Much needed in modern world. "What is difficult?" - you ask. We have been able to speak since kindergarten. Indeed, all people talk, but some are always surrounded by a crowd of people who catch their every word, while others, trying to build a verbal construction, get confused in the simplest phrases, which does not set up interlocutors for long and fruitful communication.

Today we want to talk about how to ask the right question. This skill can be useful to you in any situation, when passing an interview and concluding a deal, at a meeting and when making a presentation, in any domestic conflict and a difficult conversation with a teenager. As you read on, you will realize that asking is sometimes more difficult than answering. Moreover, if you know how to ask the right question, then you already know the answer to it and can calculate how the dialogue will unfold further. That is, the one who asks questions, sets the direction of the conversation, structures and directs it in the right direction.

Why ask questions

Even he himself reminds us of a fishing hook. Indeed, in any dialogue, it is the question that is the baited hook that can catch the interlocutor. If you know how to ask the right question, then you can easily turn the conversation in any direction. However, this does not mean that questions are used exclusively for manipulative purposes. Not at all, in fact well worded, it suggests enough a large number of possible alternatives. The question helps to get new information, opens the interlocutor to the dialogue, directs the conversation and helps to clarify certain points.

But that's not all. Since asking the right question is not as easy as it seems at first glance, it remains a minority skill. It is these people who can easily transfer the conversation to another topic, suggest the answer. The functions of the question are also the demonstration of one's assessment, one's opinion, setting the interlocutor's emotions in a certain way.

If we consider the process of mastering new knowledge, then here the ability to formulate a question is a kind of measure of the depth of awareness of the material received. No wonder they say that only those who know how to think ask questions. That is, to ask questions, you need to be very well versed in this topic.

Developing the ability to ask questions

Speaking about how to learn to ask the right questions, you involuntarily recall your school years. The first skills come from there, and often they are formed incorrectly. The standard form of education forms the idea in children that there is only one correct answer to any question. That is, the desire to think is killed, only memorization is used. At the same time, the situation when a question is asked for which there is no ready answer is perceived as unpleasant. Although this situation is completely normal. Realizing that we do not know the answer to the question, and trying to find the answer to it, we are one step closer to learning how to ask the right questions. At the same time than older man, the more rigid his thinking becomes and the more difficult it will be for him to adapt to new skills, so you need to learn to ask from early childhood. And questions, in fact, are needed to better navigate the world around us. Therefore, if you have learned to ask them, you will be more successful than those who have not been mastered.

Where is the best place to ask questions?

In fact, it is difficult to describe any area of ​​life that requires the development of this skill. On the one hand, you can do without it, and on the other hand, you will be more successful in any field if you know how to ask the right questions. In any conversation, even a personal one, asking the right questions will help:

• Show interest in the interlocutor, no matter to professional side his personality or personality traits.
• Ensure that the interlocutor understands his values ​​and discovers his politics.
• Take the lead in the conversation. This is the most main skill an aspiring speaker or any public figure. Questions will help keep the conversation for the right amount of time, change the subject, interrupt the interlocutor's monologue.
• Depending on your goals, questions can help you acquire the right information, hint at a personal position, show trust, or willingness to devote the right amount of time for a conversation.

In order to develop this skill, you should learn how to conduct internal dialogues, as well as practice external dialogues.

What is internal dialogue

This is the first step you need to take if you want to know how to ask the right question to a person. It will allow you to learn how to formulate thoughts. Moreover, this process should not be allowed to proceed chaotically. It has a specific purpose - a detailed analysis certain situation or problems. And there is a list of questions that apply in this case. The first option includes the classic questions “what?”, “Who?”, “Where?”, “When?”, that is, a description of the situation as a whole. The second group of questions allows us to consider each of these in more detail. They are related to the aspects of facts and desires, feelings, time, obstacles and means. That is, questions should clarify these aspects within the framework of a given topic. It is they who help in understanding and making decisions based on their needs, preferences and determining the influence of other people on the situation. This makes it much easier to understand your inner world, organize an internal dialogue and receive intelligible answers.

Question words

To hone this skill and transfer it to the external dialogue, there is the following exercise. Since asking the right questions when communicating is not at all easy. We will learn from the very basics. You need to come up with a specific topic for yourself, such as "Conflict". Now remember the various concepts related to this topic, and write them down in the right margin of the table (sheet divided in half). It can be anger and unjustified expectations, misunderstanding and breakup of relationships, stress relief and reconciliation. AT left side add question words (at least 10). Now you have to formulate how you can more questions, which would combine the elements of both columns. Recall situations of conflicts, the causes of which were unclear to you. After carrying out this work, you need to analyze the list, select a couple of questions that are the most insightful, productive, and try to argue for yourself based on what criteria such a choice was made.

Such different questions

Here you will need an interlocutor on whom you can practice the ability to find the most appropriate question in a given situation. The essence of the method is very simple. You need to decide on a topic that would be of personal interest to you. Now write down for yourself a few questions on it, which can be answered in monosyllables "yes" or "no", as well as others that imply a detailed answer. For example: “Have you heard about our company before”; What do you know about our company? Try to conduct a dialogue using both options and compare the results.

Question with no answer

This is another great game that is great for training the ability to ask the right questions. Remember the children's game "Buy words": how desperately they were looking for the right answer, bumping each time on "everyone says, but you buy an elephant." In addition to endurance and patience, she develops the ability to find such a verbal construction that will allow her to successfully get out of a difficult situation. In a dialogue, we do not always ask questions, we have to answer. So the reverse skill is also very helpful.

"Chamomile of Questions"

You can practice the theory of asking questions using this simple technique. You will again need to choose for yourself interesting topic, it may relate to relationships in a team, in a family, or something else of your choice. Now you have six petals in front of you, each of which will contain only one question option:

• Practical questions. That is, the relationship between theory and practice (“Analyzing the situation, what would you do in this place?”)
• Simple questions. This is the usual clarification of facts, events, certain information.
• Evaluation questions. Everything is simple here, it turns out what is the difference, why this is good and this is bad.
• Clarifying questions ("That is"; "If I understand you correctly...")
• interpretation questions.
• Creative questions (“What would happen if this situation unfolded 2000 years ago?”)

Such classes will allow you to develop the ability to ask questions, but without practice, in a dialogue, you will not be able to develop a skill.

Start with Yourself, or Preparing for Dialogue

No wonder professionals say: ask the right questions, get the right answers. However, it's easy to be a genius in casual, friendly conversation. In any other situation, it is unacceptable to appear unprepared at a meeting. You should have questions drafted in advance. And, starting a conversation, be sure to try to establish a good relationship with a person. Before asking the interlocutor about what interests you, it is worth showing him how interesting he is to you. Open-ended questions are perfect for this, in which you ask the person to tell a little about themselves, about how they spent the day, how they got to the meeting, is it convenient for them now. As soon as the conversation turns into a business channel, it will be possible to move on to questions prepared in advance. This will give you a psychological advantage.

Ability to ask open-ended questions

Speaking about how to ask people questions correctly, it should be noted that usually it comes down to the ability to ask open question(he assumes a detailed answer). That is, you, as an interviewer, do not expect a prepared answer, you want to hear a person's opinion on a given topic. Already this itself disposes to a conversation with you, in this way you show respect. If you need to know more facts about a situation, you can ask clarifying questions: “Who is involved?” It is very important to find out how the interlocutor feels about this situation. To do this, be sure to ask: “What is your opinion?”

It is very important for a good interviewer to be able to maintain a neutral position. Do not impose your opinion, although you can ask: "Have you considered this option?" Be sure to regularly ask your opponent what caused such a decision, how he came to such a conclusion. That is, open questions are a way to engage the interlocutor in a dialogue, bring him out of a state of isolation and set him up for a dialogue.

Ability to ask closed questions

It would seem that open-ended questions are ideal for conducting any conversations and interviews. However, there are times when they are indispensable. For example, to ask the right one in discussions, it is worth formulating it as clearly and concisely as possible in order to get the same answer. Business men, as a rule, do not like lengthy dialogues; they need a clearly structured dialogue. The better you prepare for it, the better it will be. In addition, open-ended questions are always fraught with the danger that the interlocutor will lead the dialogue to the side. Therefore, you need to be on the lookout and close questions (that is, those that require an unambiguous answer or a yes / no answer) to bring the interlocutor back to the point. To do this, in your arsenal there are a number of questions "how?", "What?", "Who?", "Where?" and the like.

Theory without practice is useless, therefore, in order to really learn how to ask the right questions, you need to hone your skills in dialogues every day, analyze the course of the conversation and the result achieved. Do not be afraid of failure, this is also an invaluable experience, thanks to which you will understand what tricks are best not to use.

Yourself?
To better understand yourself, you need to be able to ask the right questions. Stephen Aitchison's 30 provocative questions can serve as an example of such an internal dialogue.

What are the right questions? Probably those that help to see yourself from the outside, through the eyes of an outside observer.

If everything in your life is going great, you can quickly go over S. Aitchison's 30 questions (or even not read them at all) and go on with your life with a joyful smile. What if something in your life is not going the way you would like?

Often a person finds himself in an impasse:

There is no progress;

- there are no expected results;

- there is no perspective;

- it seems to you that there is no way to move from the "dead point." This can apply to any field of activity: relationships, work, health, career, friends.

Someone calls this state "rat race", someone - "the usual comfort zone." Perhaps this is due to depression or a breakdown. How to be in such a situation?

Stop and calmly analyze what is happening to you.

AT recent times many began to turn to professionals for help: psychologists or personal coaches. They help to understand themselves and the existing problems.

What does a psychologist or coach do?

Asks the right questions. In this case, in no case will a professional answer for you. It will only lead you to the right question.

If you want to figure out your particular impasse on your own, re-read Stephen Aitchison's list of 30 provocative questions. If you answer them honestly and truthfully, then, most likely, find clues as to where to go next.

30 provocative questions by Stephen Aitchison.

1. What can I do today to reach my goals?

2. What time of day is the most productive?

3. What can I do today to pamper myself?

4. What are 5 things I can be grateful for in my life?

5. What can I do today to change someone's life?

6. What trait of my character is the best?

7. What do I really want to do in life?

8. Do I really want these people (to list) in my life?

9. What can I do to save a small amount every day?

10. How much TV do I watch during the day?

11. Do I really need all these things?

12. When I'm in last time read a good book?

13. When was the last time I said "no"?

14. Does it really matter what other people think of me?

15. What do I want to achieve this year?

16. What is the next "great goal" I want to achieve?

17. What can I do to feel happy?

18. When was the last time I violated the boundaries of my comfort zone?

19. What are my life values?

20. What steps do I need to take today to move forward towards my goal?

21. What should my ideal day look like, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed?

22. What good habits would I like to instill in myself?

23. How can I get rid of bad habits?

24. Who inspires me the most?

25. What are the characteristics of the people I admire?

26. Will my dreams remain just dreams, or can I make them real?

27. What would happen if I let _______________ go?

28. What do I really like about my job?

29. What would I do differently if I had the chance to relive this moment again?

30. What will I do after reading these questions?

After reading this list, the conclusion suggests itself: the more often we revise our emotions, feelings, habits, thoughts, the easier, easier and more interesting we will live.

Often the right question, asked to yourself, makes you move better and faster in the right direction. Answering it, you have a vision of new opportunities, you begin to feel a surge of strength and energy.

For me Stephen Aitchison's 30 provocative questions have become an example of how to ask yourself the right questions and really to the next realization: how and where to move on. Especially from the 25th to the 30th.

How to ask the right questions yourself?

Do you have a problem with this?

How correctly and timely asked questions help you in life?

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In any dialogue, the leading role is occupied by the one who asks questions, and the one who answers is always led. The art of asking questions is very important, both in life and in sales. But sellers pay insufficient attention to questions, so there is nothing easier than asking the client - what does he need? Unfortunately, sellers drive themselves into a dead end with many questions and, as a result, lose sales. In this article, we will analyze what questions are and why they are needed.

The main types of questions in sales

All questions can be divided into several categories. First of all, questions can be divided by how broad the answer you will receive from the client. Every salesperson needs to know and understand these types of questions. There are no universal questions, each is necessary strictly for its own purposes.

Open questions

Open questions - imply a detailed answer. Open-ended questions often begin with words: describe, tell what you think, etc. This type of question is well suited for establishing a dialogue with the client and for understanding his interests. When answering an open question, the client speaks out, this contributes.

The most important thing is that when answering an open question, a person usually says what is really important to him. For example, you ask - by what criteria do you select a product? In response, the client will tell you what is important to him, and this is what you need to talk to him about. I often come across a situation where the seller sees a certain benefit in his product, for example, the price. Accordingly, such a seller considers it his duty to tell all customers about this benefit, but for many buyers, the issue of price may be generally secondary. Such a client, at least, will not be interested in such a product, and in the worst case, he may be offended that he is considered not solvent.

Alternative questions

Alternative questions - the question contains possible answers. Alternative questions are needed to clarify information, as well. There is an easy way to complete the transaction - alternative. It is just built on asking an alternative question.

Also, alternative questions are needed to clarify information from the client, plus such questions are that you can limit his answer as you wish. For example, if you and a client agree on the delivery of goods and the choice of free dates is not large, it is better to immediately ask him about the date, narrowing down his choice. Not everyone will start asking if there are other days.

Closed questions

Closed questions - require a yes or no answer. Closed questions are needed to quickly get the information you need. Closed questions are good because they are quickly forgotten by the client, and as a rule, after answering it, you can switch to discussing another topic. Why is this needed? Someone will say that it’s generally easier to immediately identify the needs of the client with closed questions, but in this case the client will hardly speak, but only answer “yes” or “no”. This tires the clients, they begin to feel like they are being interrogated.

Therefore, it is most correct to identify needs as follows - an open question, then a closed question, then again open and again closed.

SPIN questions

The SPIN sales method has already become one of the classics, although it was invented not so long ago. The method itself is based on the sequential setting of special questions - Situational, Problematic, Extracting and Guiding. gained immense popularity, so we could not help but touch on issues from this sales technique.

situational questions

These are the questions you need to understand current situation in which the client is located. Often sellers avoid situational questions, but this can have a very negative effect on the sale. For example, in retail There is a good situational question - for whom are you choosing a product? For yourself or as a gift? On the one hand, this is not a mandatory question. But if you go deeper, further identification of needs will proceed in completely different ways.

Since situational questions come at the beginning of the dialogue, it is easiest to prepare them in advance. This will help the seller make correct sale and achieve what you want. It is important not to overdo it with such questions, if there are too many of them, the buyer can become annoying.

Problematic issues

The client, as a rule, is always dissatisfied with something, he just does not always remember about it and will not always tell about it himself. The success of the sale depends on how much the seller can identify problem areas with the client. That's what the issues are for. problem question aimed at identifying the difficulties faced by the client.

Problems can be divided into explicit (obvious) and hidden. Let's say the high price of a product is an obvious problem. But the slight daily loss of time due to an imperfect product is a hidden difficulty that needs to be brought to the client. In general, the problems that customers have are the same, they are directly related to the needs of the client. Therefore, the seller should think over the most common problems in advance and create a list of questions to identify them.

Examples of Problem Questions

Here is a list of some generic examples of problem questions:

• Tell me, what difficulties do you face during operation?
• What would you like to improve in the product?
• What problems would you like to avoid?
• What do you consider unacceptable?
• How much time do you spend on this?

Extraction questions

Extraction questions should be asked as soon as you have identified the client's problems. It is important to focus the client's attention on the unresolved problem and on the possible consequences, and this is what requires asking a pulling question. It is important to strengthen the problem, show its significance and arouse the sincere desire of the client to solve it.

Experienced salespeople often shy away from probing questions, and once they identify a problem, they immediately move on to solving it. Practice shows that such a rush has a negative effect on. For example, the seller found out that the client is overpaying, and offers the client a more economical solution. To which the client can say that he is satisfied with his product and is ready to pay more. If the seller asked, for example, such an extractive question: did you consider how much you overpay for the year?

Guiding questions

Even if the client acknowledged the existence of a problem, this does not mean at all that he is ready to solve it. The idea of ​​change needs to be inspired by a guiding question. The best option is when the client himself made the decision to buy, but it is not so easy to bring him to this thought. For example, you and the client found out that he overpays. And now you need to somehow translate it to a discussion of your proposal, for this you can set next question: And if you were offered a similar product at a lower cost, would you be interested? If everything was done correctly in the previous steps, you will receive a “yes” answer and will be able to proceed to the presentation of your proposal.

Lead question

A lead question in sales is a closed type of question that is asked to a client to confirm that the client will consider your offer. Very often, a lead question is used as a response to a customer objection. Lead question example:

The client - I have a very reliable supplier, he never lets me down. I value him very much?

Seller - I understand you correctly, that if I provide you with guarantees of the reliability of our supplier, you might be interested in such an offer?

This type of question is also often referred to as linking questions.

Rhetorical questions in sales

Rhetorical questions in both communication and sales play an important role. First of all, rhetorical questions brighten up your speech, make it more accessible to the client. When properly combined with, a rhetorical question can play an important role in establishing a trusting contact between the seller and the buyer.

For those not in the know, a rhetorical question is one that does not require an answer. For example: do you want to save money? Is the quality of the product important to you?

Every day, people are faced with a mass of questions that they want to either find answers to or learn information from others. Naturally, some of them are voiced, and the second part is only implied. But a considerable number of inhabitants of planet Earth want to know how to ask questions correctly in order to get the right, positive or detailed answers.

In fact, psychologists long ago made a definite division of all existing issues depending on how the person reacts to them. Knowing certain psychological tricks and tricks of manipulation, you can ask a question, the answer to which will be suitable for you in advance. Alternatively, it may be a complete response to your request, giving you the information you need.

What types of questions are there?

We will start from the information that there are two main options for questions that people can ask:

1. Closed. This is the easiest option when you need to get a minimum of information. This type of question is different in that the answer to it can be contained in one or two words. Most often it is “yes”, “no”, “I don’t know”. It will be possible to find out the minimum information, and its reliability will not be verified. You will have to ask any additional questions to a person in order to either get more information, or determine whether he is lying, or telling the truth. If we are talking about communication between strangers, then very often offers of a closed nature will inflame the situation, since you will have to look for either additional topics for conversation or some kind of common ground.
2. Open. It differs from the previous one in that it implies receiving a complete and detailed answer from the interlocutor. This question cannot be answered unambiguously with “yes” or “no”. It is necessary to give certain information to the person, which will be as complete as possible, but the answer itself is long enough and coherent. This view is more interesting, because it gives you the opportunity to get the most information.

Naturally, from the context you can determine when and what questions to ask. However, most often, either psychologists or people working in the field of sales are interested in this, trying to find a common language with a taciturn client.

What is the right way to ask questions?

It all depends on what answers you need to get. There are people who deliberately build a sentence in such a way as to get a clear positive or negative answer. Separately, it is worth analyzing those elements that are used in the question-request. Here it is necessary to make every effort to ensure that the person responds positively, but based on the existing request.

So, let's look at the main methods by which you can get the desired answer:

1. In no case should you start a question with a “not” particle. With a high degree of probability, the person who is your interlocutor will answer it in the negative. Arguing this is simple - in fact, an answer has already been created for him, he can only confirm the assumption. Accordingly, it is worth avoiding questions: “would you like to?”, “Would you like?”, “Would you help?”.
2. If there is a need to get a clear positive answer, then do not rush to the main question. Before asking a person for information you are interested in, ask him three easy questions, the answer to which will be unequivocally positive, sounds like “yes”. A person will answer the fourth question not so much out of inertia as consciously, and will answer positively. This experience was conducted by many psychologists and is very often used on intractable people who can be quite difficult to make contact, proving their point of view.
3. Correctly approach the creation of a question-request. Practice shows that it is inconvenient for a person to answer negatively twice in a row to someone who asked a question and asked for help. Therefore, if there is a need to ask for something and get a positive answer or permission for it, then leave the main question for later. Let's make the first question similar. This is often done by people who want to ask for a loan. What does it look like? Initially, you need to ask the person if he will agree to lend you, for example, 10,000 rubles. At the same time, you assume that denial will follow. After receiving this negative answer, ask if the person will agree to lend you 3,000 rubles. The amount in comparison with the first one seems much less, and it will be simply inconvenient for a person to refuse you twice in a row. Just for this reason, with a high degree of probability you will receive a positive answer.
4. Choice without choice. This technique is also quite well known, and involves posing the question in such a way that any of the answers that the person gives you is convenient for you. For example: "Do you want to see me on Monday morning or Tuesday evening?" In fact, you give a person the opportunity to choose, and he can arrange between the available options. In fact, you can insert into the question those facts that are convenient for you in any case. Accordingly, in the offer indicated above, only the time that is most convenient for you is taken into account. An undesirable result can be obtained only if both options proposed to you are really fundamentally not suitable for a person.
5. The question is a provocation. This method is also well known. In fact, it is a certain manipulation technique. It is based on the fact that a person, in fact, will not be able to refuse, because he will either not look in the best light, or will show his certain weakness. Just this technique is used by people who are inherent in manipulation with the desire to achieve the desired effect. Unfortunately, quite a number of people easily calculate such questions, answering them accordingly.

Do I need to plan questions in advance?

It must be remembered that the planned questions, as well as the answers to them, will help not only to keep the conversation going, but also to find out the information that was the purpose of the conversation itself. So what do you need to keep in mind?

1. The purpose of the conversation and its outcome. Before asking questions to a person, you need to understand that in the end you want to know or get, what result do you want to endure for yourself?
2. It is necessary to formulate fairly simple and short questions. It's better to ask a couple of extras than to confuse a person with one long sentence.
3. Try to formulate the same question in advance in several ways. Based on the conversation, you can understand which of the proposed ones is best to ask a person. One and the same question can have three or four variants of its sound, respectively, and the answers to it can be different.
4. Don't forget to ask additional clarifying questions. This will indicate to the interlocutor that you have a desire to find out as much information as possible, respectively, such an indicator will cause respect. For you, this is an opportunity to get the maximum necessary information, for the sake of which the conversation was started.
5. In most cases, try to ask the question starting with the word “why?”. This is how you encourage people to think. He will think about why and for what reasons this or that factor occurred.
6. Be prepared to answer questions on your own. If this is not just an ordinary conversation, but a desire to get as much information as possible, then expect a flurry of questions to fall upon you as well. Naturally, look in advance which topics are acceptable for you to discuss, and which topics are better to refuse.

What are the main mistakes when creating questions?

1. The proposal is formulated in such a way that it contains the answer in advance. This tactic will be justified only if the proposal formulates the answer you need. But in fact, such a technique is manipulation, so getting a person’s personal opinion here will be much harder, because it’s easier for him to agree with you.
2. Constant use of only closed questions. You can independently block the way for a person to develop his thought and give out maximum information. This is far from the best strategy, and, as a rule, it gives an unimportant result.
3. Creating pressure in the question that is being asked. Here you can talk about raising your voice or moral pressure on your opponent. This is used only if it is necessary to admit guilt by the interlocutor. Naturally, making a certain kind of protection, he will agree with the assumption that you expressed.
4. Do not understand the answer, but pretend that everything is clear. From this follows only one ambiguity - why it was necessary to ask a question if the answer was not understood. It is better to ask the information again two or three times, to reformulate the question completely. This is the only way to understand what kind of answer was meant by the person with whom you are communicating.

I focus on the above rules and techniques, you can easily get the necessary answers that a person will give consciously and without any difficulty. Naturally, if a fairly serious conversation or interview is ahead, it is advisable to practice creating the right questions and conduct a dialogue training. So you can rehearse the acquired skills and already without fear to communicate with the person from whom you need to get information.

The quality of the answer depends not only on who we ask the question to, but also on how we ask it. By asking the wrong question, you are almost guaranteed to get the wrong answer. The right questions significantly increase the chances of a consultation, useful information. Let's try to figure out what needs to be done for this.

5 Asker Mistakes

1. Ask a question that already has an answer

Very often the questioner has his own version of the answer, and he wants to check it. In this case, it is important that the question does not contain indications of the "correct" answer. Examples of such questions are: “Do we need to take on this order?”, “I think it will hold up, do you think so too?”, “Do you agree that it will work?” and so on. When a question is directed from a superior to a subordinate, the likelihood of getting the desired answer increases many times over. If you really want to know the opinion of the interlocutor, and not just decided to share with him, do not let us understand that you are only waiting for his approval.

2. Ask a closed question

Closed questions are those that have a limited number of answers. Usually two or three. Most famous example- Shakespeare's "to be or not to be." If you are not Shakespeare, you should not drive the respondent into the framework. It is possible that there are many more possibilities beyond. A simple example: your boss loads you with extra work. "Agree or refuse?" - you ask a friend, thereby missing the option "Agree, but for an increase in salary."

3. Pretend to understand the answer, although it is not.

Not all answers are equally clear. An obscure answer is useless. If you are not sure that you understood the interlocutor, you should not hide this fact. Often managers are afraid to ask for clarifications, as this supposedly demonstrates their incompetence. Meanwhile, former CEO General Electric Jack Welch(Jack Welch) in the book Winning argues that it is the leaders who should ask questions more often than others and their questions should be the best.

4. Put pressure on the responder

"What the hell are you doing with the project?" “Are you even going to work?”, “What the hell are you showing me?” - in all these cases, the questioner will receive only . If your goal is to get the employee to admit guilt, then you are doing everything right. If the goal is to understand the problem, then pressure on the respondent will only hurt. Business consultant Michael Marquardt writes that when defensive, people tend to see themselves as part of the problem rather than as a source of possible solutions.

5. Ask a series of questions

This method is so good that it is used deliberately when they do not want to hear the answer. Just ask the interlocutor a lot of questions in a row, preferably interrupting him. And that's it. Him, and you will not receive an answer to any of the questions.

Asking the right questions eliminates the need to know all the answers.

Donald Peterson, Ford CEO (1985–1989)

5 good ideas for the right questions

1. Prepare

If you have a conversation where you will ask important questions, it makes sense to prepare in advance: determine the essence of the problem and the purpose of the conversation, sketch out a list of questions.

2. Formulate the question in one sentence

Business consultant Jeff Haden suggests using this technique to get rid of the "clues" in questions. Plus, short questions tend to be easier to understand. Trying to keep within one sentence, you yourself will better understand the essence of the problem.

3. Formulate several options for the question

In the process of preparation, it is advisable to choose several options for the same question. This will allow you to look at the problem from different angles. It can be useful to set the same one for different time intervals. For example, not “What can be done to increase sales?” But “What can be done to increase sales in the next month?”.

4. Start questions with the word "why"

Such questions are aimed at identifying the cause. "Why" softens directive questions very well. For example, instead of “You still haven’t submitted the project. What's happening?" it is better to ask “Why can’t I deliver the project on time?”. There is even a special technique for identifying hidden causes -.

5. Ask clarifying questions

Among important issues there are few that offer a short, clear, and single answer. Much more often we are faced with problems that have many solutions, and the consequences are difficult to assess. Several consecutive questions asked, each of which develops and refines the previous one, allows you to get deeper and more useful answers. If a question becomes an occasion for dialogue, discussion, discussion, this is a good question.

For most people, asking questions is as natural as walking or eating. They don't think about whether it's good or bad for them. But if it depends on the correct answer, it makes sense to work on the quality of the questions. Do you use any special techniques to ask good questions?