A Lot of an executive's workday is spent Asking others for information--requesting status updates from a staff leader, by way of instance, or questioning a counterpart in a tense negotiation. Yet unlike professionals like litigators, journalists, and physicians, that are taught how to ask questions as an essential part of their instruction, few executives think of questioning as a skill that can be honed--or consider how their own answers to questions could make conversations more productive. That's a missed opportunity. Questioning is A uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations: It hastens learning and also the exchange of thoughts, it hastens innovation and performance improvement, it builds rapport and trust among team members. Plus it can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and dangers. For many folks, questioning comes readily.
But the majority of us don't ask enough questions, nor do we pose our queries in an optimal way. We naturally enhance our emotional intelligence, which then makes us much better questioners--a virtuous cycle. In this guide, we draw insights from behavioral science research to explore the way the way we frame questions and decide to reply our counterparts can help determine the outcome of conversations. We provide guidance for choosing the ideal type, tone, sequence, and framing of questions and for deciding what and how much information to share to reap the most benefit from our interactions, not just for ourselves but also for our organizations. Don't Ask, Don't Get "Be a Fantastic listener," Dale Carnegie advised in his 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People.Buttermilk substitute
