Questions you ask will play a major role in your business success with managers, leaders, clients, etc.
Increase your authenticity, truth-telling, vulnerability, caring and candidness in your questions, and you’ll see success rocket.
For example, if you want to know where your business relationship stands with someone, which question would work better and be more clear and accurate?
Let’s take an example with your boss or any senior level manager. Would you choose one or two?
1) Is everything good in our relationship? Or how do you think our relationship is going?
2) Rate our relationship on a scale 1-10 (one being poor, 10 great). Why did you give that rating? What could I do to move it closer to a 10?
Which would would you choose?
#2 is significantly better and paints a much more accurate picture of where you stand. 99% of people have an innaccurate view of their relationship (bad or good). Because they are uncomfortable with truth-telling.
Are you their friend or enemy? You are in one or the other camp (whether you like it or not). You have to earn the right to get in their inner circle. It’s how our brains are wired.
To fast-track biz success, you’ve got to build high level of trust quickly. You do that not by pitching them, but getting to know them personally. You need to create the feeling (in 5 mins or less) that you’ve known the person forever. You do that by leading with vulnerability and opening them up.
Why? Because belonging is our DNA. Everyone wants it and they can never get enough of it. People want to open up and share, it’s just most people don’t care & don’t want to listen. People don’t want to hide behind their mask. So be the person that allows them to take it off.
How? Ask them deep personal questions the first time you meet them. Uncomfortable? Yes, but the research proves it works. The other way is slow and doesn’t work.
What questions (here are two examples):
1) What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in the last year? Why?
2) What’s a setback that turned into a blessing in disguise? Why was it?
You can also get my team building game (cardsagainstMundanity.com) for free and play it with them. Use two questions that you both answer. It will take you 3-4 minutes.
Do the opposite of the other 99% and you’ll skyrocket your results.
Try it and see how it works. You’ll be surprised how easy it is.
One top three biggest complaints I’ve received from hundreds of senior executives is employees don’t think like a CEO (enterprise-or company-wide. They think in a silo (narrow in scope & impact) and view the company from their team/group perspective. This doesn’t foster a contribution mindset nor problem-solving in a top-down/across-an-organization fashion.
Turn the table around. The CEO doesn’t just think about your group. They have to take into consideration all of them. Why shouldn’t you? Imagine how much more strategic you’ll be?
This IS the way to fast-track your career.
Also, many senior leaders don’t do this either. The ones that do really stand out and accomplish the most.
Here are some ways to up-level your thinking:
-Understand the company you work for and the business you are in (sales-driven, manufacturing, etc.)
-How the company makes money (end-to-end)
-Who the end customer is
-How what you do every day fits into the strategy of the company
-Goals, challenges and opportunities to each group (and how you can help them).This requires you to meet with people 1:1.
-Goals, challenges and opportunity of your colleagues
-You also need to understand the culture and how things really get done.
If you were “CEO” for the day, what would you do/change?
Start thinking like a CEO not like an employee. You’ll see a significant shift in how many people view, your success and fulfillment and cash in your pocket.
Here’s a free webinar on how to build the highest performing teams (and a free game to use as well). More than 5000+ people are using these strategies and processes including organizations such as Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Worldwide Express, PRSA, E&Y and many others. I spent more than 3+ years researching, interviewing and observing most of Forbes/Fortune’s top 10 workplaces to see firsthand what teams are doing, behavior, and thinking.
This also applies to individuals because you can influence the team and create the optimal environment around you.
What’s the best team you’ve ever been on? The team that was the most cohesive, cooperative, deeply connected, and productive. Maybe it was a job, a sports team, club, startup, an event you were apart of, etc.
How did it feel to be connected to something bigger, to sort of lose yourself in that moment?
That feeling you just thought of is…THE…most…powerful…business…asset…on…earth. It’s what separates the top 1% from all the rest.
Leaders struggle and stay awake at night trying to figure out how to create that feeling and conditions for others to thrive.
Unfortunately, many leaders believe that creating this is like your DNA – you either have it or not. It’s not luck nor an accident.
Business leaders can learn how to “dial in” to the right behaviors and environment to put every person in a peak state of performance and innovation.
Individuals, managers, leaders, human resources, and executives can use the strategies and processes. You can also use them externally with prospects, clients, key partners, etc.
You’ll learn how to create and operationalize this in a team and across an organization.
“The workshop and game were excellent. The team was very appreciative of the event, and it kept coming up as one of the best experiences they’ve ever had.As a manager, that was great to hear.
Throughout the following two days, we hosted some guests from other groups, and we asked them to answer random cards in front of the audience. Some of their answers were surprisingly deep and instantly helped to establish trust between them and our teams.”
Alberto Grazi, Google’s Head of Americas Video Solutions Consulting
“Jason did a great job of not only giving me the nudge I needed to explore a team workshop but he also did a fantastic job of organizing and running it!
The workshop was very beneficial and our leaders immediately felt the impact it had on the team as a whole.
Whether you have a high or low performing team I would highly recommend Jason’s workshops as a great tool to improve the team’s performance.”
Josh Pluemer, Vice President of Operations, WORLDWIDE EXPRESS
Three Things You’ll Learn:
1) Why 99% of teams underperform/lack innovation
2) Strategies, behaviors, and processes of the top 1%
3) How to operationalize team performance and innovation
Charles Feltman did some groundbreaking work on creating trust. He found that the most important factor in building trust is caring. Caring is key to building high-levels of trust in teams and organizations. It has to be embedded into the DNA of a team and organization.
When someone truly cares about another person, trust can be created in even in absence of other three key factors (sincerity, reliability, and competence).
You’ve known people that care about you and have your back. Perhaps they do things like showing up late all the time, may have told a lie here or there, may not be the most competent person, etc. You still keep them in your life because you know they care.
But it doesn’t work the same for any other three individual factors. For example, if someone is competent, but they don’t care about you, and they aren’t sincere and reliable, we don’t trust them.
Action: If you buy into the philosophy that your business and personal life is completely separate at work, you will eventually fall on hard times. Not only won’t you be able to create psychological safety, people won’t put themselves on the line for you. The requirement is to go all in and care about others.
PS: If you want to rocket “trust” in your organization check out my team building workshop.
