HBR On Leadership
The Best Leaders Ask the Right Questions
May 14, 2025
Arnaud Chevallier, a strategy professor at IMD Business School and co-author of "The Art of Asking Smarter Questions," shares his insights on how leaders can enhance their questioning skills. He discusses five crucial types of questions—investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective—that can dramatically improve decision-making. Real-life examples illustrate how the right question at the right moment can unlock value. Chevallier emphasizes the importance of active listening and emotional understanding in leadership for fostering team dynamics and strategic success.
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Quick takeaways
- Effective leadership requires the ability to ask diverse types of questions, including investigative and subjective, to enhance decision-making.
- Leaders can improve their questioning skills by recognizing their strengths and weaknesses and engaging team members with complementary questioning styles.
Deep dives
The Importance of Asking Questions
Asking questions is a crucial skill for effective leadership, yet many leaders struggle with it, often leading to blind spots in decision-making. Unlike professionals such as lawyers or psychologists who receive formal training in questioning, managers typically learn on the job, which can limit their questioning repertoire. Various factors, including time pressure, can hinder their ability to explore all aspects of a problem. This struggle underscores the need for leaders to understand different types of questions to uncover the necessary insights for better decision-making.
