Asking Questions Beats Having All the Answers

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                            (Estimated Read Time 4 minutes)

This episode is about answers. You feel lost when you don't have all the answers. You feel doubt and fear. You have anxiety about what's going on. When you have answers, it allows you to manage to a point. In other words, you can get to a point where you're doing something repeatedly. There's no innovation, there's no reflection, there's no creativity because you've been given the answer and this is the only way you know how to do something. For example, when the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

You’ll get stuck waiting for the answers.

You can only get so far on answers. By having the answers, you have reached the level where you are today. But it’s not more answers that will move you forward. It's not having the answers that will get you from good to great. You’ll get stuck waiting for the answers. Waiting for certainty and knowing that everything will work. Well, it doesn't work that way.

Stop looking for answers and start asking questions.

Stop looking for answers and start asking questions. Understand that having the answers got you here. But it is your questions that get you to where you want to go. You can ask bad questions. Questions like “Why is it like this? Why can't I do it?” These are horrible questions to ask because they lead to failure. But when you ask what and how, that’s when things start getting a lot nicer. Ask questions like, “What can I do? How can I do this?”

You don’t need to see the entire staircase to take the next step.

Too many of you are waiting to see the entire path before you take the next step because you want that certainty. You want to know that the steps you're taking will get you to where you want to go. The best example I can give of this is when you're driving at night. You can't see the entire road; you can't see the whole path. All you can see is what's in front of the headlights. There are things that you could come upon, like an accident or construction or an animal. These things will cause you to redirect. You might have to take a short detour. I had to do that this morning. I was driving to work and I got stuck at a railroad crossing.  I thought, “Nope, I’m not doing this.” I went around it.

You may ask the wrong questions sometimes and that’s okay.

Stop thinking you need to see the whole path. I want you to have a direction. Then I want you to take the next step. And you do that by asking great questions. But you will make missteps. You will get the wrong answers to questions, and you may even ask the wrong questions sometimes. That’s okay. It's part of the experience, it's part of the experiment. You need to give yourself the wisdom.

Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from mistakes.

Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from mistakes. And it doesn't mean that you shouldn’t make mistakes. Mistakes are not to be avoided. Mistakes are not to be repeated. In other words, make the mistake, learn from it, and then begin again more intelligently, as Henry Ford said. Wrong answers will happen. Ask, “What else can you do?”

Be sure to understand the context.

Sometimes you think you have the answer. But you may be assuming and cutting people off when they ask you questions. Don't do this. You need to understand the content as well as the context. The content is the question. The context is the situation surrounding the question. Ask questions that will grow your business. And then your team will come to you and ask you questions. Before you answer, ask questions. Make sure you understand the context. Make sure you understand their perspective. Make sure you're empowering them.

Going from good to great isn't having the answers. It’s about asking the best questions.

Going from good to great isn't about having the right answers. It's about asking the best questions. It took me a while to understand that. I thought I had to give everyone answers. I found that I am the most effective coach when I'm asking questions because that's where insight and learning come from.

What question will you ask yourself this week? My question is, “How can I show up more authentically to be more helpful?” When you stop having all the answers and you start building your team up so that they do, you go from being the center of your business, and if you walk away it falls apart, to creating a business that runs without you. That’s exactly what you want, right?

Please share this video.  We have our Shop Owner’s Round Table, on the second Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we would love you and your friends to drop by. Shop owners only. And then we have our upcoming Pocket Business Genius webinar on the second Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

God bless. stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.  Take care.

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