What I Write About

I write about the infinite number of intersections between every day life and the good news of the God who has come to get us.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Polling the Audience: What Questions Have Changed Your Life?

So I've been thinking a lot about good questions this summer. I'm thinking particularly about what it means to lead by asking good questions. How do I make question-asking my default mode of leading rather than the grand pronouncements and overflowing words of golden wisdom that come much more naturally and seem (to me anyway) to ring with echoes of perfectly enchanted wisdom?

One way for me to grow into this: poll the audience.

Last week I was meeting with an occasional mentor of mine and I asked him what I'll ask you, oh wonderful reader: what is a question that has stuck with you or most obviously changed the trajectory in your life?

The man I was meeting with last week gave me this answer that he had read several years ago: "What do people experience in your presence?"

He unfolded the many ways the Lord had used this question in his life. This man works out of his home. His wife cares for one of their grandkids several days a week. What does his three-year-old granddaughter experience in his presence as he passes through to make a sandwich during his lunch break? A distracted granddad? Or one who is present to her and engaging with her.

What do his co-workers experience in his presence? What about those who work for him? What about those he works for? This question had re-framed the world for him in ways that un-selfed him and freed him to be attentive to the needs of others.

What do people experience in your presence? A great question that's re-shaped this man's life as he makes decisions that literally impact thousands of people.

This is always risky in blogger-world (and I suspect I'll get much more response over on Facebook, where I tend to get most of my snarky and serious comments), but I'll put it out there anyway: what about you? What questions have stuck with you or have changed your trajectory subtle or not-so-subtle ways?

Perhaps you need to sit on this and come back to me. That's fine. But if you've got a good question, I'd love to hear it.

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