Don’t Ask, Don’t Get. The Power of Good Questions

Don’t Ask, Don’t Get.

For some people, being natural curious and asking question comes easily.

Their natural interest, emotional intelligence, and their ability to read people put the ideal question on the tip of their tongue.

But most of people don’t ask enough questions, nor do pose their inquiries in an optimal way.

The good news is that by asking questions, we naturally improve our emotional intelligence – a virtuous cycle.

Ask questions! – Dale Carnegie advised in his 1936 classic ”How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

More than 80 years later, most people still fail to heed Carnegie’s advice.

People don’t ask enough questions.

Why do so many hold back? Well, there are many reasons.

• Some people may be egocentric – eager to impress others with their own thoughts, stories, and ideas (and not even think to ask questions)
• Or maybe they don’t care enough to ask
• Or they anticipate being bored by the answers they’d hear. They may be overconfident in their own knowledge and think they already know the answers
• Or perhaps they worry that they’ll ask the wrong question and be viewed as incompetent

But the biggest inhibitor is that most people just don’t understand how beneficial good questioning can be.

We have so much information at our fingertips that, in many cases, we assume we know the answers.

Good questions are essential to understanding others and the key to successful client management, selling skills and employee engagement.

To ask better questions, first, we have to really look at things from a different perspective.

Good questions are worded in a way that causes the other person to start talking – not just answering, but sharing in a meaningful way that put us in a new place together.

In journalism are 5 big questions: who, why, when, what, how, where.

Have at least 3 in your mind: WHY, HOW and WHAT.

As Simon Sinek said, in order to create harmony between WHY, HOW, and WHAT, you need: Clarity of WHY, Discipline of HOW, Consistency of WHAT.

So, remember!

Don’t Ask, Don’t Get.

Try questions at home as well as at work. You’ll be amazed at how much you didn’t know you wanted to know.

Asking good questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. Genuine curiosity will move people to a new place, and they will look at that new place with a sense of discovery.

An answer is planted in every question.