Knowing how to ask the right questions can improve your bottom line.
Funny isn’t it, that right kind of questions can cause you to buy more of what you want? Remember a time when someone asked you a question that caused you to get excited about having what you wanted. You knew what it would
- feel like
- look like,
- sound like,
- accomplish
- and the impact it would have on your life and the lives of others.
Enjoy that memory. Or if you don’t recall one, use your imagination. Imagine that someone asks you a question that allows you to feel what it would be like for you to have that service or product. Powerful, isn’t it? I bet it got you revved up to want to buy what you wanted right then and right there. It might’ve taken a couple of questions to do the trick. You get the idea. You now know that one or two powerful questions can be open you to see new possibilities and solutions you might not have thought of before, perhaps regarding the product in front of you.
The same is true for other aspects of your own business.
Knowing how to ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time, can have an amazing impact on your business.
To do this, you need to think through your challenge to uncover the right questions to ask yourself, your staff, vendors, and customers (your stakeholders).
Business leaders like you are expected to have answers. This requires that you both ask the right questions and have the skill to evaluate the answers. Asking yourself and your stakeholders questions will result in clarity of vision and a path forward.
Start with curiosity
As a business owner or leader, you might be stuck on a problem with a customer, a staff member, or a member of their community. It can be that you have already emotionally reacted to what that person has said or done. You may have already made a judgment about what action they need to take. You may have already implemented that action.
Diane had an exceedingly difficult supervisor. It was hard to get her cooperation on important decisions and actions. It was more than frustrating for Diane. Ugh!
I asked Diane three questions about this supervisor:
- What could be causing her to be so difficult?
- What is the cost of our disagreement (to the customers, the organization, and to our team?)
- What would be the consequences of not resolving our issues?
I then asked similar questions of Diane:
- What is causing you to feel challenged by this person?
- What are the consequences of your disagreement to our customers?
- What is the cost to you and your team?
These questions caused Diane to accept that her supervisor most likely had a difficult life, that she was just a grouchy person, and that Diane didn’t have to take it personally. This allowed her to become more understanding, let go of her frustrations, and become much more creative about what she needed to collaborate with her supervisor on a solution to the challenge at hand.
Whatever stage you are at in this process, I ask that you go back into observation, and use your curiosity.
Having leaders like you answer questions about the cause, consequences, and cost related to their problem situation allows you to be more conscious about the situation at hand. It provides you with an opportunity to get out of your own way.
QUESTION
What project are you working on where you might want to ask yourself the cause, consequences, and cost questions?
In my next article I will present two specific questions you can ask to tighten your focus on a specific goal and identify what success will look like.
Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses with processes that identify potential roadblocks and mitigation schemes to accelerate realistic execution.
Challenging Leaders to solve the Right problems by asking the Right questions!