This is Stephen Robbins. Welcome to the get it done guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

My day job is executive coaching. Sports coaches, they help athletes perform better and executive

coaches help executives and high potential leaders perform better. But we don't use a football,

or a tennis racket, or even a baseball bat, unless our clients

misbehave, of course. One of our biggest tools, however, is questions. When I ask you a question,

what happens? That's right. You stop to think about the answer. Your mind gets engaged and things

start to bubble. You can use this. As we've obviously regretfully acknowledged many

times before, our lives would be perfect if only all those other people didn't get in the way

so much. Your teammates, or your point-to-hear boss, or your schmupies, or your polyamorous family

units, they all have emergencies that only you can solve. Wouldn't it be great if you

had a quick way to get them to come up with their own solutions? How could you get them to solve

their own problems? Well, Michael Bungay Stanier, author of the book The Coaching Habit,

did an interview with me about his wonderfully simple set of questions that can help

you coach someone through a stuck spot. Use his questions, and they'll think you're a genius.

They'll get unstuck. They'll do their job. You'll do yours. Everyone will be happy. Unicorns

will fly in the window and they'll burp out some beautiful rainbows. What could be better?

Question number one. Someone comes to you for help.

Ask, what's on your mind?

When someone comes to you with a problem or some sort of challenge, this is a great open-ended question.

Ask it and listen.

They'll start talking and they'll be totally self-absorbed because we're all self-absorbed.

Even me.

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