It’s coming to that time of year when people begin reviewing where they are, what type of year they’ve had and what they want from the year ahead. The thing is, the quality of your life and business is determined by the questions you ask of yourself and of your business.
However, if you ask the wrong questions you can pretty much bet that you’ll get the wrong answers. So what questions do you need to ask? Here are 5 questions that I feel you need to ask of you and your business every day. There are plenty of other questions you could ask but these are a good starter.
- Why am I doing this?
It’s very common for people to be blind to what they are trying to achieve. There’s a saying that sums this up perfectly for me and that is: “When you’re up to your ass in alligators it’s difficult to remember that your original intention was to drain the swamp”.
So asking yourself ‘why am I doing this’ is extremely important. I often ask my clients why they’re doing something as it’s easy to forget why you’re carrying out certain tasks or even why they’re in business in the first place. It also allows you to question your assumptions and to test whether they’re right.
Everytime you start a new task ask yourself this question. Sometimes you’ll be surprised that you don’t actually know the answer. If that’s the case then perhaps ‘not doing it’ may be the smarter course of action.
- What business do you want to be in?
This is a simple question but it’s one that must be answered before you can begin moving forward. A broad definition of your ideal business is at the heart of your business plan, this provides you with a clear picture of what must be accomplished. It allows you to create a mental picture of what will get you your desired result. To define “who you are” that is, what business do you want to be in, you have to ask yourself other questions, for example:- What are your strengths or core competencies (your area’s of greatness, the things that only you can do in your business). What services do you want to perform each day? What are you passionate about?
- Where do you want to get to?
It’s extremely common for businesses and people in general to have a lack of direction. This is because they haven’t asked themselves where they want to get to. They haven’t set goals or if they have they’re pretty vague, something like, ‘I’d like to make some money next year’. If you were to start out on a journey to somewhere you haven’t been before you’d probably look up your destination on google maps (other mapping engines are available) and then you’d use your SatNav in the car to give you directions on the way. Setting goals and objectives with regular feedback sessions performs the same function in your business as the SatNav does in your car. It allows you to define where you want to get to and provides regular updates along the way.
- Will this action take me towards what I’m trying to achieve?
As with the previous question, it’s necessary to ask yourself whether the actions you’re currently performing are taking you to where you want to get to. I find it incredibly common that people have a specific goal or result that they want, but the actions they take are at complete odds with the goal or result. This is not just a business phenomenon, think about dieters who binge on chocolate bars or business owners who want to grow their business, constantly working in their business rather than on their business. So regularly asking yourself about what you’re currently doing and is it congruent with what I want to achieve is vital for success.
Ben Hunt Davis who won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 wrote a great book called “Will it make the boat go faster” which is all about how the GB Men’s Rowing Eight went from ‘also-rans’ in previous games to champions in a few short years. It’s worth a read.
- What business are we really in?
If you’ve watched the film “The Founder” starring Michael Keaton you’ll know why this is a really important question. In the film, Keaton plays the founder of McDonald’s Ray Kroc. It’s all about how McDonald’s became the biggest fast food franchise in the world and it’s really a great film to watch as there are business lessons a plenty in it.
However for our purpose here, the lesson is all about the questions you ask, and one of the questions Kroc asked himself was “What business are we in?” Despite having initial success with the McDonald’s Franchising Kroc wasn’t making the amount of money he needed to constantly grow the business. In the early days, money was always tight. After Kroc answered this question and realised that McDonald’s wasn’t in the Burger business but the real estate business, he began to make the necessary changes that led to real success for him.
So what business are you in? If you link this to question 3 you’ll be doing the thinking that can lead to a real breakthrough for you and your business.
Why ask questions in the first place.
According to the Harvard Business Review, the good news is that by asking questions, we naturally improve our emotional intelligence, which in turn makes us better questioners— and by asking better questions we will start to get better answers.
Twelve intensive half-day meetings.
