This short post is prompted by Dan Rockwell’s great post yesterday on his fine Leadership Freak Blog. In it he proposes that “what’s important to you” is the most powerful question of all (read it, it is less than 300 words – and the comments are awesome too).
While I’m not not great at “give me your top five” of anything (movies, CD’s I’d put on my iPod, books, etc.), I think Dan’s question is a great one, but I’d like to add a word to it.
Dan suggests “what’s important to you?” and I suggest adding the word “most”, as in:
What’s most important to you?
These questions might be used in sequence – after all why powerful and revealing, people won’t always know what is important to them right away – it may require some thinking. Once that thinking is complete however, drilling to the most important is critical.
Either (or both) of these questions can be used in many situations both introspectively and interpersonally. Either will help you create the clarity and priority necessary for greater productivity and decisiveness.
Kevin,
Isn’t it interesting how one word can change things? Love the addition of “most” to the question.
Nicely done.
Regards,
Leadership Freak
Dan Rockwell
Thank you Dan – for starting such a great conversation. Great questions have a way of doing that….
Kevin 🙂
As someone’s with a personal motto of Change Your Words; Improve Your Results, I truly believe the words we speak have incredible power. The question I ask is very similar – What results are important to you? Using a free online tool, The Headline Analyzer, this question scores an emotional marketing value of 66.67%. Most marketing copy is around 30-40%. By adding the word results creates far greater focus and truly differentiates me from many others. Leanne Hoagland-Smith, The Results Coach and author of Be the Red Jacket
Good question and addendum. Very powerful. Good question to ask ourselves on a regular basis. Another question I advocate managers and leaders ask their staff – in a similar vein – is “why are you here”?
You have to getn past the “pat” answers of “its a paycheck”, “got to work somewhere”. To initiate the conversation, the leader could use a Job Satisfaction Survey. List 10 -15 potential job satisfaction factors (money, benefits, autonomy, growth opportunity, advancement, security, social environment, etc.) and ask the staff member to rank them from most to least important. Then when you meet with them, you can drill down.
Creates a structure for those that are not accustomed to thinking about these things. Creates the environment for some very interesting discussions as well.
Keep up the good work Kevin – always find something applicable and thought provoking in your messages.
Michael
As a leadership development advisor and coach, I love powerful questions. With my work focused on helping leaders reach their full potential, I would add “as a leader” to the end of the question.
Thanks for providing a learning edge for me!