Be a Questioner

I am continuing the 10.5 Tips to help you find and create relationships that will contribute to your Employee Engagement efforts. Here are Tips 4-6…

Be(come) a Questioner. Practice the 80:20 guideline. Ask 4 questions for every statement you make. Ask 4 questions to follow every answer you give. Ask questions that generate answers 4 times longer, meatier than the questions themselves. Your objectives are to stimulate discussion, to get to know the other person, to build the start of a networking relationship.

Practice questions that invite detailed answers. Avoid “yes/no” and specific quantitative questions to begin with. If you must ask them, practice The Pause after the other person answers: your silence can encourage her/him to say more. Consider questions that don’t appear as questions: I’d like to hear more about your… . And lead into your question with a statement of interest: The insurance industry seems a dynamic mixture of people-focus and quantitative data. Is that true?

Ask questions that invite questions in return. A question that invites one to look only at her experience, work, product, etc., may not generate a question from her to you. But a question-statement like, “I wonder how your approach to marketing and mine are similar” just might. It opens the door to mutual curiosities. Building a series of such questions may take time. Here are some samples:

• My business is relatively new. What suggestions would you make to about getting started in this community?
• I’ve been looking at several ____ choices. What would you advise?
• We are really interested in learning more about ____. Will you share any successes you’ve had?