Be curious!
Ask more questions
Apparently, children between the ages of three and five ask around 300 questions per day.
How many have you asked so far this morning?
When do we lost this innate curiosity about the world? When do we stop wanting to understand more?
The most successful people never assume they know it all. They are always looking for a better way to do things. And to find it, they know that they need to go looking for information and connections.
Curiosity is the key to creativity, but it is also the key to building successful relationships.
There’s nothing more infuriating than someone assuming they understand our role, our challenges and our experiences without asking. This lack of knowledge and interest in other people is often at the heart of the most challenging relationships at work.
To connect with someone, you need to be interested in who they are and what they are doing, whether it’s someone you manage, a peer or a client.
Next time you’re having a conversation, try opening it up be asking questions from a place of wanting to know more, rather than following an agenda.
“What are your priorities right now?”
“What’s your biggest challenge at the moment?”
And the most powerful of all: “What do you think?”
I’m going to take a bit of a break from this newsletter over the next few weeks, so it will be back at the end of August.
If you’d like to get in touch before then about coaching, training or workshops, please do!