Editor’s note: Grace Ueng is CEO of Savvy Growth, a leadership coaching and management consultancy founded in 2003.  Her great passion to help leaders and the companies they run achieve their fullest potential combined with her empathy and ability to help leaders figure out their “why” is what clients value most.  Grace will be writing a regular column for WRAL TechWire. Watch for future columns.

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – People tend to rise to leadership roles by having the right answers. Once there, leaders who are successful get the most out of their teams by asking the right questions. 

I learned from Tal Ben-Shahar, the creator of the most popular course in Harvard’s history – Positive Psychology 1504 – that curiosity and asking questions is what separates the happy from the happiest and therefore most successful. And those questions have the power to create our realities.

Annie Leibovitz and “Asking Life’s Questions”

Many years ago I was contacted by a NYC talent scout with the following message:

Dear Grace, 

I am a casting director working with Urban Productions NYC in search of beautiful successful Asian women such as yourself. The internationally acclaimed Annie Leibovitz is photographing an ad campaign for UBS, the global banking corporation….

I was intrigued to work with Annie Leibovitz for a full day shoot and immediately started to research UBS’s campaign.  The theme was “Asking Life’s Questions.” UBS carefully chose the questions for each of their segments of this campaign which has since become a classic.

Coaching versus Consulting: Questions & Answers

I am keenly aware of the importance of asking the right questions at the right time. In consulting, we are paid to have the right answers. In coaching, we are paid to ask the right questions.

For a consultant to reach informed recommendations, we gather a great deal of data, including a discovery process, that involves asking a broad range of questions to internal and external stakeholders and distill that data into a set of recommended actions.  But the recommendations are only as good as the data, which are as good as the questions.  It all begins with the questions…

When we added executive coaching to Savvy’s offerings, I found myself asking more questions, pointed questions for clients to ponder. The objective is for our coachees to discover the answers. After all, you are your own best teacher. We are paid to ask the right questions.

Happiest People:  Curiosity and Asking Questions to create our realities

I have always had a passion for asking questions….I’ll share a brief history as to how this trait was nurtured…..

Grace, The Reporter

I wasn’t sure if it was meant as a compliment or not when the wife of the CEO of a publicly traded client company exclaimed, “You are like a reporter, you are so inquisitive!!” 

“Oh dear,” I thought. And I was just being myself at this dinner party.  Years earlier, I had been told the same thing from an entrepreneur who I was set up with on a lunch date; instead of going out again, he decided to hire my firm instead. He thought my inquiring mind would add value to launching his latest venture…

They didn’t realize that in my early professional years, I had begun training to be a reporter. While working in marketing for Sports Illustrated by day, I was an aspiring journalist, a freelance writer taking investigative journalism class, by night. 

Decades ago, Fortune published a highly accurate feature about my first and famously secretive employer, Bain & Company. I was impressed with the depth of the reporting, given how Bainees spoke in code names and guarded client confidentiality to the extreme. I invited the reporter to lunch to learn how she was so adept at her trade and by asking her questions learned quite a lot about how to ask the right questions.

I thought being a business reporter at Fortune would be a perfect fit and soon found myself in the office of the deputy chief of reporters, with my pitch ready. After telling the notorious Evelyn Benjamin a bit about myself, I shared that I wanted to work for her instead of matriculating to Harvard Business School. My dream of becoming a journalist was quickly shattered when she exclaimed, “Go make the news, don’t write about it, go to HBS!” and promptly kicked me out of her office. 

After training in Fortune 500 companies and then holding executive roles at several emerging growth technology companies, I started my own business and have gone full circle back to being a management consultant.  

And many years ago, I reached back out to that Fortune journalist to gain advice on how I could continue this virtuous cycle and write once again. Pattie Sellers had since risen up the ranks of Fortune into editorial leadership roles. She co-founded the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit where she asks thoughtful questions in interviewing the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. Pattie knows the right questions to ask.

I am thankful to WRAL TechWire editor Rick Smith for helping me continue this virtuous cycle.

ASSIGNMENT FOR YOU: In pondering the power of asking the right questions, in your meetings this coming week, observe how much you listen, show interest, and what questions you then ask. What reaction do you get to your questions? What answers are then discovered?

NEXT UP:  I had the chance to meet Eric Chang, co-founder of Hellman-Chang in Brooklyn, as he had just been featured in UBS’s campaign asking these questions: 

  • Is my company growing fast enough?
  • Can I afford to take on more staff?
  • Can I afford not to?

In my next column, I will share the answers to the questions I had the chance to ask Eric for you to learn of his journey in creating what I believe to be the most exquisite furniture in the world.  It was a pleasure touring Hellman Chang’s design studio in Brooklyn.  More soon.

About Grace Ueng

Grace is CEO of Savvy Growth, a leadership coaching and management consultancy founded in 2003.  Her great passion to help leaders and the companies they run achieve their fullest potential combined with her empathy and ability to help leaders figure out their “why” are what clients value most. 

Grace’s core offerings are one on one coaching for CEOs and their leadership teams, leading workshops on Personal Branding, Happiness and Speaking Success, and conducting strategic reviews for companies at a critical juncture. She is also hired as a keynote speaker on the topic of Happiness, as interest in mental well being has grown in recent years.

A marketing strategist, Grace held leadership roles at five high growth technology ventures that successfully exited through acquisition or IPO. She started her career at Bain & Company and then worked in brand management at Clorox and General Mills. She is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School and holds a positive coaching certification from the Whole Being Institute.

Grace and her partner, Rich Chleboski, a cleantech veteran, develop and implement strategies to support the growth of impact focused companies and then coach their leaders in carrying out their strategic plans. Their expertise spans all phases of the business from evaluation through growth and liquidity. 

More from Grace Ueng:

Thumbs up: Empowerment and the three ingredients to be happy at work