The Art of Asking Good Questions

The art of asking good questions is a key leadership tool that has become more and more difficult to find in use.  Join Jed & Bob this week, as they discuss why and how good questions can be effectively used as leadership tool.

Monday’s Tip: Use empowering questions. Empowering questions move people to positive action rather than disempowering questions that seek to assign blame or retribution.

Tuesday’s Tip: Realize that asking questions takes time. While it may be faster to simply tell people the way it is, using questions to guide them to your way of thinking produces a much higher degree of commitment.

Wednesday’s Tip: Use confirming and clarifying questions. Much can be learned by using probing questions to learn more about a situation, or to guide people to consider things they might otherwise not have.

Thursday’s Tip: Use Positive Understanding. When someone throws out an objection, use a question that focuses on the positive part of their statement.  For example, if someone tells you they’d like to do something but that it won’t work, ask them a question about how and why they’d like to try it.

Friday’s Tip: Use action questions. “How soon can be get started?”  “What can we do about that?” are both questions that move people to action.  Use such questions to get things moving with people.