He is late, he promised the project would be done in four
weeks and it is not done. A friend is getting a room enclosed on the back of
her house by a contractor and he promised to get the project done in four weeks
and it is not done. A client has a vice president who said he would follow
through and get four new clients on board and he has not done anything but
email excuses.
Does this sound familiar? Have you ever asked someone to do
something for you to find out later they didn’t do it? Or didn’t do it
correctly? Have you ever given an employee, team member, vendor or family
member what seemed to be a simple task only to have him or her come back to you
again in person with questions and excuses for delays? Are you bombarded with
emails with problems someone is having following through an assignment?
These magic phrasing questions can help you help others follow through on an assignment.
After you've given somebody an assignment or task ask them
one or more of these questions. Ideally you would do this face-to-face,
but you can see which ones may work via email.
What is the best way of making this happen easily?
What is the best way to make this happen quickly?
What would be the first thing you would need to do to make
this happen?
What would be a barrier to making this happen?
What would keep this from being able to happen quickly and
easily?
What are your concerns going forward with this?
What are your top three concerns or issues going forward
with this?
What are two thoughts you have about this project?
What would make this easy to do?
I don't know if I've said this so it’s clear, so when we
finish up can you send me an email clarifying how you are going to complete
this task?
Can you shoot me an email with the steps you think it will
take to complete this project?
Can you shoot me an email with your projected completion dates
on each major step on this project?
If you run into any problems getting this done by _______
what would you do?
What questions do you have about what I expect from you on this?
What would make this easy to do or what would make this
easier to do?
What do you think would be the challenges to making
this happen?
What would be the first action to make this happen?
What will you need to make this happen when you get back to
your desk?
What can I do to make you feel comfortable going forward on
this on your own?
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at
www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at
www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at
http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
