How to Ask Great Questions and Get the Most From Your Team

Asking Great Questions is a Skilled That Can Be Developed

In leadership, the ability to ask effective questions is as important as providing clear vision and purpose. A thoughtful question can inspire conversation, spark creativity and challenge teams to go further. However, many leaders never receive training on how to ask questions effectively. What's more, many leaders don't see it as a skill that needs to be developed. While it's true that anyone can ask a question, the ability to ask effective questions is not an inherent talent; it is a developed skill. To improve our ability to ask great questions, many articles focus on skills such as active listening, tone, and curiosity. In this article, we will explore lesser-known ways to sharpen your question-asking abilities.

Seek Perspectives. Not Just Answers

What makes a great question, great? The most memorable questions are those that make us pause and think. They lead us to consider how we feel about a particular situation and prompt us to go beyond the surface with our responses. Leaders who ask great questions often aren't looking for a simple yes or no answer. Instead, they ask questions to understand the listener's unique perspective on a topic. They demonstrate curiosity and a genuine interest in knowing what the listener thinks. Many leaders believe that asking open-ended questions is key to creating great dialogue.And while open ended questions are indeed helpful, asking an open-ended question alone won't always lead to a better conversation. When the goal is to provoke thought and understand the listener's viewpoint, the perspective-driven question can be even more effective.

Perspective-Driven Questions vs Open-Ended Questions

Open ended questions are simply questions that can not be answered with just a yes or no. Perspective driven questions are open ended as well. However, they are phrased to prompt the listener to go beyond the surface with their answer. As the name implies, they are meant to draw out the listener's perspective on a topic.

Closed-Ended Question	Open Ended Question	Perspective Driven Question
Are you working on X this week?	What are you working on this week?	In your opinion, what's the most important thing for us to focus on this week?
Can you email the client today and try to closer the deal?	How do you feel about reaching out to the client to close the deal today?	What do you believe the client needs to hear to want to close the deal today?
Do you agree with this decision?	What is your opinion on this decision?	How do you think this decision will impact our future operations?
Did you see the results this week?	What do you think about the results this week?	What do you think drove our results this week?

If you look closely, you'll notice a pattern. Perspective-Driven questions combine a request for the listeners opinion plus action words that encourage the listener to provide a deeper analysis. These action words aren't meant to be complex. They're meant to cause the listener to pause and think. Let's take another look at the previous examples.

Perspective Driven Question	Request for Opinion	Action Word / Phrase
In your opinion, what's the most important thing for us to focus on this week?	In your opinion, what is...	focus on
What do you believe the client needs to hear to want to close the deal today?	What do you believe...	needs
How do you think think this decision will impact our future operations?	How do you think...	impact
What do you think drove our results this week?	What do you think...	drove

By combining a request for the listener's opinion with action words, you put the listener in a place where they have to think more deeply about their answer. This approach can also help foster a sense of ownership and responsibility in the listener. They show that the questioner values the perspective and insights of the listener.

Use Silence as your superpower

We've all been there. You ask a question to the group and the room goes silent. Suddenly, there's an awkwardness in the air as everyone looks around to see who is going to share their thoughts. The natural tendency for many leaders is to jump in and provide an answer to their own question. The silence scares them. But it shouldn't. If you think about it, the whole point of asking more thoughtful questions is to get the listeners to think more deeply. Hearing silence after a great question then is normal. Instead of viewing moments of silence as something to be avoided, look at it as your superpower. The silence is what gives the listener time to understand their perspective of the question you asked. And if the quietness feels awkward, the silence will eventually make someone want to share so that they can break the awkwardness. You don't have to figure out how to move the conversation forward because the silence will do that work for you. The best thing you can do when faced with silence is to pause. Give it moment. The silence will do the the heavy lifting and someone will likely jump in. If they don't, you can move the conversation along. But don't rush to do so.

Simple Questions > Complex Questions

Malcolm Gladwell has written numerous best selling books on topics such as human nature, psychology, success and more. But despite the complex nature of his topics, Gladwell's writing is accessible and simple. "Your job is to take complex thoughts and write about them on an 8th grade level.", says Gladwell. It's not that Gladwell believes that his audience is less intelligent, he believes that writers should prioritize transparent language. He says, "Clear writing is universal. People talk about writing down to an audience or writing up to an audience; I think that's nonsense. If you write in a way that is clear, transparent, and elegant, it will reach everyone." And it's not just Malcolm either. Shane Snow of contently [researched](https://contently.com/2021/01/28/this-surprising-reading-level-analysis-will-change-the-way-you-write/) some of the best selling authors to discover what level they wrote at. Using the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level index, he found that many of the most successful authors write between the 7-9th grade levels. These authors aren't necessarily writing about simple topics. Similar to Malcolm, they explore a wide range of topics from virtually every aspect of life. For most people, this finding is counterintuitive. We tend to equate high quality writing with highly complex writing. However, some of the best-selling authors seem to believe believe that comprehension is more important than sophistication. Short sentences are better than longer ones. Simple words are more effective than lesser known vocabulary. After all, few people remember a book they couldn't understand. When we ask questions, simplicity is our ally. Deeply philosophical questions with high vocabulary can make us sound intelligent. But they often require the listener to spend more energy understanding the question than formulating their thought. The best questions are ones that are both thought provoking and instantly comprehensible. We can accomplish this by using simple sentence structures with clear and transparent language. In other words, shorter sentences with everyday vocabulary. For example, I recently shadowed a leader as they did a performance review for their team member. Prior to the meeting, the leader said their main priority was to have the team member to think deeply about their quarterly goals. As that portion of the conversation approached, the leader said Leader: "I have a question for you. When you consider the goals you set last quarter and what you were able to achieve, what new goals do you want to set for your self this quarter? This is a question that is likely asked in the business world every day. But there's a few things that make it less effective than it could be. First, although it's technically one question, we've asked the listener to think about three separate things:

The goals they set last quarter.
What they were able to achieve last quarter.
What new goals they want to set.

In practice, they will likely only answer the last question verbally. However, They still needed to consider each point as they heard it. This mean that they needed to spend time deciphering what the questioner was trying to ask. And although that's not hard to do, asking better questions means asking questions that get to the point more quickly. Here's an example of how we could rephrase the question. Leader: "What do you want to accomplish this quarter?" In the second version, the leader poses a simple yet thoughtful question. The question is succint and as Gladwell says, traparent. By doing so, they allow the team member to focus on responding thoughtfully as well. This is the simplicity to aim for. In conclusion, the ability to ask great questions is a skill that every leader should develop. By seeking perspectives, using silence as a superpower, and prioritizing simplicity, we can unlock the full potential of our teams and foster deeper conversations. Remember, questions don't have to be complex to be effective. By simplifying our communication, we strengthen our ability to ask powerful questions.