4 Ways School Leaders Can Ask Better Questions of Their Staff

In a coaching culture, no single leader or person has all the best answers and solutions. Rather, the most effective leaders in a coaching culture are those who ask thought-provoking questions to elicit the best thinking of others. Leaders who embody this coaching stance model transparency and public learning by asking open-ended questions with genuine curiosity. Leaders then explore the answers to those questions collaboratively with those they lead to determine innovative solutions.

Underlying this capacity to put the development of people at the center is a growth mindset and a coaching mindset. The coaching mindset, like the growth mindset, is about being curious rather than judgmental and focused on learning rather than demonstrating expertise. Coaching leaders believe that others are resourceful and have valuable ideas and perspectives. They ask powerful questions that prompt deep thinking and engage in active listening to hear what a person is saying (or not saying) rather than listening for right or wrong answers. By adopting a coaching stance of genuine curiosity and purposeful inquiry, asking questions designed to spur thinking, and actively listening, leaders keep growth in the foreground.

Leading with questions rather than telling others what to do creates a coaching culture that recognizes and values many voices and is one where people engage in ongoing continuous learning and work together with a deep commitment toward a shared vision rather than surface-level compliance to directives.

Telling is deeply ingrained in our mental models of leadership and having all the answers is the expectation for leaders. To stop directing and telling, leaders should begin practicing the foundational coaching practices of asking and listening.

The more leaders use questions to build capacity, the more others begin to trust them and believe that leaders want to distribute leadership, that leaders request and value their input, and that leaders believe in team members’ capacity to lead and learn.

Asking the Right Questions

While there is power in asking questions to build capacity, we know that asking the right questions matters. Michael Marquardt (2014), author of Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask, reminds us how important it is to ask the right questions and warns that asking the wrong or inappropriate question has huge consequences and can result in creating a culture of defensiveness, disempowerment, and distrust.

Timing—knowing when to ask the right question—also makes a difference. Daniel Pink (2018) cautions leaders to be careful not to ask a question too soon—before a person can hear it or when a person can’t hear it. It is likely that as leaders you have experienced asking a question that initially goes unanswered only to have the same question resurface at a more optimal time when the listener is able and ready to hear it and respond. Leading with questions successfully requires leaders to ask the right questions based on what they hope to accomplish at a time when it will generate the most reflection and learning (Marquardt, 2014).

How, then, might leaders ensure that they ask the right questions at the right time? It seems reasonable that determining what you hope to accomplish, or the purpose for the question, is an important consideration. Are you trying to build trust, focus attention on what you value, demonstrate concern, or boost responsibility? Leaders ask questions based on multiple purposes ranging from managing people, building teams, and shaping strategy, to generating new ideas and solving problems. Let’s examine four broad purposes for education leaders to ask questions to build leadership capacity.

1. Asking questions to learn
2. Asking questions to focus on what matters
3. Asking questions to empower
4. Asking questions to build personal accountability for actions

Asking Questions to Learn

When asking questions to learn, leaders often begin with open-ended questions that prompt others to reflect and elaborate on who they are and what they value. Additional questions might be more closely tied to the specifics of what the leader wants to learn.

For example, a principal supervisor might ask school leaders, “What personal or professional values are most important for you to keep in mind as you make this decision?” This question would provide insight into who these principals are as leaders and help the principal supervisor assess the leader’s level of commitment to the challenge or topic at hand.

A principal or superintendent might ask a member of their school or district leadership team, “Who are emerging leaders I need to be aware of?” Asking this question allows school or district leaders to learn about potential leaders in whom they might want to invest time and resources to build the leadership pipeline.

In some instances, it might be beneficial to test the question with a trusted colleague. You might need to follow up your initial question with additional probing questions. Asking questions using words such as describe, explain, say more, clarify, elaborate, and expand will allow you to get into more depth or breadth on a topic (Marquardt, 2014). For example, if the response to the question about values is, “I value innovation,” the principal supervisor might ask, “When you say innovation, what do you mean? Can you describe or explain it?” When given names of emerging leaders, the superintendent or principal might follow up with, “Can you say more about the qualities you are seeing that cause you to identify this person as a leader?”

Asking Questions to Focus on What Matters

Education leaders ask questions to create parameters, focus attention on what is important, and show what they value. For example, when principal supervisors ask principals, “What leadership actions are you taking to improve the quality of teaching and learning in your classrooms?” they are signaling that instructional leadership is important. Similarly, a principal asking a teacher, “What changes have you made to your instructional practice based on the instructional coaching you received?” shows that there is an expectation that instructional coaching should lead to changes in teacher practice.

The “mere measurement effect” suggests that leaders can provide a roadmap for desirable behaviors and practices by simply asking a question (Morwitz et al., 1993). One superintendent that we worked with would ask members of his leadership team, “Who are the three individuals with whom you have built relationships in the last three months?” followed by probing questions such as, “Why did you select them?” and “How did they help you accomplish your goals?” The initial question and the probing questions signaled to the team that working with others was an expectation and that the individuals they chose to work with should assist them in accomplishing their goals. By asking questions, the leader was able to share what was expected and important without directing and telling and staff were able to think, reflect, share their voices, and own their actions.

Asking Questions to Empower

Asking empowering questions provides the opportunity for others to exercise agency and voice, promotes ownership, and evokes responsibility. Empowering questions often begin with what or how and invite people to ponder, wonder, imagine, and discover (Lasley, Kellogg, Michaels, & Brown, 2015). For example, “How are you feeling about the progress you have made so far?,” “What would represent success for you?,” “What is your hope?,” and “How would you describe the current reality?” are questions that leaders can use to empower others. Questions to empower are often about developing the person rather than just directing them to solve a problem.

Leaders who lead with questions must also be cognizant of questions that disempower. According to Marquardt (2014), asking questions about why someone did not or cannot succeed or what’s wrong can drain energy, threaten self-esteem, and often result in people seeing themselves as part of the problem rather than the source of solutions. These questions often ask why or why not. For example, a question like “Why are you spending time coaching and giving feedback to high performers?” implies judgment and is disempowering. Similarly, “Why haven’t you been able to make a bigger impact on the principals you’ve been coaching?” focuses energy on the person as the problem rather than inviting holistic solutions. Asking questions that enable leaders to reflect, analyze different perspectives, plan, and act builds their capacity and empowers them to solve their own problems.

Asking Questions to Build Personal Accountability for Actions

Lastly, we emphasize the importance of asking questions to build personal accountability. In conversations with school and district leaders about how leading with questions helps to build personal accountability, they’ve shared that asking questions rather than telling others what to do shifts the accountability from them to others and promotes personal accountability for one’s actions. When people can share their expertise and perspectives and make decisions, they are more inclined to own their actions. Over time, this ownership strengthens their ability to problem solve and engage in critical thinking.

William Hite, former superintendent of the Philadelphia School District, shared that he asks team members, “How have you made others smarter about the work and why?” Without directing, this question signals to leaders that they are expected to build capacity in others and are also responsible for figuring out how and why this is important. These kinds of questions emphasize leaders’ accountability for their actions to build collective capacity. How might you use questions to build personal accountability for actions? Leaders can harness the power of leading with questions by aligning questions with specific purposes and, as Marquardt (2014) reminds us, the better the question, the better the insight and the better the solution.

Used with permission. Excerpt from Powerful Inquiry: Leading With Questions to Build Leadership Capacity in Your School and District by Donna J. Micheaux and Jennifer L. Parvin. Copyright 2025 by Solution Tree Press, 555 North Morton Street, Bloomington, IN 47404, 800.733.6786, K12 Professional Development . All rights reserved.