see them. I often do this kind of thing with employees, since I know that engaging personally with our team, especially our younger workers, makes a big difference. I was about to continue on my way, but I decided to spend another minute or two with them by asking a clarifying question. “Excuse me,” I said, “I’d love to understand what you’re doing right now.”
The room fell silent. Panic flashed across their faces. Here they were, the newest and most junior members of the team, being questioned by a senior executive. After a long pause, one of them shot me an anxious look and said, “Well, I . . . I was a little concerned that I’m not contributing fast enough, so since we’re the four newest people, I asked if we could all get together and compare notes about what we’ve been learning and how we can help one another.”
Wow! Most analysts simply plod through the program, doing what managers tell them. That’s Ordinary behavior. Not those folks; they weren’t satisfied with how quickly they were contributing, so they took the initiative and collaborated independently to enhance their development. They were behaving in a distinctly Exceptional way, which was awesome. “I love that you are doing this,” I told them. “You all are going to be rock stars.”
At a company offsite the following week, I asked those four to stand up in front of the whole company and announced how proud I was that they were taking the initiative, innovating and accelerating their onboarding pace, and getting up to speed by learning from one another. They were floored. I assure you that they will not soon forget that I noticed them and stopped by the conference room that day, let alone showcased them to the entire company.
In that case, posing a clarifying question turned up a valuable and unforeseen opportunity for me to add value as a leader. I rewarded the four analysts for their proactive behavior, and I held them up as an example for everyone else to follow. If I hadn’t asked the question, I wouldn’t have understood how great those four analysts were. Nothing terrible would have happened. But nothing good would have happened, either. Over time, our bolder, more innovative culture will create more economic value. Because I’d asked a question, I helped reinforce and advance that kind of culture.
I also saved time, albeit in ways that are difficult to quantify. Many organizations dedicate time and resources to building culture, and that’s a good idea. Posing a clarifying question enabled me to do some valuable culture building without having to allot time and resources specifically to that task. I spent a minute chatting with the four analysts and another minute or two recognizing them publicly. The impact of those three minutes on the organization was far greater than if I’d spent a half hour with a PowerPoint deck lecturing people about our desired culture. By posing a clarifying question, I pushed myself further along toward a 25th hour.
There are many kinds of beneficial questions that leaders might ask, but posing a simple, open-ended query such as “I’d love to understand your thoughts” or “I’d love to understand why that matters to you” might be one of the most powerful leadership tactics out there. Reflecting back on my own three decades as a leader, I can’t think of a single instance when asking such questions and possibly some similar follow-up queries wasn’t productive in some way. The vast majority of the time, it helped surface useful knowledge or insights or prompted someone to articulate a truth about themselves or the organization.
Often, asking a clarifying question helps us lead and manage a situation—and save time—because it prompts others around us to offer clues about their intent. It’s one thing to wonder internally about a colleague’s intent; it can be better to prompt them to reveal it to you, particularly when they come to you upset about something. “It feels to me that this could be an emotional situation for you,” you might say, “I would love to know more. Can you please help me understand why this situation is so important to you?”
In responding, they might reveal their intent: “Well, it’s not that important—I just want to vent to you about it.” You now know how you can best help, and you avoid wasting time you might have spent giving advice, say, if all they want is someone to listen.
Regardless of where we are in our careers or lives, posing more clarifying questions makes our daily experience easier. Our egos lead us to feel that we must always talk, direct others, tell them what we think. When someone speaks aggressively to us, we become insulted and feel compelled to respond. That takes effort, energy, and time. We wind up falling into our own patterns, making the situation more difficult than it needs to be. We can accomplish so much when we pause, prompt someone else to speak, and listen to what they’re saying. As anyone who has spent time in organizations knows, this is unusual behavior. But that’s all the more reason why you need to do it.
From THE 25TH HOUR: How to Thrive (And Gain Ridiculous Amounts of Time) by Getting Out of Your Own Way by Neal Schore. Copyright © 2026. Reprinted by permission of Avid Reader Press, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.