Thanks to John Campbell at Growth Coaching International for the link to recent research into the benefits of asking questions before doing a task, versus making affirmations. The research shows that asking “Will I…?” helps generate more internal motivation and success on tasks than stating “I will…”
I am also an advocate of asking “how will you …?” or “how can you…?” when managing others, so it would be interesting to know whether the “how” provides even more benefit.
By the way, the link to the underlying research led me to the Science Daily website – which looks like a great source of updates for a research junkie like me and led to another article, which I will review tomorrow.
Will I test this out on myself this week? Hmmm it would be helpful to see if there was a difference. But will it work if I know what I am doing? I will just have to try it and see.