Questioning is one of the most common leadership tools. But, what is your intend when asking a question? Do you want to find out the progress status on a certain project? Or do you want to engage and motivate a team member to accelerate in their performance? Or is it both? Now ask yourself: How successful is your questioning in which situation?
Are Your Questions Getting You the Results You Want?
Have you ever experienced that you are at the end of the rope, just not getting a clear answer no matter which way you ask? If yes, read on, you might find some answers that will help you get what you need.
Select Your Questions Carefully
Benefit from two kinds of questions:
The first set of questions are interrogation questions. They ask for content and facts and don’t consider the person who is involved in creating them. They target answers that relate to results, time-lines, completion dates, statistics and other facts. Some examples are:
- Did you complete the task I assigned to you?
- When did you complete the task?
- How far away are you from reaching your monthly sales goal?
- How many customer complaints did we receive this quarter?
- Did the numbers improve compared to last year?
- How much profit did this project bring us?
- How often was team member XYZ late this month?
The second set of questions are Discovery Questions. These are questions that ask for facts but also ask for the involvement of the person who is responsible for creating them. Discovery Questions explore attitude, motivation and initiate new solutions and behavioral change. Here are some examples:
- How did you complete the task?
- What is your biggest challenge?
- What do you learn from these obstacles?
- Who could you involve to get this done faster?
- What options do you have moving forward?
- What’s the real truth here?
- Can you tell me more about this?
- What will you do differently next time?
From now on start using at least as many discovery questions as you use interrogation questions. You will not only see more motivation in your employees but also you will be able to identify team members who don’t belong on your team. Overall employees become more self-accountable and motivated to excel in their performance.
Next time when you see yourself getting impatient with a team member you have invested a lot of time in but still doesn’t perform at their best, try the following: Instead of telling them where they failed once again, ask them several of the following questions:
- How effectively do you think you are performing this task?
- How important is this for you?
- How do you feel about this?
- What’s missing?
- What options do you have?
- What is your biggest obstacle?
- What have you tried already?
- What can you learn from people who do this task very well?
- What would help you most?
- What will probably happen if you don’t improve?
Email us at susanna@geniuscoaching.net how this simple questioning exercise worked for you.
Powerful Questions to Impact Change - To learn more about this author, visit Susana Lange's Website.
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Susana Lange
(Visit Susana's Website)
Susanna continuously demonstrated how
living her natural genius makes fast and
seemingly impossible career moves easy and
fulfilling. With a successful corporate
career in both Germany and the United
States, Susanna Lange has managed
advertising projects for BMW and BMW Bank,
sold information services to top
pharmaceutical companies and co-developed
Fit for Learning, a highly effective
program that has helped hundreds of
children experience quantum leaps in
educational settings. Susanna was able to
overcome her own dyslexia with the
programs she now teaches.
With her business partner Otto Siegel,
Susanna focuses now on helping small
business owners maximize their genius for
quantum leaps in business and life.
Susanna is a certified professional coach
from the International Coach Academy. She
holds a B.A. from the University of Munich
and she is a. certified BrainGym®
facilitator and Accelerated Learning
Coach..
“I have moved my business into a quantum
leap to where we are doubling our gross
revenue this year. I can handle more tasks
than I ever thought possible not only
professionally but in my personal life as
well.”
- Art Bejarano, President, Integrity PCB
Design
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