I was listening to an interview with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who recently said that in the age of AI, we’ll start valuing different types of people – not just those with the right answers, but those who know how to ask the right questions.
That’s always been true in leadership. The best operators, managers, and strategic thinkers don’t start with great strategic plans. They start by asking good, important questions.
What are we trying to solve here?
What would make this simpler, faster, more scalable, or more valuable?
What does success here look like?
If this fails, why will that have happened?
Like Altman, I am a techno-optimist. While the development side of AI is still very closed off and expensive, access to the fruits of that development – the knowledge – is super affordable and accessible.
The people who can ask the right questions – whether to their AI or to their teammates – are those who I believe will truly excel in the coming decades.
Bonus: Some good questions that managers should ask themselves every week.
