Questions Every Leader Should Ask Their Team (And Themselves)
As we wrap up this month’s conversation about launching a movement, Keri Ladouceur, founder of New Ground Network, lays out types of questions that every leader should regularly use to check in on their team and the values that you have determined together for your movement’s mission.
You can listen to this entire conversation with Keri on our podcast, Work, Love, Pray! Listen below or click here to find your preferred listening platform.
What questions should a leader ask their team to make sure things are going well?
Come up with a handful of qualitative questions that you can ask your team at the same time that you’re asking for quantitative metrics. I have a leadership assessment that I like to do with teams that’s more of a cultural assessment, which helps people step back and ask some high level questions like:
- “Is the mission or purpose of what we’re doing clear?”
- “Can I tell how my contribution to this team or this organization actually leads to that mission being fulfilled?”
- “Am I running at a pace that’s sustainable, or are we as a team running at a pace that’s sustainable?”
After asking those questions, it becomes really easy to figure out which questions leaders should be asking regularly to determine if they’re living into those values.
I think of a church team that I coach in Michigan. One of their values is that they want to be innovative, so I will sometimes ask them, “Are we failing enough? Because if we’re not failing, that tells me we’re not really trying to be innovative.” That’s one way to check in on your values progress as a team. If your values are more health-focused, check to see if people are using vacation time. Are you providing resources to your team to grow in their health? Are there mental health resources available to them?
When a team does work to define what their values are, it is beneficial to the entire organization to ask those “check up” questions regularly and consistently. If you find that you are indeed living into the values you’ve defined, how are you celebrating that with you team? And if you’re not following your values, how are you course-correcting, or were you just “off” about your values and you need to redefine them?
One of the greatest points of coaching I got from a mentor almost 20 years ago was to understand the lights on my own dashboard. I have questions that I ask myself to check in with myself, like, “When is the last time that I laughed? When is the last time that I experienced joy? What is the last thing that I baked? Am I working out regularly?”
So as leaders, come up with questions that will help you understand the indicator lights on the dashboard, both for you and those that you lead. When you launch a movement, if you want to continue on the path that you have envisioned for it, focus more on your values than your goals.
What is one thought or piece of advice that you want our listeners to remember most?
You have wise, grounded, spirit-led profound intuition within you, and that wisdom wants to be unlocked and unleashed. You have God-given gifts that He wants to activate for whatever movement He’s calling you to steward. Don’t second-guess that! Give yourself all the permission in the world to be open to unleashing whatever vision God has put inside your heart. I don’t think God stirs those visions and passions if it’s not something the world desperately needs—something you are uniquely positioned to bring into this world. I believe in you and I hope that you’re able to connect with that deep, deep belief that the spirit of God has for you, and I can’t wait to see what comes from it.
Keri Ladouceur is a pastor, teacher, incessantly curious question asker, and bridge building peacemaker. She believes the fullness of the gospel is liberative good news for all of creation and longs to cultivate new faith spaces of mutuality and flourishing for all people.
She is founder of New Ground Network, where she co-conspires with pastors, denominations, and organizational leaders to clarify and align around their purpose. One of her favorites roles is organizational coach where she is part dreamer, instigator, activator and team counselor. She has an MA in New Testament from Northern Seminary, and her imagination for the Beloved Community has been primarily shaped by her native heritage and liberation thinkers and theologians.
She dreams of the Church being a life-giving community of flourishing that activates the people of God to join Christ in the redemption and restoration of all things.