#15 - The power of asking the right questions

Hey hey, today's topic is a little bit different (but interesting!).

Instead of bringing you a question to reflect on, I want to take a moment to tell you what inspired me to start this newsletter. You can use the approach I share here in any other areas of your life and business.

Changing how you see your business changes everything.

When I was in high school, I used to be really bad at math and physics. The curious thing about it was that I loved to understand the logic behind it, but somehow my grades left me in a continuous "survival mode". I personally blame the educational approach... but this is a topic for another conversation.

So, my dad is an engineer, and engineers, for some reason, love math and physics. My dad made it his mission to help me get unstuck with numbers.

Every time there was homework, he was there with me, sitting across the rectangular black glass table in our living room.

It was such a conflicting experience for me because I knew I needed help, but at the same time, I hated it. My dad didn't make it easier for me. I would play dumb, very unwilling to put in the effort to understand those numbers. And he fiercely would say: "Read the question with attention, the answer is always inside the question!"

Sometimes I would cry, and sometimes he would yell at me. It was not a pleasant experience, but he never gave up. I probably heard him say "Read the question with attention, the answer is always inside the question!" a thousand times over my life.

One reason why I initially resisted following his approach was because facing questions is uncomfortable, especially when you don’t have the answer right away.

But my dad taught me that questions actually expand our minds and show us the direction we need to go, or at least where we need to look to find our answers.

Questions are amazing tools to find direction because they point our attention - at times fragile - to what really matters.

Below, I offer you a brief reflection on how you can apply this principle and use questions as a resource in any area of your life and business.

Read the question with attention, the answer is always inside the question!

Part 1: "Read the question with attention"

• The first step is to understand exactly what the question is asking of us.

• When we were in school, the questions were already prepared for us. We didn't see all the work that went into formulating those questions in a way that could teach us something or lead us in the right direction to solve a problem.

• Now in life, we are the ones who formulate those questions. This is important because sometimes we lose perspective and get distracted by the wrong questions.

• Making sure you have framed the right problem is key to finding the answers and direction you're searching for.

Part 2: “the answer is always inside the question”

• Once you're confident that you have the right problem/question in front of you, it's time to analyze what you're looking at.

• A question is like a puzzle. If you start to examine the meaning of each word (paying attention to what we take for granted), you will see that when they come together, they create boundaries that narrow your path.

• Additionally, some parts of a question will tell you what kind of information you need to know to solve the puzzle. This is important because it gives you direction on where to look for the information.

Example:

Once, after working on the brand positioning strategy for a former client, I traveled to their company to give a workshop to their entire team. The goal was to help them understand the direction the company was going in and integrate the new strategy into different sectors of the company.

Part of the workshop was teaching them tools to innovate and overcome their fear of "getting things wrong". The tool I taught them was "how to ask questions".

We had 32 extremely thought-provoking questions, for which we didn't have ready answers. But we took the opportunity and analyzed each question together to find its answer and direction.

As an example of the process we went through, here is one question that came up from one of the team members: "Will this brand become an authority?"

• To answer that I had to understand what the question encapsulates:

  • What does authority mean?

  • Authority about what? In what sense?

  • Authority for whom? Who are you referring to that will look up to this brand?

  • What do you mean by brand?

  • So far, you can see that to answer that one question I would need to answer 4 other questions before that.

  • And the "will it become"?

    • Once I know the answer for those questions, I can objectively look into our resources as a brand and investment and tell if we can become that “authority” soon.

    • If the answer is no, I can objectively list what would be required from us to be perceived by those people from that angle of authority. Once I know that, I can answer, am I willingly to make the investment? Then I will have the answer for the question that the team member raised.

Now, it’s your turn…

Action step

👉 Wherever you're being challenged in your business, brand, or even personal life. I encourage you to try this approach and see what happens. As I mentioned before, sometimes this is not the most comfortable exercise because it challenges you, but if you go through it, it often reveals to be very clarifying.

Warmly,

Nathalia Montenegro

P.S : Ready to find out exactly what you need to do next to grow your business?

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PS2: New here? Read the previous issues of this newsletter here.