The Art of Effective Questioning

How you ask questions is very important in establishing a basis for your achievements. Effective questions open the door to discoveries, knowledge, understanding, and good communication.

The art of questioning lies in knowing which questions to ask and when. Address your first question to yourself: what would you search for if you had a magic e-book that had the right answers to any question?  The answer will help you compose the right questions.

Choosing Questions

"A prudent question is one half of wisdom." ~ Francis Bacon

Ask a specific question if you want to hear a specific answer. Open – as opposed to leading – questions are those that cannot be answered with a straight "yes" or "no". Use open questions to gain insight into the other person's character, and to invite the response.

Learning Questions

To profit from experience you must be open and willing to learn, even from what some people might consider a failure. What may seem to be a failure can actually lead to new opportunities. Effective learning questions can serve as a starting point for the assimilation of learning.

→ Learning SWOT Questions

Coaching Questions

Being the core component of the coaching ask / tell repertoire, coaching questions are "to prompt the learners into exploring issues in depth either by direct questions or by implied questions – even a raised eyebrow – so that they become more aware of what is going on and can eventually coach themselves and other. Feedback can then be used to discuss progress and provide guidance, but still by using questions and the main vehicle for progress whenever possible."⁴ ... More

Pretending Ignorance: Smart Is Dumb

Today, many world's smartest and fastest businesspeople have perfected this art – consciously or unconsciously – of playing dumb. >>   Example  ... More

Question Based Selling (QBS)

In sales, asking the right question is just as important as knowing what to say. Salespeople must know how to ask the right questions at the right time to clients and customers in order to identify new opportunities, qualify accounts and uncover needs.  This is the principle behind Question Based Selling (QBS)... More

Selling Is Problem Solving

Business Communication: The First Contact

To build relationships and network with people effectively, the only thing you need to  do is to ask them all about their business and what they do. What questions should you be asking to create the right situation for perfecting it?... More

Searching Questions

• 'Why' questions  to discover the roots of the problem

• 'How' questions to discover different routes to significant improvement... More

 Case in Point  Dell Computer Corporation

"It is really dangerous if everyone in a company starts thinking the same way", says Michael Dell², Founder of the Dell Computer Corporation. "The danger comes when you fall into the trap of approaching problems too similarly. You can encourage your people to think about your business, your industry, your customers innovatively. Ask a different question – or word the same question in a different way. By approaching a problem, a response or an opportunity from a different perspective, you create an opportunity for new understanding and new learning. By questioning all the aspects of our business, we continuously inject improvement and innovation into our culture."... More

To Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric, business leadership is all about knowing what questions to ask of his subordinates. That's all managing is, says he: just coming up with the right questions and getting the right answers.

To understand the strategic issues within each of GE businesses and to see where these business units were going Welch asked the five questions... More