One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a consultant is that I don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, most of the time, I don’t need to have any of the answers.
Instead, the greatest value I bring to my clients is by asking some helpful questions.
Not having all the answers can feel a bit uncomfortable at times – particularly to a control freak like me. But 99% of the time, my clients and their teams have all the answers they need. They just need to be asked the right questions so that they can see the issue from a different perspective.
And, when my clients develop the solution themselves, their level of ownership and commitment to the resulting actions is so much higher than if they’re just carrying out my solution.
When one of your team brings an issue to you, how often do you try and give them ‘the’ answer and how often do you ask them questions so that they can discover the answer for themselves?
Off The Record: Ask Me No Question by BB King
Oh, but I done got wise to you baby
You’re not the only bird in the sky
So now, don’t you ask me no questions
And you know I won’t, I won’t tell you no lies
Stuart Cross 2022. All rights reserved.