The Importance of Asking Questions - To Drive Results

Latest C-Suite Intelligence Podcast Episode Out Today from @TheMilesGroup Executive Coaches

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Oct 08, 2019, 10:57 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- "One of the things people don't do nearly enough in their jobs is to ask questions, and this has a negative impact on their ability to drive the results they want," says Taylor Griffin of The Miles Group/TMG in her new C-Suite Intelligence podcast out today. "In coaching CEOs and senior leadership teams, we see how critical it is for them to dig in with the third, fourth, and fifth question in situations to uncover the real story behind everything from business results to an employee performance issue to how a decision is made." "The Importance of Asking Questions" is the latest episode in the new TMG podcast C-Suite Intelligence: Leadership Lessons from Coaches to the World's Top-Performing Executives.

What are people not asking questions about?
People especially don't probe enough into areas that are actually going well, says Griffin. "They don't ask 'Why?' They don't go deep to understand what's going on and what may be the key driver to that success, and also what could be a potential risk in the future," she explains in the episode.

And when things aren't performing well, the "why" questions are critical to the diagnosis. "When someone is underperforming, for example, instead of just saying, 'Let's put them on a performance improvement plan,' you need to start with the why," says Griffin. "It could be something going on at home, or something going on with their health. It could be 10 million things that have nothing to do with the person's capacity to do their job."

In the podcast, Griffin also explains the importance of asking questions in non-threatening ways. "It can get toxic if you feel like it's an attack. It's not an interrogation." In any interaction, she says, "You can go into it with context up front to mitigate the impact your questions will have."

Why are questions a key part of a CEO toolkit?
"Most organizations would say that they would really like their leaders to have the type of humility where they seek and take advice," says Griffin. "Asking questions versus knowing all the answers is the most important piece that you could have here as a leader. If you think about any internal transition to a CEO role, there is no way on earth that that CEO has led every function in every business area of that organization. So, their powerful toolkit is asking questions where they don't know those answers, and it's using questions to get to the answer."

Previous episodes of C-Suite Intelligence include:

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information, please contact Davia Temin or Suzanne Oaks Brownstein of Temin and Company at 212.588.8788 or [email protected].

About The Miles Group/TMG
TMG develops talent strategies for organizations, teams, and individuals – focusing on high-performance, world-class leadership. Through assessments and development, coaching, leadership transition planning, and organizational design, TMG helps clients cultivate exceptional talent from the C-suite to the next generation of leaders throughout the organization. Clients include many of the Fortune 100 as well as VC portfolio companies, firms in transition, and organizations around the globe and across industries. TMG has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, C-Suite, Entrepreneur, and Chief Executive. The firm is headquartered in New York City and operates globally. For more information, visit http://miles-group.com. Follow TMG on Twitter @TheMilesGroup and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-miles-group.

SOURCE The Miles Group/TMG