Questions to help build a personal relationship with clients

Here is a sampling of questions you might use to help you get to know your clients as people (but just don’t use them all at once!):

1. Can you tell me something about your own career and how you got to your current position?

2. How would you compare the experience of working here versus at your old organization?

3. How do you think the change you’re talking about will affect your own job?

4. Tell me about your family…how old are your children?

5. Where did you grow up? Do you ever go back?

6. So when you’re not shaking things up here at work, how do spend your free time?

7. So if you spent less time at work, how would you use that time?

8. What did you major in at college?

9. If you hadn’t gone into (business, law, accounting, etc.) what do you think you’d be doing?

10. Where did you spend your last vacation? Where are you going this summer?

11. What’s the best vacation you ever took?

12. You’ve accomplished a great deal in your career…going forward, what aspirations or dreams do you have? What else would you like to accomplish?

13. Who have been influential role models or mentors to you?

14. In terms of your own leadership effectiveness and how you spend your time …what things would you like to do less of, and what activities do you wish you could spend more time on?