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Answers are strenuously sought after and largely irrelevant when it comes to leadership. Most leaders are in their positions because they were among the most competent and knowledgeable while in their previous positions. Unfortunately, most leaders fail, too. So, even though they were seen as the answer, they became the problem. In fact, the latest studies would indicate that about 70% of leaders are dishonorably discharged in some way. The same group that installed the leader as the answer to their problems ends up removing the leader, perhaps, because that leader did not ask the right questions.

Let’s face it, the best leaders ask the best questions, and their best ideas come from someone else. Flawless leaders know that it is far better to have one questioner and a thousand who answer than a thousand questioners and one who answers. A flawless leaders job is to orchestrate the right conversation that brings about authentic change and energized engagement. Leaders don’t facilitate change and actions by answering someone’s question. It is high time for the archetype of leader as oracle to die in order for leaders to access their flawlessness. Instead of question and answer sessions, the best leaders have question and listening sessions.

There is an important inherent gift that all leaders possess, yet rarely access: irremediable ignorance. Just in case one of your close friends hasn’t told you lately – you don’t know it all and you never will. When leaders approach the world as an answer to its questions, they inevitably fail because they are operating from an unrealistic impossible premise. Alternatively, flawless leaders approach the world as a series of questions designed to release its trapped value. It is only with meaningful conversation around significant questions that leaders can hope to release the trapped value within their organizations. These conversations are only started with great questions.

E.E. Cummings said, “always a more beautiful answer that asks a more beautiful question.” As leaders, when you are tempted to answer everyone’s questions, I urge you to ask another question instead. Followers have the answers, but their answers are trapped within. A leader asking followers the right questions unlocks their value and engages their spirits. As leaders, we can only change ourselves in this way when we embrace our irremediable ignorance. We do not have all the answers, not will we ever, but it is possible to have the right questions. What questions would engage your followers fully? What questions would harvest the best thinking in the group? What conversations are you avoiding? What potentially helpful questions are you afraid to ask?

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In what ruts are you stuck? What choices would set you free?

Consumerism, greed and generic gluttony have collided to create the previous age of conspicuous consumption. It is this transaction and accumulation oriented age of the deal that has now birthed the age of the empty suit. The passionate pursuit of new experiences and greater ownership has created societies stuffed full of emptiness, and leaders unknown to and unaware of themselves. Leaders have only become as good as the deal they can strike, the payoff they receive. Every action is made in anticipation of a return. It is as if leaders are investing their lives in a cosmic vending machine in the hopes of receiving good but unarticulated benefits as compensation. The first of many problems in this scenario is that leaders stop doing things from a sense of identity or principle and begin to form a reality that is based on quid pro quo. In a this-for-that culture, I will give you this when I know what that is. Immersed in this culture, when that which leaders will receive in return is unclear, leaders tend not to act. So, short-term mindsets become the standard. These mindsets also contribute to the rampant fear-based paradigm of risk avoidance. This risk aversion culminates in the fear to create raw innovation – so organizations now create new applications and add-on products, and no one is creating new industries, inventions and products that don’t already easily fit into an existing category. And we wonder why the global economy is in ruin?

The reward for becoming the proud owner of all that can be bought is deep despair, diminishing returns, and emptiness. The way out is to become solid in your own identity and principles, to know what purpose is worthy of your complete surrender, to know what you will do in this world with no promise of a return. Flawless leaders live courageously and make decisions based in the solidness of their own identity and principles, from a sense of strength and rightness, an unfortunately rare thing in these parts. Flawless leaders are the proud owners of all that cannot be bought.

What purpose is worthy of your surrender? What will you do in this life with no promise of a return?

Managers operate in the relatively easy content area of what needs to be done and measured –that which can be easily seen. Leaders operate in the motivational human behavioral areas of Why are we doing this? What is meaningful? Who am I? Do I matter? Do I want to struggle and commit? Do I need to share my power with this group? –the areas which are unseen, or at best a shadow.

Leadership is easily ignored because it deals with the invisible. Is leadership real or is it a shadow? Is the shadow of leadership more substantial or meaningful than the content of what is actually being accomplished? When leadership is relegated to the easily ignored warm and fuzzy arena, what is lost? In reacting to these questions, we create our approach to leadership –our collective behaviors: the part of us with which others live.

When it comes to leadership, the unseen is more important that the seen. Bad attitudes, low motivation, poor cooperation, ulterior motives, etc. ruin organizations of any and all types, yet we cannot see them and they cannot be measured well. These are the results of flawed leadership and these are the areas that really irritate the measuring managers.

When I ask CEOs, “What behavior changes are required from your leaders to bring long-term success to your organization?” Their answers are never around measurement or execution because those are such shallow and short-term skills. They are usually about the immensely difficult areas of collaboration, communication, coordination, relationship, and motivation. These are all concept areas that cannot be seen –the invisible.

When will we stop wasting time on the shallow stuff and get into the deep waters of flawless leadership? What are your defenses against leading –that which prevents you from tackling the difficult stuff? What does it take for you to work in the shadows of authentic leadership?