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How To Ask Great Questions As A Leader – Ask Powerful Questions · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Asking great questions as a leader gives you knowledge, insights, action, direction, opportunity, feedback, trust, and more.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: By asking great questions as a leader, you also create in others fresh thinking, better solutions, more ownership, greater curiosity, better decision making, action and more.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: How to ask great questions as a leader is a skill that you can absolutely build no matter where you are today.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: As a leader, I know that asking a lot of the right questions enables me to do a much better job.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't ask questions as a leader, I have to assume a lot.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: My assumptions most of the time would be wrong, a little bit wrong to a lot wrong.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Making lots of wrong assumptions would lead to poorer decisions and actions, not good for me, my team or the business.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: As a leader at work, your most important goal is to improve the performance of your business, function, and team.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: This creates the greatest benefit for the largest number of people.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, you don't have to have a title, lots of team members reporting to you to be a leader.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership is creating change.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership is a state of mind and the courage to take action.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start by asking what is a great question.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Knowledge is power, certainly as a leader of a business.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: The more that you can learn and understand, the more likely you'll make great decisions, take the best actions for a given situation, and the more likely you can build good relationships with colleagues and team members.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: A great question seeks new knowledge, insights and perspectives.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: A great question seeks to transfer information and understanding.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Great questions nearly always have a purpose, are usually open-ended, thought-provoking and clear.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Great questions can also challenge assumptions, explore different viewpoints, and create action in other people.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The mindset you create matters a lot to asking questions.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: To ask great questions as a leader, it is really important to practice being curious.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Keep yourself open-minded as a leader.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Asking questions is only the start of the process.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: To keep getting good answers to great questions, you need to want to take in the information that you're being told, understand it, and then potentially take action over it.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't do all four parts, you know ask, take in, understand, and potentially take action, team members will stop sharing information with you or the quality of the information you receive will drop.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Most people can tell if you're genuinely curious and interested compared to just going through the motions.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if you are genuinely curious, you are likely to listen attentively and ask a series of follow-up questions until you really understand the situation.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Show your excitement and interest at learning something new.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Reserve judgment as long as sensible.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Stay open-minded and be curious.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Third, for how to ask great questions as a leader, make the time to figure out the business levers or people issues to get to the heart of the matter.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: People come to you with problems they want help solving, or you have team members arguing for different solutions, or you need to understand why performance has dropped.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are a wide range of different, complex situations that arise every day.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Before diving in with questions, make the time to think about and analyse what is really going on and identify the key levers that will really make a difference to the situation.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is a brilliant skill to build.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ask questions with the levers in mind.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Adding this step into your thinking process will make your questions a lot more powerful.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: For example, to find the key levers of any organisation, a great place to start would be asking these five questions.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: What is our purpose?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who exactly is our customer?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: What does our customer value?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: What are the results we need or the results we have?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, what is our plan to deliver those results?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Find the levies that cut right into the heart of the issues and ask questions with these in mind.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've included links to additional resources in the podcast description, which you will find useful, so do take a look at these.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: To improve your leadership and management skills, visit us at enhance.training and take a look at our comprehensive courses to help you improve your team's performance.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, to ask good questions, aim to ask open-ended questions with a clear purpose.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Usually when asking questions, you are seeking to gain information and insights that you don't yet have.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: To get as much information and to make that information as high quality as possible, use open-ended questions.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Open questions are the ones that are hard to answer yes or no to.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: For example, here are some useful open-ended questions.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think about XYZ the subject?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or what would you do in this situation?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or in what way would you respond to the client's proposal?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or what are you planning as next steps?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: All these questions are very open and allow the other person to respond in a way that they think is best.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: How they respond also gives you information about their thinking processes, their confidence, their character, their communication skills, etc.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: To ask even better questions, be clear about your purpose when you ask questions.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Think carefully about what you're trying to learn so that you can ask questions with your goals in mind.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if I was trying to understand the performance of a business unit, I might ask a series of questions.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, how do you think your business unit has performed over the last quarter?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Followed by what were the key drivers to your increase in revenue?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: After that, I might ask, I have noticed that gross margin has dropped, what has caused this in your opinion?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Followed by the cash generation of the business unit has also dropped.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Given sales has increased, what has been changed that has caused this?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Be clear with yourself about the purpose behind your questions.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: This enables you to ask great questions as a leader.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Next, ask a series of different questions to build greater understanding.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: The most useful way of asking questions to gain information and understanding and to learn is to ask a series of questions with the same consistent purpose.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ask an initial question and follow up with related questions to gain greater depth of understanding yourself or to help the person you're asking questions to to understand more.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here are five different types of questions.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, open questions, secondly, closed questions, third, leading questions, fourth, questions to challenge, fifth, questions to encourage action in the other person.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Think of all the different ways that you use questions.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing when to ask which type of question is a skill that comes with practice and experience.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Some general tips to consider when asking a series of questions.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, start with the least sensitive questions first to build rapport and trust and then move towards the more sensitive ones.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, use open questions to start with and then potentially use more closed questions as you focus in on specific points.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Third, to overcome resistance, offer information about yourself first before asking for information from others.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: This helps build trust and offers a fair exchange.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, when overcoming resistance or persuading, use more closed questions to limit the range of answers.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, adapt your questioning style based on the answers you get and how the other person reacts.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Asking a series of questions gains you much greater understanding and insights than asking just one or two questions.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Keep digging into the detail or problems until you reach your goals.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, a big part about how to ask great questions as a leader is managing and controlling your voice and body language while asking questions.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: The words you use when asking questions are only a small part of your communication.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your tone, pace and volume of voice, how you use silence, your facial expressions, and how you hold your body all communicate a lot more.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Match the emotions in your voice and body language to the questions that you are asking for the situation you face.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: For example, when you're asking questions to solve a conflict between two people, it would be much better to use a soft, respectful and concerned tone of voice rather than an angry, threatening tone of voice.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: The more conscious and aware you are of what you are communicating with your nonverbal communication and what reactions in the other person this provokes, the easier you'll find it to improve how you use the nonverbal elements when asking questions.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Work harder on improving the nonverbal parts of your questioning skills than the actual words used.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: This will improve your questioning skills quicker.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Asking great questions as a leader is only useful if you listen carefully to their answers and seek to understand.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: The power of your questions improves massively when the other person knows that you're really listening to their answer, taking in what they have said and seeking to understand it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you put the effort in to really listen, take in and understand, the other person is incentivized to give a much better, well-thought-out answer, i.e., the quality of the answer goes up a lot.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't put the effort in to really listen, the other person will give you a bland answer, is more likely to be evasive, etc.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you make the effort to ask great questions, put even more effort into listening to what you've been told and seek to understand it.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, knowing what to do to ask great questions is a brilliant start.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: To learn how to ask great questions as a leader, you must practice.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Asking great questions is a skill, and you can't build skills from just reading a book or watching a video.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Start improving your questioning skills today.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Set yourself a goal of asking one more question to a member of your team.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Make it two more questions tomorrow and build from there.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as you start asking more questions, you'll get more confident, your skill level will rise, and you'll feel happier and more confident asking more questions.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Start with the areas you find easiest and move into the areas that you find harder after you've gained confidence through practicing and asking questions successfully.