Answer these 4 questions to become a better leader | Peter Fuda | Big Think

As a leader of any team or organization, there are four questions that you really need to be able to answer in order to help your people achieve what's possible. The mediocre leaders will be able to answer two questions: where are we headed, and what are we going to do to get there? Essentially, they are able to articulate the vision question, "Where are we headed?" and the strategy question, "What are our priorities? What are we going to do? What are we not going to do?"

The good leaders will answer a third question. They will answer the how question: how are we going to be on this journey? Is it okay to achieve our objectives by any means necessary, Enron style? Or are we going to have some values and standards of behavior? Are we going to try and represent a particular kind of culture as we pursue these aspirations?

But the really great leaders answer a fourth question. They answer the question why. Why do we exist, above and beyond making money? What is the unique contribution that we are here to make? Who would miss us if we were gone? So they answer the question of purpose for themselves, for their team, and for their organization.

And after 25 years of this work and five years of doctoral research, one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that the why is the most important part of how we achieve anything. If we don't have a big why, we won't get it done. In a world where we are competing for time, attention, and resources, we have a thousand inputs on any given day—busy people in our own world. If we don't have a big why, we won't get it done.

I'll give you a really simple analogy for it. Let's imagine we have two 25-year-old women. Let's call them Mary and Johanna. Let's say they've both been smoking for five years, and they decide their New Year's resolution is that they're going to give up smoking once and for all. Our job is to figure out which one of them is more likely to achieve her goal.

So the first thing we do, typically, is we go to Mary and we ask a really dumb question we ask in business, which is, "Mary, what's your strategy?" Mary says, "I'm getting a nicotine patch, nicotine gum, tearing up my cigarettes, and getting a buddy." That's a pretty good strategy.

Then we go over to Johanna and we say, "Johanna, what's your strategy?" She says exactly the same thing: "Nicotine patch, nicotine gum, tearing up my cigarettes, and getting a buddy." We're none the wiser, and that's because we haven't asked the important question yet. The important question is why and why now.

It's not like you didn't know it wasn't healthy. So we asked Mary, "Why? Why now?" She says, "Well, those ads on TV with the nicotine coming out of the artery and the tar coming out of the artery, it's disgusting. It's time to get fit and healthy. This is the year I'm gonna do it." And we think, "I'm not sure that she's got the right enough of a motive to get it done."

Then we go over to Johanna and we say, "Johanna, why do you want to give up smoking and why now?" She says, "I'll let you in on a little secret: I just found out I'm six weeks pregnant." Instantly, we know that Johanna will give up smoking. Statistically, that's true. They only differ in that they have exactly the same what; they have a very different why. And that why is what carries us through, particularly when we are being pulled in multiple directions.