I don’t know about you, but I found it challenging to identify one trait beginning with the letter Q that exemplary leaders share. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised when no one chose to play the Alphabet Game for the Q-word.
Relatively few adjectives beginning with the letter Q exist in the English language. Among leadership traits that begin with the letter Q, several are couplets or hyphenated, e.g., quality-driven, quietly confident, quenching negativity, quick-thinking, quick-to-adapt, and quick-to-listen. Other Q-words that come to mind are qualified, questioning, quiet, quotable, quintessential, and quirky. Quintessential is interesting. I wanted to choose it for the winning Q-word because it’s a word that is seldom used. But what does it mean? My 1970 copy of Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Deluxe Second Edition, says it means the purest or most perfect. However, if someone is a quintessential leader, or the most perfect leader, we still don’t know what traits the leader possesses.
Among the Q-word candidates, I chose questioning as a trait that all exemplary leaders possess. Why? In Why It Matters, I say, “Many believe leaders must have all the answers. In reality, exemplary leaders have all the questions. Likewise, too many leaders believe they are the smartest people in the room; if they are, they have the wrong people in the room. Leaders need to assemble a team of people who are strong where the leader is weak and knowledgeable where the leader lacks knowledge.
“Chris Lofgren [at the time, Schneider National’s CEO] shared with the leadership students, ‘As you advance in leadership positions, it is less important for you to have answers and more important for you to have questions.’
“Many leaders who met with the leadership class agreed that the ability to listen trumps the ability to speak. Exemplary leaders ask questions and then listen carefully to the answers. Furthermore, their listening involves their ears and their eyes. They read body language and notice the words spoken, as well as the words not spoken. Importantly, they remember what they hear and see.”
I also said, “When asked a question, a leader has a choice: Answer it, decline to answer it, or deflect it. An effective way to deflect a question is to ask another question. Notice how often leaders answer a question with a question. It doesn’t mean you don’t know the answer. You might prefer to use the question as a learning opportunity within the team. If one team member asks you a question, turn and ask another member what the answer is. Discuss it and see if a consensus answer emerges.” [i]
If you repeatedly answer questions by asking questions, someone will likely ask, “Why do you always answer a question by asking a question?” If such a question is asked, you might consider responding, “Why not?”
Don’t be a leader with all the answers. Be a leader with all the questions. When things go wrong, and they will, you’ll regret that you didn’t ask more questions before deciding. As Donnie Smith [at the time, Tyson Foods’ CEO] told my students, “The answer is always in the room.”[ii]
If I hadn’t chosen questioning, what Q-word would I have chosen? Qualified! I’ve seen too many leaders who weren’t qualified. They weren’t ready. What were they missing? Experience for sure, but also several attributes we’ve identified in the Alphabet Game.
Another Q-word I considered is quiet. Leaders must know when it is essential for them to be quiet. They must also know when it’s time to speak.
When we considered the K-word, I chose kind. I was reminded of my choice when I saw, “If you can’t be kind, be quiet!”
Finally, I toyed with choosing QED to be the winning Q-word. Some wrongly believe it stands for “quite easily done,” but, as Wikipedia notes, it stands for the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, which means “that which was to be demonstrated.” Placed at the end of mathematical proofs and at the end of philosophical arguments QED indicates the proof or argument is complete. I placed it at the end of the blog for the N-word. Here, it would indicate that an attribute for an exemplary leader has been demonstrated. It’s in what they do, not in what they say.
Next: Leadership ABCs—R
Rules for the game to receive a signed copy of Why It Matters: 1) limited to U.S.A. mailing addresses; 2) limited to a single selection for the word; 3) cannot submit entry sooner than one week before the blog is posted on LinkedIn; 4) be the first correct entry I receive; and 5) send entries to me at johnaustinwhitejr@gmail.com. The earliest you can submit your R-word entry is 12:00 am, EDT, March 25, 2026; the latest time is 12:00 am, EDT, April 1, 2026.
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[i] John A. White, Why It Matters: Reflections on Practical Leadership, Greenleaf Book Group Press, Austin, TX, 2022, pp. 106-107.
[ii] Ibid, pp. 30.
