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August 2012
Choose your favorite writer
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Adrian -
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Jason -
Jennifer
I’m getting better at asking questions of my customers. Business coaching is a skill, and I’m growing in this area. Business coaching is all about asking questions. When my coaches ask me questions, I realize how far I have to go to begin asking great questions of my customers. But we can all grow and excel at this important interpersonal skill.
5 Ways to Ask Better Questions
1. Ask deep questions. You could ask questions that are shallow – they elicit small amounts of information. The shallow questions might get to the heart of the issue, but it doesn’t pull out a lot of information from your customer. You want a lot of information, so ask deep questions.
shallow: “Do you struggle to lead your team with confidence?”
deeper still: “Can you tell me 10 ways in which past failures are keeping you from leading your team effectively today? Can you give me some examples? Now prioritize the top 3.”
“You two seem to make a great team.” Jason and I have heard this more than a few times. While we have only been working together in our businesses for a few years, we have made a pretty great team in our marriage for over 19 years so far. Long before I was officially a team member at Blumer CPAs or THRIVEal, I was involved as Jason’s unofficial coach when he needed to work through a decision.
I really enjoy working with my husband, but I get such a mixed reaction from others about whether or not they would want to work with their spouses. When I looked for other articles about couples working together, I also found a mixed set of results. One article basically said the quickest route to divorce is to work with your spouse. Others said that a huge percentage of small businesses are actually run by married couples.