Ask Powerful Questions

The Corporate Yogi Podcast

INTRO:

Hey, thanks for tuning in to the Corporate Yogi podcast, I’m your host Julie Zuzek. This pod is YOUR dedicated time for growth, developing practical tools to use with your team and other relationships and to learning deeply about who you are and what makes you tick! Because you are a brilliant and powerful being and I want you to invest more time reflecting on WHO are being, not just WHAT you are doing. Doing is awesome, but BEING, well that is where the magic happens and what makes you truly feel fulfilled. You’re going to love this episode on the that leaders make. So here’s a look at what you’re going to learn today

1 – In the first segment we’ll introduce you to powerful questions and when to use them

2 – Then in the second segment we’ll explain the main categories to use them

3 – And in the last segment I’ll share the best powerful questions to ask in certain situations

So, get out of your head and into your heart, and let’s dive right in shall we?

SEGMENT 1

Do you ever wish you had a truth serum pill that would get people to tell you what they really want, reveal their truth. Well you do and it’s asking powerful questions. They will get people to reveal their truth. You can use them when you want people to open up, be more introspective and consider aspects of themselves they’ve never done before. So what distinguishes a regular question from a powerful question? A Powerful question will get people to stop and think. It disrupts them from unconscious thinking and patterns and makes them think deeply about their answers. Powerful questions have these 3 qualities or aspects: 1 – they’re short. The shorter the better in fact. We sometimes have the bad habit of wanted to use these questions to make ourselves sound really intelligent, so they end up getting long and complicated. 2 They should be simple, dare I say, bordering on dumbed down, only one dimensional. 3 they should be neutral and not leading and not specific to our target.

How do we ask them in a way that we have success with them?

Be confident when asking, sometimes they don’t have an answer right away, and that’s ok. Allow for silence and space after you ask so your employee can reflect.

Don’t have an agenda and predetermined answer you’re hoping to hear. Don’t be leading or make it about you. Use them in “real-time during the conversation and ask them one at a time. This is an advanced use case if you’re real-time solution finding.

SEGMENT 2

Why do powerful questions work so well? There’s a few reasons. They give the power to the other person, let them be the expert for a turn. They also force them to get in their head and think and reflect. And because they’re so simple, it gives them a chance to be in the drivers seat for a change. There are two main reasons to use them, First in a premeditated state and second is in the moment. Let’s start with the premeditated situation. This is a situation that you know is going to happen and creating a powerful question helps to prepare you. It’s like. It’s like a situational blueprint – like a job interview, or if their unfulfilled at work, or want to have a conversation about their career planning or finding their life purpose. What makes this scenario unique is you usually have a SET series of questions that you ask all the time. So for a career planning discussion you would ask them where they want to be, what is important to them, what makes them feel fulfilled? For a job interview you might ask the same series of boring questions – what are you good at? Where have you failed? What are you proud of. The other situation with powerful questions is where the situation is a surprise and you just wing it. An example would be conflict at work, or disengagement, or your employee has a death in the family. These scenarios can feel hard bc we don’t have a playbook about what to ask or why. So then we go back to the list of powerful questions and ask from there: they might feel more personal, but it’s what the employee needs, Who are you becoming, what are you needing here. What’s coming up for you?

SEGMENT 3

In this segment I’m going to give you access to some common questions to ask in different situations

Here’s some questions for employee checkins

Do you love what you do?

What makes you tolerate that?

What makes you come alive?

Tell me about what is going well?

What do you need?

Questions for Life Purpose

What is your big game?

What are the objectives of your game?

If you were to wave your magic wand what would be your one wish.

If money were no object and you could do and/or be anything in the world, what would your life look like?

What exactly do you believe is preventing you from becoming the person you've always wanted to become?

What are some simple changes you could make today that would get you one step closer to the person you want to be and/or reaching your goal?

Questions for employee conflict

How committed are to resolving this?

How could you make this work for you?

What else could you do to make it better?

What do you want to be remembered for?

What would you like your Gravestone to say?

What do you avoid by doing what you usually do?

What would like to change right now?

What are you feeling right now?

If you want to change people what would you become?

What is the one question I didn’t ask you today that I should have?

What is a question you are not asking yourself?

What is one thing that if it happened would change everything?

Do you believe that?

What was your biggest success since we last talked? What was your biggest challenge?

Interview Questions

Is the life you're living, the life that wants to live in you?

If you spent 80% of your waking time doing 1-2 things, what would they be?

How would you describe the "best work in the world" and "I get paid for it”

What games did you play as a child that still show up some way in your life today?

(I played Fairy Godmother in imaginary Cinderella play. As coaches we don't use magic wands and wouldn't, but we do delight in seeing

Are you truly happy where you are in your life right now?

What would you change if you had the power?

What is stopping you?

Why are you waiting?

When will you be ready to begin?

How will you realistically do it?

Who could help you?

What are you learning about yourself?"

"Where else can you use this?"

What successes have you had since our last session?

What do you want more of? Less of?

What's missing?

What do you want to declare moving forward?

How does that serve you? (often into) What would serve you better?

How you can make this a winning game?

What aren't you letting go of, that prevents you from moving forward?

What do you need to do less of ?

What would you be doing?

What days/hours would you be working?

Where would you be working?

What's stopping you from having that dream job?

What is working well for you?

- What 3 changes would you like to make in your life?

What do you want to achieve?

Saboteur questions

2.) What stops you from taking action?

3.) What would accomplishing this goal mean for you?

4.) What will help you be most comfortable by taking this path?

5.) What do you like about the option you are considering?

6.) What tells you that this is what you would achieve?

7.) How will you know when you have reached your goal?

What are you ready to learn?

Unlocking Potential

Here are questions that are more situational, and you would standardly ask together

-What would you do if you were 20x more confident?

-Who would you be if you weren’t afraid?

WRAP UP

OK it’s time to wrap up this episode on how powerful questions. As always, if you’re inspired by the content today, please share this episode with a friend, colleague or on social media. You can also subscribe to this podcast on my website at thecorporateyogi.com. If you want to book a time to chat with me directly, to discuss your leadership or about coaching in general you can find my booking link on LinkedIn or Instagram @thecorporateyogi. And as always, remember, that any fear, or resistance you hold inside of you, is simply just your greatness in disguise.