I am one strategic advisor both for the public and private sectors. Unlike a business coach, my job is to help organizations define clear missions and gather intelligence. This allows us to create strategies to navigate complex challenges and achieve measurable results.

In contrast, a business coach typically works on individual growth, providing guidance to improve personal skills, mindset and leadership skills within a business context. I work behind the scenes to advise my clients in both day-to-day operations and during a crisis.

Questions beginning with “How?” are the most common. Examples include, “How can we overcome this supply chain nightmare?” “How will we ever live through this scandal?” and “How can we grow our income exponentially despite being in a recession?”

Not a recipe person by nature, I will suggest two things:

1. It's all about the intelligence gathering you do
2. But to get to that stage, are you asking the right questions?

There is no doubt that Running a business these days is complicated… To say the least. Some of it has to do with our global connectivity, along with regulations that had far less reason to exist in our parents' and grandparents' day.

Indeed, geopolitical strife and regulations can and will cause supply chain disruptions. There's also the constant threat of data breaches, and then there are the day-to-day issues that all companies claim seem magnified in our new normal.

Related: 3 business models that will shape the future of entrepreneurship in 2025 and beyond

Why asking the right questions matters

I have to remind my clients that surviving and even thriving amidst these obstacles is not necessarily about having all the answers or the latest technology, but about knowing the right questions to ask. For the leaders, executives and advisors who are helping them navigate these complexities, mastering the art of inquiry can be the game-changing edge you need.

Although my clients and all business owners face remote work and the ease with which many remote workers cheat the system.

While independence has been around since the 1970s, until the pandemic, it was still a relatively new approach to living. After the world shut down in an instant and we embraced sheltering in place and social distancing, remote workers became somewhat of a norm.

One of my clients recently dealt with a unique issue. When the company moved to remote work during the pandemic, there was initially an increase in productivity. Staff members quickly picked up on casual Fridays, which were a daily occurrence, and they had no supervision of their own. micromanipulator Supervisors monitoring their every move. The stress was down, and fruitfulness It was upstairs – an ideal scenario, wouldn't you say?

But over the past nine months or so, she noticed that productivity was declining, and her first thought was to fire everyone and start over. I explained some realities about her situation. Attrition isn't just a line item on an HR report; It is a symptom of a deeper dysfunction within the organizational fabric.

In 2022, Gallup published a study revealing that disengaged employees cost Global economy 8.8 trillion dollars a yeara testament to the high price of ignoring employee happiness. In other words, the solution is to engage its employees.

But, and this is a big problem, sometimes it's not just about reassuring employees, but also recognizing that there are indeed some bad apples, and it's important to know in which situation he had to work.

A trend that is growing in number

In January 2024, so nearly four years after the pandemic began, the Canadian government revealed that 43% of their workforce who are still working remotely are not devoting their full-time work exclusively to their main job.

This unfortunate reality is not unique to the government. People working remotely in the private sector are also gaming the system. Yegor Denisov-Blanch is a student at Stanford Business School whose research describes a tool that helps software developers review code more efficiently by automating some of the tedious or subjective tasks that are often overlooked.

Seemingly obscure to the rest of the world outside the school and perhaps some researchers in his field, in November of this year, Denisov-Blanch shared an observation that He posted In x it has since gone viral. “I'm at Stanford and I research Software Engineering Productivity. We have performance data of >50k engineers from 100s of companies.” … “Our research shows: ~9.5% of software engineers do nothing.”

He went on to suggest that some in this group were contributing so little code that he suspected they might be working multiple jobs to supplement their salary. However, these are not people making minimum wage. According to many published accounts, these engineers make close to or over $300,000 a year.

Related: Why are telecommuting trends so different in the US and the UK?

Popsugar, which focuses on trending topics like celebrity gossip and pop culture, agrees. They ran one ITEM recently titled, “HR Weighs in on 'Quiet Vacations,'” which highlights another issue with telecommuting: taking vacations but not using vacation days/PTO. Instead, they're sitting on a beach at a resort, squeezing in time between drinks with cool umbrellas, activities and catching some rays.

Given how widespread this issue is, instead of giving my client the answers she hoped would solve her problem, I suggested a different approach. “You're not asking the right questions,” I told her.

I posed these two questions:

1. “What data can we collect to better understand how employees spend their time?”
2. “How can we use this information to ensure fairness and productivity?”

To address the challenge of remote workers Sharing their focus Among the many employers during company hours, I suggested that it focus on improving the way we gather and analyze intelligence. The solution, I assured her, begins with asking the right questions to uncover patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Mind you, this was not a quick effort. It took us weeks to complete this intelligence gathering.

Once we had the data, I analyzed it to identify inefficiencies and any behaviors that suggest a misuse of company time. This allowed me to consider and suggest tailored accountability measures, such as clear productivity standards and periodic but unscheduled reviews. Drawing on these insights, I helped her refine the organization's telecommuting policies, ensuring they balanced trust with accountability and enabled their employees to work effectively while maintaining integrity.

In times of crisis or turmoil, the instinct to seek immediate answers is natural. But the leaders who thrive are the ones who first pause to explore deeper, sweeter questions. Why? Because by asking the right questions:

1. Clarify the mission: Helps identify true targets and avoid distractions.
2. Assumptions hidden on the surface: Challenges what is taken for granted and reveals blind spots.
3. Guides effective intelligence gathering: The quality of your data depends on the quality of your investigation.
4. It informs decisive action: Clear questions lead to clear, actionable strategies.

Curiosity: The Foundation of Effective Intelligence Gathering

Curiosity is more than a trait—it's a strategic tool. In environments where the situation is evolving rapidly, a mentality of curiosity-driven inquiry It keeps organizations agile and adaptive. Rather than reacting to surface-level disruptions, strategic curiosity digs deeper.

within The art and science of intelligence gatheringmy next book and the follow up to my first book, From war zones to boardrooms: Optimize when strategic planning failsI describe how curiosity drives effective intelligence.

Leaders who ask: “what are we missing?” or “What assumptions support our current strategy?” Open the door to insights that turn challenges into opportunities.

In times of disruption, answers may be few – but the right questions are always available. Embrace curiosity, challenge assumptions, and let intelligence gathering guide your path to success. After all, the most powerful strategies begin not with the right answers, but with the right questions.