Coaching and Managing Teams by Dianna Booher

Author:Dianna Booher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Booher Research Institute
Published: 2013-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3 - Asking the Right Questions Without Being Intrusive

Question everything.

—Ernest Gaines

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

—Voltaire

It is harder to ask a sensible question than to supply a sensible answer.

—Persian proverb

No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.

—Charles P. Steinmetz

The man who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning.

—Danish proverb

It’s better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

—James Thurber

Children ask better questions than adults. “May I have a cookie?” “Why is the sky blue?” and “What does a cow say?” are far more likely to elicit a cheerful response than “Where’s your manuscript?” “Why haven’t you called?” and “Who’s your lawyer?”

—Fran Lebowitz

Children grow up asking questions. The better their questions, the more challenging and important the answers we give them. Questions embody a child’s creativity, serve as an aid to learning, cause others to reflect on the meanings of things, irritate those who are cooped up with the child for long periods of time, and embarrass parents in front of friends and strangers.

As adults asking questions in the workplace, we run into the same concerns, issues, and irritants—for better or worse.

Tip 289. Know Your Purpose in Asking Questions.

With purpose comes organization. You can go from the broad and general to the narrow and specific. For example, if you’re interviewing someone for a job, you may begin with a broad, general question: “Tell me a little about your last job—what you liked or disliked.” As the applicant begins talking, you’ll follow up with more specific questions generated from the earlier answers: “So why do you think you were so successful at selling the widgets when others couldn’t meet quota?”

On the other hand, you might decide to go from the narrow and specific, easy-to-answer questions to the broad and general. “How long were you at your last job?” “What was your title there?” “Did other people work with you on those projects?” Then move to broader questions: “What are some of the difficulties you think arise in working in teams and being held accountable for results when others are involved?” “What steps do you take in preparing your project bids?”

On other occasions, you may want to ask unrelated questions in a random fashion, such as when surveying customers about price points or asking team members what projects they want to tackle next. Broad, general questions give the asker more latitude to explore and gather information that he didn’t know to ask about. They also give listeners great latitude in leading where they want to go.

By contrast, specific, narrow questions give the asker more control, but sometimes provide less information. Specific, narrow questions can be either easy to answer or difficult to answer if the answer puts the listener on the spot. To choose which is best, know your purpose.

Tip 290. Decide Whether to Lead and When to Lead With Questions.

“Isn’t it obvious that the MIS department needs these figures by the end of the week?” clearly says that you expect the listener to agree with you.

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