16 Questions that Establish Maximum Impact
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Attributed to Albert Einstein
Effective leaders understand people like fly casters understand fish. But successful leaders do more than understand people, they help people understand themselves and their roles within organizations.
Leaders establish maximum impact by creating environments where people feel they belong. The more they adapt to you, the more passion they lose.
16 Questions that Establish Maximum Impact:
- What roles do you currently play? (Include all areas of service, official and unofficial.)
- What are your most important activities? (List in order of importance.)
- What skills does it take to fulfill your official role(s) well?
- How could you feel better equipped to fulfill your official role(s)?
- What are your more enjoyable areas of service?
- What are your less enjoyable areas of service? (“I love my job,” isn’t acceptable.)
- How much time do you spend engaged in your more enjoyable activities? (Average per week.)
- How much time do you spend in your less enjoyable activities? (Average per week.)
- How do the people you work with make you feel? (No specific names.) What do they do that make you feel that way?
- How do you make the people around you feel? What are you doing to make them feel that way? Give examples.
- What unfulfilled aspirations do you have?
- What hinders your positive impact?
- How could others enhance your impact?
- How would you like your official role(s) to change in the future?
- How much control over your areas of service do you feel you have? (Scale of 1 to 10.) Please explain.
- Please rank organizational values in order of importance to you.
The environment you allow is the one you create.
What questions would you add or remove?
What are you doing to help people understand their roles?
This is a great list. I’ve got a post in draft on “loving the job you hate.” Those steps encourage accountability from the one who’s not happy. This is another important angle. It’s also a leaders responsibilty to help their team find that passion.
My favorite line, “The more they adapt to you, the more passion they lose.” But you probably could of guessed that 😉
Thanks Karin. “Loving the Job you Hate” I can’t wait! I’m planning to have a sit down with the key people in our organization to go over this list. Or, I should say, the one that evolves as a result of this post. Gary V = “Passion trumps everything,” is one of my favorite quotes.
Wowza!!! Now Dan the Man Rockwell you of all people know how “wordy” Scott is!!!
16 questions!!! We would be here for a millennia!!!!
Ok so not to do that….simply:
Help folks to NOW if they live like this…
Do ya spend the morning fearing the afternoon and then spend the afternoon regretting the morning? Do ya?
Answer most times brings us directly to the level one is operating with rigorous honesty, yes? Hehe
For business purpose one of the grandest recovered drunks was Chuck C. Richard Chamberlin, the actor….his Pops.
Chick was a very successful business man. His simple strategy after his Spiritual Awakening was simple.
He would just ask the folks doing business with, “what can I do to make you happy”?
After they got over the confusion of hearing that question they answered him. He did what they said and he locked down a new friend who loyally have him business ongoing.
If ya wanna know more about Chuck C his book A New Pair of Glasses is most excellent!!!!
So I say direct spiritual beings having a human experience to the only place we have a choice to see the world developing, unfolding right before our very eyes…..the Present Moment…NOW.
I Concur which is nice since I wrote it!!! Lol
Shifterp back to the present in left field!
Thanks Scott… “help folks to now…” Very powerful.
Powerful yeah, but IT AIN”T EASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Try for the next 10 minutes to keep your conscious awareness directed purposely RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Just 10 minutes see how distracted you get!!!!!!! LOL
Wow am I distracted, but getting better!!!!!!!!!!!
This NOW thingy takes PRACTICE! Yeah Allen Iverson….PRACTICE!!!!!!!!!
The benefit however is THE PRESENT!!!!!!!!!!!
I recommend you check it!!!!!!!!!!!! Or be led around by your ego to NOWHERE! hehe
SP back to PRACTICE!
Dear Dan,
Point number 9 is the most powerful. How do people make you feel determines impact. This can be divided into many sub parts. People may have good opinion, bad opinion or in between position. And each opinion has its own impact and value. There are people, who hinder their growth when they hear bad opinion about them. Many people bounce back on the same bad opinion. There are other category of people, who stop their growth when they hear good opinion about them. It means, some people continue to be directed and focused irrespective of people opinion. And there are people who try to manager people opinion and hence it affects their performance. Hence, how individual feel in the system is determined by personality, direction, and belief.
I do believe that one should not make effort to manage one’s perception or image. Instead, one should over communicate to minimize the wrong perception. At the same time, one should show the performance and impact from time to time.
To create maximum impact, one should understand the dynamics, trends and characteristics of the people. Achievement and performance may not get noticed always. There are other factors, like relationship and affinity that play an important role to recognize impact.
Thanks Ajay. You packed in a ton of stuff in your comment. LOve the insights about how different people respond to feedback.
Over communicate to me means to tell people what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to encourage someone, tell them, for example. Don’t assume they know.
Questions 5 – 14 strike me as the most useful questions to draw out the capacities of individual employees. If you want to know what kind of ‘fish’ they are, it seems relevant to find out what is important to them in successfully expressing their nature within your organisation. The other questions seem oriented towards the bowl, rather than the ‘fish’!
Thanks Trainer. Good observation regarding the “fish” or the “bowl.” I tried to cover both because both are relevant to maximum impact. A fish in a pile of sawdust isn’t very useful.
My favorite question is the one about control. The way it’s answered speaks volumes.
This is so important, especially to younger team members. My generation is so used to being able to instantly monitor progress– at any point in the “game”! Taking an inventory of their expectations and prospects for growth is a great way to make sure you’re growing a passion for success and personal leadership in your team. I think the value of these sort of things– along with concrete development plans for new/young leaders– is vastly understated and misunderstood.
Thanks Justin.
Your comment tells me you’ve captured one of the goals of asking these questions. They suggest that having impact matters. We don’t want people drifting along. And, sadly, drift is the inevitable consequence of ignoring something.
Dan,
“The environment you allow is the one you create.” Wow. That is powerful stuff.
That reminds me of that statement, “We teach people how to treat us.”
The honesty of those two statements requires us to shed our role of victim. Create the change needed. BE the change needed.
That takes a lot of courage when you are not the lead dog. But that doesn’t make it any less true.
Dauna
Thanks Dauna. I sat a little taller and felt more courageous after reading your comment.
Dan,
To me, your post today has such a strong message of mentoring. Our company is experimenting with a formal mentoring program, and I think many if not all of your 16 questions could be made a worthwhile part of a formal mentoring process. These are really good. Thanks for sharing.
Couldn’t agree more Scott!
I absolutely love this list, the career emotional rollercoaster that 16 questions takes you through is pretty incredible. Sign me up for the early release group for your next post- this is awesome!
I really enjoy your post. I am not a leader at any company. I am a grandma sitting home on the computer trying to learn to make money online. LOL.
I see though were I can apply all these helpful blogs to my life as a Mom, grandma,wife and a friend….
My husband is a leader so I am able to better be there for him as he leads the company and as he leads as the patriarch for our family.
Have a great day.
Kymee ; O)
I might add a #17 – How do you see the organizational values most important to you embodied by yourself and those around you? It seems worth taking the next step after #16 to look hard at yourself and those around you to see if and how those values are employed.
The list is good. The question is, will you get politically wise answers, or the truth? Sorry for sounding so cynical!
Great questions! I always find that the best and most successful leaders care about the success of others. I always tell people that you can create your own success and be happy with yourself. You can control your own feelings and environment within if that’s within your power. Great post!
The questions are all good for taking stock of one’s professional and personal life and the roles we play and the people we interact with. Making a longer list is not going to assist the cause.
What might be a powerful way to organizing the list could be with some sort of a strategic groupings that starts with a vision of what people are striving for first. Then current reality and how to close the gap.
Future Vision & Goals
Current Reality
Issues & Questions to resolve to close the gap between current reality and your vision/goals.
Action Steps with SMART objectives.