Brene Brown and Adam Grant say the best leaders do this. Mediocre managers do the opposite

"How can you tell if someone is a great leader? They always want to know more. They're interested in mastery of a subject or skill. They ask great questions. And, as they find out more, they sometimes change their mind. They're a "learner." But these days, most CEOs and other leaders take the opposite approach. They think of themselves as "knowers." They appear to have all the answers. That's bad for them, their direct reports, and the organizations they lead."

"Being a learner seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years, Brown observed. "That's not going to serve us right now," she said. "When I talk to senior leaders all over the world, they're saying, 'Boy, it's really problematic when people come in and they act like they know everything. What I'm looking for are candidates who have exquisite questions and are really hungry to solve the problem.' And so I think we have to shift the thinking there a lot.""

"Both Brown and Grant believe that asking the right questions is a powerful leadership skill that's much more important than knowing all the answers. "If I go into an organization, I'll spend three weeks just asking questions," Brown said. "I'll look at a CEO and say, 'What's on your heart and mind? If you sit up straight in bed at 4 o'clock in the morning, what are you worried about?'""

Great leadership centers on a learner mindset: constant curiosity, pursuit of mastery, asking incisive questions, and willingness to change views as new information emerges. Many contemporary executives present themselves as "knowers" who appear to have all the answers, which undermines leaders, direct reports, and organizational performance. Organizations benefit from candidates who ask exquisite questions and demonstrate hunger to solve problems rather than feign certainty. Effective leaders prioritize asking employees, customers, and stakeholders about their motivations and concerns, avoiding projection of their own motives when attempting to motivate others. Spending focused time asking questions reveals core worries, priorities, and pathways to solutions.

Read at Fast Company