How Asking "What Do You Need?" Can Transform Your Career

Discover how a simple question—“What do you need?”—can transform your workplace dynamics and foster collaboration.

Are you ready to elevate your personal and professional life? Look no further than Be the Ultimate with Dennis Guzik, the podcast designed to equip you with powerful insights and practical strategies to thrive in today’s fast-paced world. Hosted by seasoned expert Dennis Guzik, this podcast goes beyond traditional advice, offering you tangible steps to unlock your true potential.

Key Takeaway: The Power of "What Do You Need?"

• Inspired by a TV show scene where an officer asks how she can help at an accident scene.
• Applying this question in professional settings can foster collaboration and improve work dynamics.

Application Scenarios

• • To a Superior:Shows initiative and willingness to assist.
  • Can lead to learning new skills and being seen as a team player.
  • To a Peer:Assists colleagues struggling with new tasks.
  • Strengthens relationships and team cohesion.
  • To a Subordinate:Demonstrates supportive leadership.
  • Ensures assigned tasks are completed effectively and efficiently.

Personal Anecdotes

• • Host shares experiences from military and civilian leadership roles.
  • Illustrates the effectiveness of asking "What do you need?" in various professional scenarios.

Daily Practice

• • Encourages listeners to integrate this question into their daily routine.
  • Applies to interactions with bosses, peers, and subordinates.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to become the ultimate version of yourself. Tune in to Be the Ultimate with Dennis Guzik today, and start your journey towards a brighter future. Subscribe now, leave a review, and share with friends who are also eager to grow. Let’s embark on this transformative journey together!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, folks. Well, I'm back. It's the old jarhead and I'm here to give you some good career advice, career advice that I guarantee you will help your career if you listen to it right. You got to listen to it and you got to put it into action. So what are we going to talk about today?

Speaker 1: 0:22

Well, so the other night I was watching the idiot box or the television, and I like to watch these live PD shows cameramen that follow actual police officers as they're conducting their law enforcement business and it's a really cool show and it gives you a whole lot of insights into how things are in the street and what things are like for law enforcement officers and everything. But that's not the point here, right officers and everything. But that's not the point here, right? So the point is in one of the scenes, um, an officer is called to a really bad traffic accident and so she arrives on the scene and there's two crashed cars, there's injured people, but there's also other police and firefighters and paramedics they're arriving to, some are already there and they're working on helping some people and arresting other people. And she walks up and the first thing out of her mouth was what do you need? Out of her mouth was what do you need? So think about that, right, the first thing she does is she goes up to the person who's in charge and asks how she could be of value to that person and to the scenario that's unfolding in front of her. And that got me to thinking. One, that was the exact right thing to do. And two, how could you apply that to your career? So we've all been there.

Speaker 1: 2:13

You hear of something going on and it's difficult, and somebody has an assignment or a task that, in addition to all their other work, is making life difficult for them. And why don't you use those words, right? Why not use the words what do you need to that person? Now, that person could be somebody senior to you. It could be your boss, right? Or even your boss's boss. It could be one of your peers, or it could be somebody subordinate to you. It could be somebody that you assigned a task to, and I think that part is what is also really interesting. But either way, it's a really powerful question to ask. So if you ask your boss something like that, you see your boss is struggling with something and you ask her like that, you see your boss is struggling with something and you ask her what do you need? Now she may respond nothing, I'm good, but thanks for asking. And then register that in her mind that wow, that was really nice of you to ask that question. Or she may say can you take on this portion of my task, a task that maybe the CEO gave her something that now you can learn from number one right, you can learn something new from too is you can help and you could make yourself seen as a real team player.

Speaker 1: 3:40

The other way is what if it's one of your peers and they're struggling with something and you ask what do you need? It could be something that they have never done before, that they are learning for the first time, but that you have done repeatedly. And I saw that sometimes with accounting for overhead costs and things like that where a new business unit leader had never done it before and they're struggling with it and you can do it easily. So you ask them what do you need? Well, can you help me figure out this stuff? And you go sure, yep, and you easily do it. You help them, you help the organization and again, good colleague. And then the last one is when a subordinate is choking on lots of stuff that they have on their plate possibly stuff that you assign them.

Speaker 1: 4:31

So I always felt when I was in charge of folks that if you work for me, I work for you, and that means one of the first things I would do when I gave somebody a task is ask them so, what do you need from me? What can I do to help you get this done? Maybe you need to talk to somebody and I could help broker that discussion. Or maybe you need a budget and you can come back to me and say, yeah, I need $10,000 to get this done. Okay, then we could start that discussion. But it's really powerful. You don't want to act just like the boss who goes out there and says here's your task, go away, come back to me when it's done. You want to be engaged and you want to ask your people what do you need?

Speaker 1: 5:16

So, just to wrap up this quick podcast here think about this. Think about this in your daily life. Think about this every day at work. Look for people who have problems. I've said it before solve your boss's problems. Well, this is kind of a subset of that, but it's not just your boss. It's your boss, your colleagues and the people who work for you. Don't be afraid to ask that question. What do you need? I recommend you do that, all right? Well, that's enough blabbering from the old jarhead for right now, but I'll tell you it's good blabber. So thanks for listening. Get a copy of my book. It's been selling real well lately, so obviously it's got some good gouge in it, and I said that all along. So please take a look at that and tell your friends. Tell your friends about the podcast. If you think it's worth it and obviously you do. You're listening to it. So let other people know. And, uh, thank you, thank you, thank you.