Employees Who Ask Questions Create Value

“If you want to be successful and reach your leadership potential, you need to embrace asking questions as a lifestyle.” John C Maxwell

The employee that asks questions the most creates the most value. This is what I observed. I have come to realize that those who have questions create more value than those who have answers. We all have been trained that the best way to impress others is to have answers to even questions we don’t expect anyone to ask.

In my book, My Father Must Be Crazy, I wrote about how schools condition all of us to focus on having all the answers in the world rather than asking questions. I suggested that tests in schools should be this way: teachers should give provide answers and ask students to ask questions. The person who asks the best and most relevant questions should get the best mark.

When we lost interest, we stop asking questions and just focus on answers. While we try to impress people with our answers, we express our deepest thoughts when we ask questions. Employees who ask more questions than have answers are the ones who are growing.

The ability to ask the right question will greatly enhance an employee’s ability to create value in the workplace. I remember walking over to my employer as a teacher and asking if there is a way, I can help simplify the complexities in his role. It was a simple question that open great doors for me. From then on, I developed a new capability that make me ask questions a lot.

If I am not asking someone questions, I am asking myself. At the Value Giver Coach, we take employees through the questioning system we created called Value Creation Questions. Employees who go through the program get to ask questions that will help them create 3, 5-, 7-, 10- and 15-years value for their employer. We believe that value creation should be continuous for an employee. You don’t value once and rest on your laurels. You keep creating value.

If you don’t ask questions, you won’t be able to create value for anyone. You won’t be able to learn anything new if you don’t ask questions. Questions fuel your imagination. This simply means that when you have more answers than questions, your memories are bigger than your imagination. However, if you ask more questions than you have answers, your imagination is bigger than your memories.

Answers are created in the past. They may just make an organization stay in the past and never seek to create the future. People with answers live in the past, while people with questions live in the future. This means that employees who continually ask questions have a moving future that continually gets bigger and better than their past.

If Isaac Newton had tried to proffer answers for why the Apple fell from a three, he would not have come up with the theory of gravity. That is because at that time there was no answer for it. There were assumptions and speculations. However, when he asked questions, it opened up a world of discovery and innovation.

Employees who have answers always maintain the status quo. Everything they do fortifies the status quo. However, when they begin to ask questions, they start challenging the status quo. They gain insight to create new forms of value.

“If you want to make discoveries, if you want to disrupt the status quo, if you want to make progress and find new ways of thinking and doing, you need to ask questions. Questions are the first link in the chain of discovery and innovation.” John C. Maxwell

1. Question Leads To Discovery

When you ask questions, you begin to discover new things. Questions change the way you see things. And when the way you see things changes, the things you notice change and you are able to make new connections which result in new forms of value.

2. Questions Uncovers What Value Is To Someone

There is no way you are going to know what value means to someone without first asking the person questions. In most cases, all we do is assume what value is to others and our assumption are in most cases wrong. You need to ask your employer and clients questions to uncover what value means to them.

3. Questions Creates A Common Ground For Value Creation

Value for people cannot be created without deep connections with people as humans. To connect, you have to arrive at a common ground where you understand each other. The common ground is the sweetest spot for value creation. You get to create a common ground by asking questions.

4. Insight Gained From Asking Questions Can Be Used To Create Value

When you ask questions, you will gain insight into what your employer needs and what other features need to be part of the value you are creating. Without these insights, its hard to create value for people. You have to understand people and their behavior to effectively create value for them.

5. Questions Expand The Mindset

Questions put your brain to work. You have to think to ask questions. It stretches the mind. Just as exercise stretches your muscles, so thinking and questions stretch your mindset. Having only answers won’t stretch the mind. Like a rubber bank, the mind can only create value when stretched by questions. A working mind creates value.

6. Questions Unlock Creative Potential

Your creative potential is locked until you start asking questions. Isaac Newton may never have known what he was capable of doing if he had not asked questions. Don’t seek to impress people with answers, but rather ask questions to know. Express your creative potential through the questions you ask.

7. Questions Starts a Value Creation Relationship

Relationships start when we show interest in people. When employees become interested in the success of their employer, they come with questions than answers. And for each question they ask and their employer answers, a relationship is formed. The employer gives them permission to create value. The person who asks the most questions gets informed and becomes influential. It is easier to influence people through a relationship.

We are organizing a Game-Changing Value Creator Coaching program. You can be part and should be part. It is for you. If you want to attain freedom and find fulfillment at work, then become a value creator.

Be part of the Game-Changer Value Creation Coaching program. You will go through the mindset required to create and the tools you need to always create value in the workplace. Are you ready for a fundamental change- a breakthrough in the way you approach your work? If you are, then you are ready for the Value Giver Coach Program. Please call +2348101671745.

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