Guest Blog: “Say More…"
Guest Blog
By: Amira Barger
Resourcing Teams and Communicating
This week’s blog is guest-authored by Amira (Mira) Barger, MBA, CVA, CFRE – Cook Silverman’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Search Consultant.
Growing up, I was often admonished by others with the phrase “You ask a lot of questions”! Looking back, I don’t believe it was intended as a compliment, but it remains an accurate descriptor of me to this day - and one I wear as a badge of honor. I am famously (or infamously, depends on who you ask) known for the quip “Say more”. Formed as an inquisitive statement rather than a true question, it is a go-to of mine in order to keep the conversation flowing. In my role as a professor and consultant, I find myself in rooms with current and aspiring leaders. Head tilted and brows furrowed, I facilitate discussion and elicit wisdom by employing inquiry as a teaching strategy.
In the pre-Zoom meeting era of Fall 2019, I joined a diverse cohort of 30 leaders from various industries and career levels as a Coro Fellow through Coro Northern California. Some notable Coro graduates over the years have included: Hon. Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senate; Hon. Libby Schaaf, Mayor, City of Oakland; and Hon. Tim Kaine, Member, U.S. Senate and Former Governor, Virginia. Though I learned a lot throughout, and found the experience deeply rewarding, there is one session that stands out in my mind. For this particular session, my cohort was given the 60 minutes of our lunch break to prepare for a group interview with the CEO of a local Bay Area corporation. The exercise of preparation among peers is one of the many tools that Coro employs to allow the cohort an opportunity to practice and hone leadership skills. However, imagine with me, if you will, having to get any thirty people to come to a consensus on anything. Now imagine 30 leaders in their respective fields given one hour (over lunch, no less) to plan a facilitated discussion for a respected titan of industry with whom making a good impression is paramount. I think my anxiety spiked just typing this out! Instead, we decided to nominate a small group of 5 that would convene to structure a successful plan for our CEO interview, and report said plan back to the rest of the cohort. I was one of the nominations to join the small group of 5.
Task in hand, we began to form our plan by implementing a multitude of tips provided by our Coro Facilitators to create a successful CEO Interview session: who would greet, room set-up, forming questions, not stacking questions, choosing a moderator, establishing rapport with our guest, our intended purpose of the interview, timing, etc. Utilizing my own experience, I offered some context for the way in which our questions/inquisition should be formulated and posed. Our goal should be to glean wisdom from our guest, not to simply pepper them with a set of predetermined questions. Instead, ask open-ended questions of the subject with the intent to create “stream-of-consciousness” answers. Our small group elected to prepare 10-15 open-ended questions, with follow ups, to have in pocket. Our hope was that we would only need to ask a fraction of those depending on the organic flow of conversation and presence of our speaker.
I offered a few questions to the group that I use regularly. Should you like to use them, or have them as a reference to formulate questions of your own, I have refined them below alongside a sample follow-up option. These 5 questions alone can serve to facilitate lengthy conversation and ongoing follow-up discussion. The power of inquiry is a powerful tool and has not yet failed me. However, it’s possible that you may come to the place where you’ve exhausted all of your questions and are not sure where to turn. In that moment, allow yourself a brief pause, tilt your head, and then inquisitively state “Say more”!
Open-Ended Panel Questions:
1. Subtraction can be additive; will you share with us one thing you have subtracted this year in service to self or to others?
Follow-ups: Who else was positively/negatively impacted by this subtraction?
2. What is the smallest change you can make today that will have the greatest impact?
Follow-up: Did you envision this impact along your journey?
3. How would you challenge us today?
Follow-up: Say more…
4. How have you been challenged this year?
Follow-up: What adjustments would you make if you experience a similar tipping point in the future?
5. Talk us through your journey from X to present.
Follow-up: How would you summarize the arc of this journey in one sentence?