7 Questions Every Leader Should Ask Right Now

We're at the midpoint. Half the year is behind you. Half is still winnable. This is exactly the right moment to stop, look at how your team is actually functioning, and ask the questions that get skipped when everyone is heads-down executing.

This isn't a performance review. It's a structural check-in, an honest audit of whether the way your team is organized, empowered, and led is set up to get you where you need to go in the next six months.

Here are seven questions to work through. Sit with each one before moving to the next.

THE 7 QUESTIONS

1. Could my team execute a full week without me in the room?

Not perfectly, but functionally. If the answer is no, that's your first gap to close.

2. Who on my team is waiting for permission they should already have?

Look at where decisions stall. Someone, somewhere, has been trained to wait instead of act. Who is it and why?

3. What decisions am I making that my team should own?

Write down the last 10 decisions that came to you. How many genuinely required your involvement? Be honest.

4. Are my best people growing, or just executing?

High performers need stretch. If your A-players are doing the same work at the same level they were six months ago, you're not developing them. You're holding them.

5. Where does my team bring me problems instead of solutions?

This isn't a personality critique. It's a culture signal. A team that brings you problems without proposals has learned that's how you want it. Do you?

6. What would break first if I were unavailable for two weeks?

Name it specifically. That's your highest-priority dependency to resolve before year-end.

7. Am I leading the team, or still doing the team's job?

The hardest question. But the most important one to answer honestly.

These questions don't have easy answers. But the act of asking them, honestly and not charitably, is where recalibration begins. If two or more of these questions surfaced something you didn't want to see, that's not a problem. That's the data you need.

The Fix My Team Diagnostic takes these questions further, turning your honest answers into a prioritized roadmap for the second half of the year.