Monthly Archives: July 2012

I know, it hasn’t been that long (just a couple of days ago), since I posted my definition of what a provocative question is. Yet, you must be wondering (I know you are) what are some examples of effective provocative questions. So here are my favorite 10 questions:

• Would you describe the profiles of your best clients, what markets are you targeting, and what may be some of the best ways to reach them?
• What are the key distinguishing factors between you and others competing in your areas of expertise and what is the remarkable value you bring to your clients?
• How would you describe your brand and articulate your strategy?
• What are the key challenges your business is facing, why have you contacted me and what were you hoping I can do for you?
• Who are some of the thought leaders that you respect and why?
• How are you planning on re-inventing yourself and how would you raise the bar?
• If we were to work together on this project, what are the exceptional results that would thrill you?
• What if this project failed and what if it was extremely successful?
• What does this project mean to you personally and what legacy would you like to leave behind?
• Do you have the courage to do what it takes to be successful?

I do acknowledge that although these are some (there are others of course) of my favorite questions, there is nothing like being in the moment and asking powerful, effective and provocative questions. When you do, you are likely to frame the real issue, gain trust, and help your client rapidly reach higher success.

I would love to hear what are your favorite provocative questions?

I was recently asked, by one of my mentorees, to help identify what is a provocative question. Here is my take. A provocative question is one that:

• Unveils the key issues that need to be addressed
• Helps expedite the process of reaching a strong conceptual agreement
• Helps establish trust yet is uncomfortable at times for the person to answer
• Stimulates the discussion and forces the person to think hard and dig deep
• Eliminates the junk which but that I mean the superfluous stuff that should be ignored or eliminated
• Positions you as an object of interest and as an expert
• Causes the person to say: “wow, I’ve never thought of it that way” or “that’s a great question!”

Although I recommend you collect such questions and store them in a system for easy retrieval, the ones I find most effective are the ones I come up with in the moment.

So what are you waiting for?

What do you with all the great ideas that come to you or the ones you learn about from reading, brainstorming, listening, or watching?

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t come up with ideas to improve my life or my business as well as those around me, whether family, colleagues and clients. What I am referring to are such ideas as: improvement, innovation, new product development, writing and content creation (articles, process visuals, audios, videos) and more.

I immediately then jot the idea down to enter later into a digital file system or directly enter it into my system. I happen to use Evernote as my software tool of choice to easily organize all these ideas which can then be easily retrieved anywhere and anytime on all my devices (desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone and such).

Not only will this guarantee that your next best idea does not go to waste, but once the ideas go into this system, they become a goldmine that can easily be mined and retrieved. Do this and you will never have a shortage of great ideas.