Mark S. Brown – Page 39

3 Steps for Asking Great Questions

Asking great questions can unlock opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to us. Asking great questions help us connect with others, build better ideas, and provide new perspectives to grow our awareness.

But how do we become better at asking better questions? Here are three steps to consider in using questions to expand your capabilities:

1. Preparation. The best questions require preparation. You must invest some time to think and possibly research the person or subject under discussion. You can consider history, current events, challenges, resources, etc. Then put your thoughts into the form of probing questions.

2. Listening. After you have completed your preparation, and have reached the point where you can ask questions, ignore the temptation to read your questions. In fact, ignore your prepared questions and just listen. Allow the conversation to dictate the appropriate questions. Be present and fully in the moment for the discussion.

3. Get Out of Your Head. Don’t analyze the discussion from your perspective. Don’t put the conversation in terms of you. Stay focused on the other person, and ask questions that reflect your true and genuine interest in the subject.

It is counter intuitive to prepare and then ignore the preparation. But if you don’t, then you risk being perceived as scripted. And if you fail to do the preparation, you will not be able to ask the best questions when the opportunity arises.

We often don’t think of asking questions as a skill. But it is a very important skill that can be developed, and utilized, to open the doors of opportunity.

6 Daily Choices Which Greatly Determine Your Success

I was on the way to the office this morning and I saw the police arresting a man. It was obvious that it was not a regular traffic stop because there were four police cars, and they had the man in handcuffs. When we are not having a good day, it can be easy to forget that there are many people experiencing worse.

During the holidays or at the end of the year, most people spend time being thankful and reflecting on the previous year. But living life with gratitude should not be limited to an annual event, it should be a daily choice. Living life with a perspective of gratitude, will keep us from being discouraged by our circumstances.

This week when I was reflecting on my own gratitude, I wrote a list of six daily choices we can make which create our attitude. These choices happen by default if we are not consciously aware of our intent. These choices also affect our lives, our success, and people around us. Here is the list:

1: Gratitude: Having a sense of gratitude every day keeps us grounded. It helps us keep perspective on all our challenges. It is also a great tool for stress relief.

2. Passion and Energy: Think of a person that you admire because they always bring energy and passion to any challenge they face. Their approach to life is a choice. Prepare for your day with a choice to bring energy to everything you do.

3. Serving and Compassion: Your can choose to live your life for yourself, or you can choose to have a high level of compassion for others. Servant leaders develop and serve their team rather than expecting to be served. Genuine concern and compassion for others is also a choice.

4: Forgiveness: A grudge has only a negative value in your life. Failure to forgive can create a roadblock in your own success which has nothing to do with the other person. Choosing to forgive is a powerful daily practice.

5: Abundance: Many people chase opportunities from a scarcity mindset. But keeping an abundance mindset will open many more opportunities. If you get stuck thinking there is only one option, or one path to success, you will live life limited. Thinking abundantly is a choice.

6: Growth: Choosing to approach each day as an opportunity to grow as a person allows you to embrace failure. Growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through evaluated experience, reading, classes, and discussion. You have to choose to take advantage of the opportunities.

This may seem like a lot of daily choices to make. But I have learned the more intentional you are about your daily decisions, the easier it becomes!

If you do not have a routine to prepare for your day that includes setting your attitude, there is no better day to start than today.

Are You Allowing Your Integrity to Be Reflected in Your Actions?

Albert Einstein has said, ““Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”

Integrity does not depend on circumstances! You either have integrity or you don’t. It doesn’t matter the size of the issue, or who is watching. Integrity is your actions based on your values.

Officially, Integrity is defined as adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

Your integrity should be visible to your team. Here are three thoughts about allowing integrity to be reflected in your actions:

1. Check your motives. Make sure your motives also reflect your moral and ethical principles. Sometimes moral and ethical actions can be driven by the wrong motives. What appears to be right is driven by the wrong reasons. Always review your motives for taking action.

2. Align with your values. Your actions are just a reflection of your values. You can be misguided by short term objectives. How would your actions be viewed by others? Do your actions match who you are? Strive to match your actions with who you want to be. You can grow to be the best version of yourself.

3. Be honest. Be honest always. You are either an honest person, or you are not. Honesty is a choice. If you tell a lie to someone, and they determine it is a lie, you will never be honest again in their mind. There may be times when it is better not to answer, than to tell the truth. You must determine if the truth will endanger or hurt another person. Honesty is the number one characteristic people seek in their leaders. You can establish integrity by always being honest.

Do not think of integrity as your reputation. Your reputation is what other people think of you. Integrity is within you. You can reflect your true level of integrity with your actions.

5 Reminders to Keep Your Team Motivated

Sometimes you can be so busy that you fail to recognize the importance of your actions. If you don’t have time to talk with one of your team members, the motivation level of your team can plummet.

Poor actions can destroy a team’s motivation faster than it can be built or rebuilt. Even with high performance teams, maintaining motivation must be an ongoing priority.

Here are five key actions to place on the top of your priority list if you want to keep your team motivated. These are areas that are easy for us to make mistakes if we don’t manage our priorities. Put your people first.

1. Be accessible. No matter how busy your day, if you are not available when your team needs you, they will feel abandoned. Take the time to check in with your team members on a regular basis. Make sure they know you are available if needed.

2. Be decisive. Some decisions get delayed because we don’t have all the data or the time to evaluate the data. If the team is slowed down because they are waiting on your decisions, they will feel leaderless. If you don’t have time to make decisions in a timely manner, empower your team to make more decisions.

3. Show Concern for the Team. Slow down and show your team that you care. A team member will never give you 100% unless they know you care about them as a person. A team is built of individuals with different strengths and different challenges. As the leader, you must pull together the individuals. You must connect with each one individually to maximize the ability of the team.

4. Never Tolerate Poor Performance. Performance issues are best addressed immediately. Every delay, for whatever reason, effects the entire team. A leader can struggle in this area if they are not able to see poor performance as an opportunity to improve. You probably have been on a team where one team member was not pulling their weight. It can be very demotivating. Take action as soon as possible.

5. Focus on the Positives. We can become blind to the opportunities that are created through failure. By keeping attitudes positive, it is possible to discover a higher level of success. But if we focus on criticisms and punishments, no one will look for opportunity, and no one will be highly motivated.

There are many ways to destroy motivation on a team. Some are so basic, you should never have reached a leadership position if you struggle in these areas. These include being dishonest, taking credit for another person’s work, criticize someone in public, showing favoritism, and poor communication.

If you want to impact your team today, be positive, be available, be decisive, address performance issues promptly, and show them you care! Don’t just be their manager, be a leader.