Two simple skills to unlock greater performance and success!

Your Weekly Inspiration with Lily Woi

A weekly newsletter inspires you to take action and unlock greater performance in your organisation, your team, your career and most of all in yourself. All in 10 minutes or less.

?? Focus of the Week: Unlock Breakthroughs: The Power of Asking & Listening

Asking Questions and Quality Listening. These are the two most underrated career and leadership tools that many fail to cultivate enough.?

Let's look at it separately.

Firstly, the power of asking the right questions.?

Questions create change, not solutions.?

We tend to focus a lot on finding the solution but not enough on asking the right questions. We seem to have this need to provide answers to demonstrate our "worthiness", yet it is stopping us from doing something much more powerful.?

Questions engage with your brain, creating transformation, unlocking creativity and inspiring new ideas.

Your urgency to find the solution might prematurely close down a discussion, while asking questions can unlock bigger breakthroughs.?

Focus on building a culture of inquiry - spend time asking open-ended questions to generate thinking and discussion.?

Asking questions increases your success rate because it helps you focus your thinking, better understand the situation, and clarify hidden assumptions that get in the way.?

So the next time you feel compelled to give an answer, pause and ask a question first. Who knows? You might unlock a different solution.?

As Einstein said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

The trick to asking the right questions leads us to the second part, quality listening.?

Consider this - are you really listening, or are you just waiting to respond??

I bet it's often the latter. You hear the first half of the sentence, and your brain immediately goes into overdrive to come up with the response. You then politely wait until the person finishes speaking so you can finally respond.

Or you might even excitedly interject mid-way, assuming you know what they're talking about and proudly demonstrate that by trying to finish their sentence.

Cutting the person mid-sentence, mid-thought and redirecting the conversation down a different path than intended.?

Yikes!!?

There wasn't any ill intent behind it, but the outcome was.?

The person on the receiving end might feel embarrassed to correct you. Or, they might get frustrated that you're trying to push your agenda. Worse, they might get disengaged because it's all about you. You're not listening to them.

The next time someone speaks, dial up the quality of your listening.?

Listen with your eyes, ears, body and mind. Focus on the other person and allow yourself to truly hear what they're trying to say.

It expands your perspective, opens new ideas and creates better solutions.?

And sometimes, quality listening might just be what the other person needs - to be heard.

Now what?

Here are some simple steps you can take to dial up these skills:

• Start small: Dedicate 5 minutes at the beginning of your next meeting to ask open-ended questions about the topic at hand.
• Challenge assumptions: Instead of accepting things at face value, ask "why?" or "how do we know that?" to explore different perspectives.
• Practice silence: Give the speaker space to finish their thought before responding. This can feel awkward at first, but it allows for a richer conversation.
• Summarise and paraphrase: Briefly repeat back what you heard to ensure understanding.

Ready to Take Deeper Action?

Get in touch, and let's talk . I teach these fundamental communication skills as part of my career and leadership masterclasses.?

Psst: Struggling with overwhelm? My latest podcast guest episode (HERE ) dives into self-management skills for courageous leaders.

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Warm regards,

Lily

Lily Woi - People & Culture Catalyst?

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