Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It, was a guest on the radio show last year. About two-thirds of the way through our conversation, he talked about 2 questions he uses in his consulting practice.
He asked each prospective client these questions prior to the start of a formal agreement. If the client answered yes to both, then their relationship could move forward.
The two questions were:
1. Is everything on the table? Or tell us what it isn't.
2. Are you ready to look at yourself in the mirror?
I loved those questions. I loved how he phrased the first question. Hard to wiggle out of that one, isn't it?
The proverbial ding! went off, It was a two-prong ding, maybe a ding-dong, like a doorbell with good news knocking.
- The ding came from wishing I had asked these same questions in the past with client prospects.
- The dong came when I realized I could do that now, moving forward.
Tom's two questions, our conversation, hung around. It would revisit me when I would be out running. Two questions. So simple. Save so much time.
The other day, also out on a run, I realized at this point why that conversation kept hanging around, ringing in my head in quieter moments. Those two questions apply to all of our relationships.
1. Is everything on the table? Or tell me what it isn't.
2. Are we ready to look at ourselves in the mirror?
Trust me here, I'm not saying I can answer yes to these two questions in every situation. I certainly haven't in the past, always to my detriment. I understand that now.
But I am saying...whether we're frontline employees, part-time help, C-Suite executives, in school, out of work, ...these are two questions that determine our success. Environments where we can answer yes to them....are environments where we can be successful. Matter of fact, that's the only environment where we can be successful.
That's all. I mean, it's just two questions.
Have a great week.
* You can read notes from that portion of our conversation here.
* You can listen to our full conversation here.
