What If Wednesday: Reflections from a Leader in Progress
What I Learned This Week: Asking the Wrong Questions
This week I was with a number of pastors, each carrying the weight of day-to-day ministry. As we shared, I realized how often they — and honestly, I — get stuck asking the wrong questions.
When something isn’t working, I default to asking questions that deal with the symptoms, not the cause. I’ll ask, “How do we fix attendance?” or “How do we get more volunteers?” But those are surface-level. They address what’s visible, not necessarily what’s underneath.
One pastor and I talked about this at length, and I told him what I’ve been learning from my own kids: they ask why over and over again. Sometimes it’s exhausting as a parent, but there’s wisdom in it. Curiosity keeps you from settling for the first answer. It forces you to peel back layers until you get to the root.
Too often in leadership, we jump to solutions. And those solutions may even be good — but if they’re only addressing symptoms, they won’t bring real health. In fact, if all we ever do is treat symptoms, we may actually perpetuate the deeper problem.
The Leadership Reflection
This is true in ministry. It’s also true in marriage, family, and life. In counseling, they talk about the “presenting issue” — what shows up on the surface — versus the underlying issue. The two are rarely the same.
In my marriage, I’m often tempted to “fix” what looks like the problem in front of me. But if I slow down, I often realize the real issue is something deeper: a miscommunication, an unmet expectation, or even my own pride. The same is true in organizational leadership. The “problem” of low engagement might not actually be about people being uncommitted — it might be about unclear communication, misaligned priorities, or lack of ownership.
Leaders who rush to fix symptoms may get short-term relief, but leaders who stay curious — who keep asking why — have the chance to uncover the true issue and address it at the root.
The What If
What if you slowed down this week and asked “why” one more time before you jumped to solutions — at work, in your church, or in your own home? Could you truly solve a problem rather than just addressing a symptom?