Great Leaders Ask Great Questions- Andy Stanley - Global Leadership Summit

As Day 2 of the Global Leadership Summit 2026 continued, each speaker added another layer to the leadership conversation.

David Ashcraft challenged us to confront pride and build organizations that can thrive after we’re gone.

Priscilla Shirer called us to protect our vision, pursue excellence, and rise to readiness.

Arthur Brooks reminded us that leadership means little if we lose our humanity, relationships, and sense of meaning in the process.

Alison Levine showed us how leaders adapt under pressure, make hard decisions, and keep moving even when the path goes backward before it goes forward.

Then Andy Stanley stepped onto the stage and took us straight into one of the most practical leadership questions of the entire Summit:

What do great leaders actually do?

• Not what do they believe.

• Not what do they intend.

• Not what do they say.

What do they do?

Andy Stanley is the founder of North Point Ministries in Atlanta, an organization that has grown to eight church campuses across metro Atlanta and a global network of more than 210 churches.

He is one of the most widely recognized communicators and leadership voices in the world, known for bringing clarity to complex ideas through simple, practical frameworks.

Stanley hosts Your Move, where he helps people make better decisions and live better lives, and he is also the voice behind The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast.

He is the bestselling author of more than 20 books, including Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets, Visioneering, and Not In It to Win It.

His newest book, What Great Leaders Do, is released in August 2026 and provides the foundation for much of what he shared during his GLS keynote.

One of Stanley’s clearest statements was also one of his simplest:

“Great leaders ask great questions.”

That sounds obvious. But great questions are often uncomfortable.

• They challenge assumptions.

• They expose blind spots.

• They force us to reconsider systems we’ve grown accustomed to.

Stanley went a step further:

“Great leaders surround themselves with people who ask great questions.”

That distinction matters. You don’t build a curious organization by being the only curious person in it. You build one by making it safe for everyone else to ask what you may not want to hear.

Stanley said:

“Healthy organizations are curious organizations.”

Curiosity keeps an organization moving.

It keeps teams from becoming overly attached to how things have always been done.

It prevents yesterday’s success from becoming tomorrow’s limitation.

He offered one line that may have been the strongest leadership diagnostic of the session:

“Your curiosity determines the load limit for your organization.”

If the leader stops asking questions, the organization eventually stops asking them too.

If leaders become defensive when challenged, people learn to stop challenging.

If leaders treat certain questions as off-limits, those questions don’t disappear. They simply get discussed somewhere else.

That may have been one of my favorite lines of the session.

“Never respond to a question as if you’re being questioned.”

There’s a huge difference. A question can be an invitation to learn. But if we hear every question as a challenge to our authority, curiosity dies fast.

Stanley encouraged leaders to make a decision ahead of time:

When someone questions you, assume first that they’re asking a sincere question. That small habit can completely change the tone of an organization.

Stanley didn’t simply say leaders should tolerate questions. He challenged us to actively encourage them.

“Incite curiosity.”

• Ask questions

• Invite questions

• Reward questions

Create environments where people can safely say:

• “Why do we do it this way?”

• “What are we missing?”

• “What would happen if we tried something different?”

Stanley summarized it beautifully:

“Questions pave the way to the future.”

Then came one of the most thought-provoking questions of the session:

“What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but if it could be done, would fundamentally change my business?”

That’s not a question you answer in five minutes. And that’s the point.

Stanley explained that even if you don’t know the answer yet, asking the question changes what you notice.

“If you aren’t asking the question, you won’t recognize the solution when it comes along.”

The question creates awareness. It makes you alert to possibilities you would otherwise miss.

One of Stanley’s most memorable phrases was:

“Marry the mission. Date the model.”

That line is worth remembering. The mission should remain steady. The model should remain flexible.

Organizations get into trouble when they reverse the two. They become loyal to methods, systems, structures, or personalities that were only ever meant to serve the mission.

Stanley’s point was clear:

Be deeply committed to why you exist.

Be flexible about how you accomplish it.

Stanley then challenged leaders to step outside their current perspective.

He asked:

“What would the next leader do?”

That question is powerful because future leaders often see what current leaders can’t.

They aren’t emotionally attached to the history.

They don’t feel obligated to preserve every tradition.

They may be willing to make the decision you already know needs to be made.

Stanley reminded us that people with no emotional stake in a decision can sometimes see what needs to happen much sooner.

So he asked:

If the next leader would change it anyway, why not change it now?

Then came the question that tied the whole session together:

“What would a great leader do?”

Stanley said this question raises the standard of leadership above the circumstances we find ourselves in. It forces us to separate instinct from responsibility. Emotion from values. Comfort from courage.

That question exposes something important:

Sometimes we already know what a great leader would do.

We just don’t want to do it.

Stanley sharpened the question even further:

“What would an others-first leader, who is you, do?”

That language matters.

• Not an imaginary leader.

• Not someone with a different personality.

• Not someone with more courage than you.

You!

What would you do if your leadership were truly guided by what is best for others?

That question reveals motives fast.

Stanley said:

“You don’t know if your values guide you until your values cost you.”

That one deserves to sit for a while. Values are easy when they’re convenient. Leadership becomes real when living by those values requires sacrifice.

• Reputation

• Money

• Opportunity

• Comfort

• Approval

That’s when you discover whether the values are actually yours.

Near the end, Stanley brought the message inward.

“Great leaders last because they lead themselves first.”

Leadership starts with self-leadership.

• Emotional regulation

• Discipline

• Humility

• Values

• Courage

He added:

“Leading yourself well is not essential to being a leader. But it’s essential if you want to be a leader worth following.”

That may be one of the best lines from the entire Summit.

You can have a title without self-leadership. You can have authority without character. You can even have influence without discipline. But if you want leadership that lasts, you have to learn to lead yourself first.

If I had to summarize Andy Stanley’s keynote in one sentence, it would be this:

Great leadership begins with the courage to ask better questions, stay curious, put the mission above your ego, and consistently do what a great leader would do.

The session left me with three questions I plan to keep in front of me:

What’s considered impossible?

What would the next leader do?

What would a great leader do?

Simple questions.

Hard answers.

And probably exactly the kind of questions that help leaders keep growing.

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