Have You Ever Asked This Magical Question?

There are many magical questions.

Magical solution-oriented questions starting with three letters… h-o-w.

Magical rhetorical questions like “How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?”

The most magical question of all magical questions, “Will you marry me?”

When you step onto the field of self-improvement another magical question will become vital part of your everyday jargon.

Picture this scene. You’ve just given a presentation about your company’s new product launch at this marketing and sales conference in Atlanta. During the break – now relaxed – you approach two of your colleagues who are sipping on free orange juice.

Impatiently, you unleash the most useless question of all useless questions. “How did you like my presentation?”

We all are fishermen. We all fish for compliments sometimes. Some do it more often, some hardly ever do it. But – who can really say he or she is free from self-celebrating guilt?

Your two colleagues switch on their fake smiles. Simultaneously, they answer, “It was good.”

With this useless compliment fishing standard question your field of self-improvement turns into a soaking swamp. You asked a rhetorical question and you received the answer you wanted to hear. Yet, your level of improvement is zero.

There is a smarter way to ask. This magical question is powerful. It is magical because it leaves no option to your dialog partner but giving you constructive, honest, sincere feedback. The sort of feedback you want. The sort of feedback you need to grow as a public speaker or elsewhere in life.

This magical question is… “What could I’ve done better with my presentation?”