Generative Leadership: Questions for Senior Leaders
Recently I was invited to be interviewed on an upcoming radio program about my consulting work. In preparation for my appearance, I was asked to submit questions to be asked. I’m sure that over my professional journey, I have had a similar request. Now the responsibility of selecting questions, for some reason, seems a little overwhelming given the diversity and complexity of my consultant journey. What do I want to be asked? What do I want to share? What value does my experience truly represent?
As I considered this request, what came to mind was several lines from the work of the late Clark Moustakas, most likely to be found somewhere in his book, Loneliness. What I remember is something like:
“We all travel together in a semi-darkness, not truly known to each other until a bolt of lightning appears and, for a moment, we are revealed for who we really are until the semi-darkness re-emerges and we continue on our journey but now to be remembered by that moment of illumination.”
What is truly unique and a little troubling about my situation is that I find myself choosing both the subject and the timing of my revelation. In some ways, I am becoming my own lightning and opening up myself to be “struck” by the questions I select and how I choose to respond.
Today many leaders, like me, who are in the afternoon of their leadership journey find themselves working with a younger emerging leadership generation considering whether or not to pursue becoming a successor should that become a possibility. Such is the case, especially with family businesses faced with how best to pass forward the leadership responsibilities of current leaders who have weathered many storms and invested so much in their respective roles. As I continue to reflect on the related challenges involved in the succession transition process in light of both my consulting and my current assignment, I have gained new clarity on the strategic integration of questions to be asked and knowledge to be passed forward to possible successors.
Since beginning this article, I have received counsel from a younger colleague about organizing my response to the request for questions for the interview. Based on her own experience with this radio show and its time segments, her advice is to divide my responses into four subject area segments representing the four most important aspects of my journey and then identify the four to five most important questions that need to be asked and answered.
I now believe that such a format might be applicable for senior leaders who desire to pass their knowledge forward to possible successors. It also may be a format that younger generational leaders might consider offering to senior leaders as a way of initiating a succession-related conversation.
No matter who initiates them, these conversations most likely honor what often is never recognized while making available for use the knowledge and experience that too often is lost for good during any succession transition.
Questions for consideration by or for a senior leader:
- What are the three to five most important dimensions/areas of my leadership roles and responsibilities?
- What are the questions that need to be asked and ultimately answered to understand the nature of each dimension/area of my leadership roles and responsibilities?
- What are the best ways that this information can be generated, captured, and utilized?
