In an average day we must each ask hundreds of questions.
So it’s safe to assume that, much like driving, we’ve picked up a few bad habits over the years.
Good questioning is an art.
The right question can unlock untold riches of information.
The wrong question can shut someone up.
Take Martin Landau’s character Bob Ryan, in HBO’s Entourage.
Despite the sun setting on his career as a movie producer, Bob is still one of the best pitch-makers in the business.
He warms people up, sets the scene clearly, and then says “Now, is that something you might be interested in?”
It invites the other person to start talking about their interests and passions, and it works brilliantly.
I firmly believe that the older you get, the better your questioning skills will be, because you’re more interested in the answers.
Sometimes a client or colleague will be struggling to articulate what they can see in their mind’s eye.
By asking the right kind of questions, you can draw that insight out and give them a vocabulary for describing their vision.
Is that something you might like to try?
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