Questions Make You a Great Communicator

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Ask more questions: If It Was Good Enough for Plato, It’s Good Enough for You

An inquiring mind leads to better communication and avoidance of mutual mystification. Without your incessant clamoring for more information from others, you are fumbling around in the dark. That adds to why most communication is messy, emotional, irrational, unclear, and disorganized. Inquiry takes care of those problems. It makes things clear, rational, and organized when you know and can connect both what you want out of the exchange and what they other people want. You also:

 

Gain new information.

Confirm what you know.

Make others feel valued and heard.

Stimulate conversation exchange.

Avoid acting like a know-it-all.

Show self-confidence.

Satisfy your curiosity.

Get more information to make better decisions and solve problems.

Can push back without attack.

Come across as more interesting.

Create connection and affiliation.

Buy yourself time.

Stay on track in conversation.

Find communal agreement and gain insight as to how to bridge their interests to yours.

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My new book, The Leadership Mind Switch (McGraw-Hill, June, 2017) is now available for pre-publication orders through Amazon.com

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Debra Benton

D.A. (Debra) Benton has been helping great individuals and organizations get even better for over 20 years. Just as exceptional athletes rely on excellent coaching to hone their skills, Debra's clients rely on her advice to advance their careers. She focuses on what is truly important to convert what you and your organization want to be from a vision into a reality. TopCEOCoaches.com ranks her in the World's Top 10 CEO Coaches noting she is the top female. And as conference keynote speaker she is routinely rated in the top 2%. Her client list reads like a “Who's Who” of executives in companies ranging from Microsoft, McDonald's, Kraft, American Express, Merrill Lynch, United Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Washington Beltway and U.S.Border Patrol. *She is the author of ten award-winning and best-selling business books including The Virtual Executive and CEO Material. She has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fast Company. She has been featured in USA Today, Fortune, The New York Times, and Time; she has appeared on Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and CBS with Diane Sawyer. To learn more Debra advising leaders, coaching, facilitating a workshop, or speaking: www.debrabenton.com

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