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the power of asking intelligent questions

Gilbert Melott — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:50:14 +0000

the power of asking intelligent questions from john exley | Nextvoice247 on Vimeo.

It’s 9:15 in the morning and I’m sitting in my Public Speaking class in pure disbelief. My attention has suddenly left my professor and concentrated solely on my laptop. I had just loaded my TweetDeck and there it was: Kat Cole [http://www.twitter.com/katcoleatl, http://www.linkedin.com/in/katcole], the Vice President of Training & Development for Hooters Restaurants USA

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Kat Cole, emerging leader

(whom I had just started following on Twitter a few hours before amidst a near all-nighter) had replied to me on Twitter.

It’s the moment of truth: in the face of opportunity, what do I ask a person of such notable success?

Why Asking Intelligent Questions is Important

It’s simple. Have you ever dreamed of talking to your idol? Someone you really look up to, or someone whose level of success you desire to reach? If you had the chance to talk to her or him for just a few minutes, what question would you ask? Such a scenario demonstrates the importance of intelligent questions.

If I am to learn, how will I unless I ask intelligent questions? Once you are able to develop some go-to questions to ask, simply caring and showing your genuine curiosity can be the foundation to building a relationship.

The Moment of Truth

What an inspiring background. At only 26, Ms. Cole was promoted to the corporate executive level for Hooters Restaurants. Additionally serving as a public speaker, consultant, President of the Georgia Restaurant Association, and MBA student, I was intrigued to know what advice she might have concerning my plans for after graduation.

In the face of opportunity, I responded to her message on Twitter. I asked her, “What’s your advice regarding gaining 3 years of experience after graduating vs. going right to grad school?”

That afternoon, she sent me her number and said that she would make time for me the very next day. I called her and we ended up chatting for 45 minutes, as she gave me some really thought–provoking, open–ended advice and told me gripping stories of building restaurant chains in Australia at 19 years old. I took four pages of notes. It was motivating.

Fine–Tune Your Skills

Study. Asking intelligent questions is an art, and you must master it. To master an art, you must become a student of the ‘game’. Make lists of insightful questions you come across or think of. If they turn into a disorganized laundry list, categorize them. Here are a couple of good resources that I have learned a great deal from; the founders of each ask terrific questions and host strong interviews:

Mixergy [http://www.mixergy.com], founded by Andrew Warner [http://www.twitter.com/andrewwarner]

Learn From My Life [http://www.learnfrommylife.com]  founded by Moe Abdou [http://www.twitter.com/moeabdou]

Putting The Intelligent Question To Use

Have you ever met someone who gives you the impression that they are unzipping their head and dumping their brain on your lap? Unloading on you with their knowledge and continual onslaught of near-unsolicited information? Such behavior is the exact opposite of the characteristics you want to embody as a genuine ‘asker’ of intelligent questions. Further, such is the impression most have of the typical salesman. Contrast that with a person who asks thoughtful, intelligent questions. The latter is the sign of a person of good character who is interested in you.

The Sandler System of Sales [http://www.sandler.com/] is one of the most successful, worldwide sales systems and it builds its entire program on salesmen speaking 25% of the time and listening 75% of the time. When conversing, the only way you can achieve such a ratio is through the art of asking pointed, inquisitive questions.

If you are in the business of sales (even if you are simply selling yourself to recruiters), it is important to put the intelligent questions that you have developed to use. It will help you immensely to understand your customer and provide the perfect solution to their needs.

A Challenge for YOU

No matter what your age or level of success, I challenge you to interview someone whom you admire. First, do your best to research the person in–depth. Become highly knowledgeable of their area of expertise; whether it is an industry that they have excelled in, a sport, a specific course at school, or a particular niche in life that they are most interested in. The key is that you are genuinely interested in the person’s passions. Develop 5-10 intelligent questions that you are most curious about. Then, call or email the person and ask if they can spare twenty minutes for you to interview her/him.

Ideas? Use Skype [http://www.skype.com] to conduct the interview and (if it is okay with the person you interviewed) record it and post it on your blog, YouTube, or send it to the person. Don’t forget: always, always say thank you!

The Finale

What’s the purpose of asking a question if you don’t listen thoroughly to the answer?

Listen.

Practice listening. And listen some more. Whether you are meeting with a customer, talking to a potential mentor (or mentee), in an interview, or simply trying to build a relationship with someone you care about, asking intelligent questions can have a powerful impact. It can also go a long way in developing your personal and professional persona – but you must listen. The power of asking intelligent questions is that you can establish credibility and build a relationship with just about anyone; even your idol.

I encourage all of you to dedicate yourselves to helping others, especially those who have helped guide you along your journey in life. Return the favor! Listen always – look for opportunities to learn – share your experiences – and repeat.

listen. learn. share. repeat.™

Many thanks to Ms. Kat Cole for her mentorship and for inspiring me to write this article.

what are you NOT doing? 4 things leaders should

Gilbert Melott — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Leaders act. They make decisions. Leaders engage and align themselves with the goals of an organization, cause or belief of the group. But above all else they act and they lead others to act. We are all measured by our actions, our ownership of those actions and we are also measured by the things we fail to do.

As a business people make promises to those they lead every day. According to a recent study condcted by CNN and Pew Charitable, 91% of the American workforce says that one of the “most important attributes of a good leader is that they will act in a timely manner when making decisions” yet only 82% of those same respondents believe their current leaders act in a timely manner when it comes to decision making skills. An astonishing 77% follow up that statement by saying that their leader ” oftentimes fails to act at all.”

Good leaders have core and significant attributes:

1. They Engage: they are able to engage themselves and their teams to believe in the mission and deliver on the gold. They motivate and inspire others to great results.
2. They make decisions: What more can you say? They don’t sit on the sidelines, they don’t wait for consensus, they make prudent but swift and calculated decisions that are for the benefit of the business, cause or individual.
3. They act: The take action swiftly, without hesitation but always with forethought and confidence. But they always act.
4. They take responsibility: Leaders own results, good or bad and share the victories. They are responsible for the moves forward and the failures to move. Leaders are able bodied responders.

We set expectations and we measure results in everything we do – our business lives, our personal achievements, the scores our children make – every day. Our actions should reach far beyond those measurements and be supported by behaviors that demonstrate our efforts to improve our weaknesses, teach the responsibility and accountability to improve ourselves and others, and to praise the results of that improvement. Missing any of these attributes or one of these steps or the countless others we must exhibit as leaders is truly how we will be measured…

Do the right thing. Engage. Make decisions. Act. Be responsible.

What are you NOT doing today?

listen. learn. share. repeat.

u askin me the questions? i stands for interviewee

Gilbert Melott — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:27:00 +0000

In another life, I interviewed at least two people a week to support the growth of our business. Some weeks, even if I didn’t have positions opened, I still believed in interviewing top-level talent because you never know when you will run across that perfect fit and superstar. Aside from the obvious advice of looking your interviewer in the eye, dress appropriately, spit out your gum and being friendly – I thought I would provide a few pointers of things that most successful job-seekers are able to do in a job interview:

   1. Live up to your promised skills. Chances are, you got an interview because someone already thought you had the skills they were looking for. So the challenge in the interview isn’t to outline all the things you can do or list them out verbally, it’s to give as much proof as you can about all the things you said you could do and prove that you were not just exaggerating. Be specific. Use both qualitative and quantitative support.
   2. Be part of the culture. The most important part of any interview is usually what you could call a “chemistry check.” It’s no surprise that people hire others that they like and feel they (or their teams) can work with. So do your best to understand their culture and show authentic ways that you might fit in – because ultimately, you’ll likely be hired based on far more than your skills alone. So, as I have said before, know what music they are playing before you walk in the door.
   3. Have ideas about their business. Nothing is worse than interviewing someone who has no idea what a business does, or what the products are. Don’t make that mistake and do your homework – use the web, your social network, ASK QUESTIONS. Walk in with ideas about their business, but be careful not to cross the line and give an impression that you think you know more about their business than they do.
   4. Demonstrate you’ll contribute quickly. No one wants to hire someone who will take 3 months to learn the business before doing anything – especially in this environment. However you can do it, you need to show the ways that you can hit the ground running and make an immediate impact. You can talk about similar situations or why certain attributes you have give you the capability of being a team player a contributor.
   5. Make the person hiring you look smart. Anytime you are hired, the person who does it puts their personal reputation behind you. So you need to make them comfortable that they will look smart within their company for hiring you. Remember, it’s about the team from the very start.
   6. Leave them with something shareable. If you managed to impress your interviewer enough for them to consider you seriously for the job, the first thing they will usually need to do is convince several others within the organization to either bring you back for a second interview, or hire you right away. So be sure to point them to a website or a blog or some sort of content online that introduces you to those you didn’t meet, and reinforce your interviewer’s view that you may be good for the job. Just make sure your web presence is in “good shape”. Or simply leave them with strong evidence of your accomplishments that the hiring manager can correlate to the position they are filling.

These are basic pointers, but if you nail these six, you are more than half way there.

listen. learn. share. repeat.™

g.

sosh

Gilbert Melott — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:56:02 +0000

This past week I had the great pleasure of watching the ultimate social anthropological experiment come to life. It wasn

sosh

Gilbert Melott — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:56:02 +0000

This past week I had the great pleasure of watching the ultimate social anthropological experiment come to life. It wasn

sosh

Gilbert Melott — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:56:02 +0000

This past week I had the great pleasure of watching the ultimate social anthropological experiment come to life. It wasn

sosh

Gilbert Melott — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:56:02 +0000

This past week I had the great pleasure of watching the ultimate social anthropological experiment come to life. It wasn

go away little boy, go away little girl

Gilbert Melott — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Ahhh… Sunday.

I am beginning to pack for The Go-Giver Tour. Let's see, a few extra t-shirts (humid in Orlando) and 7 hats for each of my blogs. And no I'm not packing too soon. I have a lot of prep work to accomplish and it's rainy today so why not start now, plus there is very limited space. Maybe one more t-shirt, I should look nice though…

I wish I could say I found this next quote while I was rummaging through my sock drawer, but that wouldn't be real. But when I did find it, I thought this is my perfect Sunday message as I head into this really fantastic week.

"To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change." ~Charles Horton Cooley

Ahhh… Sunday! Ahhh, travel.

Maybe one more t-shirt – - speaking of t-shirts check out a young entrepreneur named Danny Bocanegra. Danny will be heading Kenya in June. No safari for Dan. He set out earlier this year to raise $5,000 to purchase a minimum of 1000 mosquito nets to fight malaria by selling t-shirts through his organization called Buzzkill. He is partnering with www.volunteerhq.org, teaching English to students who as you might guess will learn how to use the mosquito nets Danny is providing and then the students will go home and train their parents.

Here's what I think is really cool about Dan's travel – when he returns in July, Danny will be starting his own business. An e-commerce site that will be "the hub for fashionable clothing with social awareness". It will be a social enterprise where a portion of every t-shirt sale will benefit a specific cause.

In order to raise the remainder if the money for his planned net allocation Buzzkill is selling t-shirts for $20 + shipping and handling. All of Danny's travel expenses are generously being covered by individual donors. So 100% of the proceeds go to the cause. I just got mine and it is in my travel stack. You might think about your "travel" plans. Go to DannyBocanegra.blogspot.com or Dan.Bocanegra@gmail.com and he can give you statistics and more info. He is close to reaching his goal.

Show the Go-Giver spirit on your travel path today.

listen. learn. share. repeat.

pay your do

Gilbert Melott — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:38:00 +0000

In a world of 140 characters, 22,637 followers on Twitter and

pay your do

Gilbert Melott — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:38:00 +0000

In a world of 140 characters, 22,637 followers on Twitter and