Tiny Shifts in Leadership: How Better Questions Drive Better Teams

How the smallest questions change the biggest outcomes

The Myth of the Hero Move

When we picture leadership, we often imagine something dramatic: a bold speech, a sweeping strategy, a breakthrough idea delivered with just the right flourish. It’s understandable. Big moves are visible. They feel like progress.

But most of the real progress in teams doesn’t come from big gestures. It comes from something smaller. A quiet reframe. A well-timed pause. A question that changes how people think—just slightly—yet enough to shift what happens next.

These are the moves that actually change things. And they’re surprisingly easy to miss.

When the Room Shifts

In today’s micro-course on Insight Questions, we invited leaders to apply different types of inquiry to their own challenges.

One participant began to consider how she could frame an upcoming session to invite possibility, rather than simply collect updates. That subtle shift—from gathering data to creating space—opened up a different kind of conversation.

Another explored how he might bring a connective lens to a roles and responsibilities workshop, turning a static exercise into one that helped people see how their contributions overlapped and supported each other.

And a third recognised that her strength wasn’t in owning the agenda, but in asking the catalytic questions that helped her team reimagine what was possible. Just by shifting attention to the type of inquiry she used, new possibilities began to emerge.

None of these were dramatic interventions. But each created momentum. They didn’t just improve the conversation—they changed the conditions for what could happen next.

The Power of Tiny

This is the part that gets overlooked: small shifts compound.

Change the angle of a conversation by just a few degrees, and you end up somewhere entirely different. You don’t need to change the team. You just need to change how the team thinks together.

And the research backs it up:

Questions shape 80% of group cognition
(Graesser & Person, 1994)
Reflective questions increase innovation by 3×
(Carmeli & Gittell, 2009)
The quality of questions predicts team performance
(Lehmann-Willenbrock & Allen, 2014)

So if questions shape thinking, and better thinking shapes outcomes, then leadership becomes less about having answers and more about designing better inquiry.

The Architecture of Better Questions

We teach four types of questions that shift the trajectory of a group:

Type	What it unlocks	Example
Reflective	Deeper awareness	“What’s becoming clearer as we explore this?”
Connective	Shared understanding	“How does this relate to what Sarah shared earlier?”
Generative	New possibilities	“What might become possible if we let go of that constraint?”
Catalytic	Breakthroughs	“What question, if answered, would change everything?”

When leaders use these consciously—and in the right context—they create the conditions for insight and momentum. The right question at the right time doesn’t just keep the conversation going. It changes its direction.

What About Ego?

We all have egos. That’s not a flaw—it’s human. And it’s not the same as egotistical. Ego drives us to contribute, to improve, to lead. But it can also trip us up when it craves control more than impact.

The challenge isn’t to get rid of ego. It’s to align it.
When we shift our focus from being impressive to being useful, something opens up.

Tiny shifts help with that. They don’t shrink us—they just reduce the interference. They quiet the noise long enough for a better idea to surface, or a new connection to form.

Leadership doesn’t have to mean speaking the most. Often, it’s about creating the space where others can speak most meaningfully.

Try This in the Next 24 Hours

Here’s something simple to try:

Swap one “Any thoughts?” for a reflective or catalytic question.
Pause three seconds after asking.
Notice what emerges.

You don’t need budget. You don’t need permission. You just need to pay attention and choose your question with intent.

Final Thought

“A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted.” — John Ciardi

Leadership isn’t about control. It’s about creating the conditions for something valuable to grow.
And most of the time, that starts with a small shift.

A pause.
A reframing.
A better question.

Not because you need to be impressive—
but because you’re trying to help the group think better than it could without you.

And that’s what leadership actually is.

Final Invitation

If you believe tiny shifts can create big impacts—and you want your leaders to be part of a community that builds skill through new perspectives and practises leadership rather than just preaches it—we’d love to hear from you.

We’re “small”, but mighty.
And we’re building something that grows one question at a time.

Tiny Shifts Trump Big Gestures