A critical key to success you and your organization is to ask three high value questions that are most important to get clear answers to. It is also critically important to not just understand and apply the 3 questions, but to appreciate the order in which you need to ask them.
Question #1: If you want to create the clarity and focus that leads to impact for your clients and your organization, you must understand what it is that’s going to define success?
What are their goals, objectives, and targets? Quality answers to this question is essential to establishing clarity about what to focus on. This clarity of focus is necessary so you can measure progress toward achieving the desired result. If you can establish clearly with your people and your clients what you are going to accomplish and get an agreement on that, you have a tremendous amount of clarity about what to focus on at every step of the way.
Question #2: Why is this best possible choice of what to focus on?
(Done well, this is actually more powerful for motivating and keeping people on track than question #1.) When you get an answer as to why something is the best possible choice, you have the power of meaningfulness to engage your client and people with. Knowing what to focus on and why that is the best choice to pursue is always critical to answer before you go to the third question. Remember, effective communication skills always work best when your order of questions is clear and appropriate.
Question #3: How will I get it done?
Too many people are asking how I am going to get “it” done without knowing what the “it” is. They engage in activity without a clear and compelling focus as to what is most worth doing. Lacking a clear outcome usually results in a massive waste of time, energy, effectiveness, talent, and resources. Why would anyone subject themselves to such a massive waste? The single greatest cause of this wastefulness is because there was no what and why clearly defined.
To maximize your success, never, ever start talking about how you’re going to do something until you have absolute clarity and agreement about what you’re attempting to accomplish, what the measurements of success are, and why that would be the best choice to pursue.
The most amazing thing is that by defining ‘what’ the target is and ‘why’ that is the best choice, figuring out how to do it becomes almost a no-brainer. Starting with what is most important and why it is so valuable provides a level of context and clarity that is astoundingly powerful in presenting a clearer path to how to accomplish that result.
By answering these three key questions well, you become a force for greater clarity, focus, and impact with everyone you deal with!
