Today’s question is a different type of question… It works well because it calms the brain. The it works so well is the element of surprise catches the brain off guard a little bit and we’re more likely to go into a good, meaningful conversation.

Curious? Check out the sixth episode of the video series ‘7 Questions to Ask When You Want to Tell!’ for today’s question.

About the series ‘7 Questions to Ask When You Want to Tell!’: Come with me on a 7-week adventure. Each week I will share one #question you can ask when you really want to tell, unpack why it works, and help you become a more empowering leader.

Click on the image below to watch the video.

So what are you waiting for? Go try it out.

Go Fearlessly – Corrinne

PS If you are interested in the content, but don’t like watching video, here’s the transcript of what I say:

When we externalise and vocalise the problem, we’re taking it out of our brain and we’re using our words to speak it, to put it out. It calms the brain. So today’s question helps you to support your people to do just that and to access a more creative problem solving stage.

My goodness. This is our fifth question. So another question. Are you ready for it?

Oh, this is your first one? If this is the first video you’ve tapped in, then I’m on a mission to help you, to empower your people. Connect your people with the important work that needs to be done and own that work. How do we do that? We do that through asking a question when they come to us with that “blah, blah, blah, blah, what should I do?” Okay, so don’t jump in with the answer. Instead, ask a question. And this video series has seven questions that you can ask when you really want to tell.

And today’s question is a good one, because what’s good for two reasons, really. The first thing is, as I said, if we ask them and they externalise the fear, it calms them down. They’re much more receptive to creative thinking, to problem solving.

The second reason that today’s question is really good, it’s the element of surprise. So they’ve come to you and what should I do? They’re expecting your answer. They’re expecting you to tell them.

Or, if you’ve been following these videos, then they might be expecting you to ask a question in relation to the solution.

This question is quite different. So the element of surprise catches the brain off guard a little bit and we’re more likely to go into a good, meaningful conversation. So if I sold it well enough, I really need to tell you what you’re buying, right? The question is…. “So what are you afraid of here?”

So someone’s run up to you…. “What should I do?”

“So what are you afraid of here?”

The other benefit of this question is that it builds awareness. Their response will give you more awareness about where they’re at. You know this state of mind, how confident and competent they are in this particular scenario. It also increases their own awareness of what’s going on for them.

And then, of course, you can use any one of the questions that we’ve talked about so far as a follow up question.

So what are you waiting for? What are you afraid of? Go try it out.