The art of asking questions—resource

These ideas for increasing the effectiveness of your questioning come from Michael Marquardt’s book
Leading with questions (2005).

Great questions empower people and instill in them a sense of their own strength and
efficacy. When you are truly asking, you are sending the message that the subordinate’s
ideas are good or maybe even better than your own. In addition to conveying respect, it
encourages the person’s development as a thinker and problem solver.

The most effective questions:

Purpose of question Example

 Create clarity Can you explain what happened?

 Construct better working and personal How have sales been going?
relations

 Help people think analytically and What are the consequences of going this route?
critically

 Inspire people to reflect and see things in Why does this strategy always work?
fresh, unpredictable ways

 Encourage breakthrough thinking Can that be improved?

 Challenge assumptions Why do we always choose this method?

 Create ownership of solutions Based upon your experience, what do you

suggest we do here?

This is a component of the How to Have the Conversations You Have

Been Avoiding Toolkit
© 2016 Leadership Development Centre
To demonstrate that you care and are listening:

 Pause at the end of a question so that the coachee can think, formulate, and deliver an
answer.
 Once you have asked your questions, listen.
 Use steady eye contact and supportive nods: Be alert to ‘ice-berg tips’—body language, facial
expressions, gestures, and vague comments that hint a willingness to contribute more
information or opinions if encouraged. Staying silent is more than just not talking. It means
keeping eye contact, staying still, and being comfortable while you wait.
 Be certain to demonstrate that you really want to grasp what is being said. Ask questions that
indicate your willingness to encounter and accept new conclusions. Many times it is
necessary to clarify questions so as to assure yourself that you have a complete
understanding of the situation.
 Listen patiently, without interrupting. Interrupting may show you are not interested in the
response or the coachee.
 Use reflective listening, hearing the words and reading the emotional content.
 Restate what you heard in your own words and ask whether your understanding of the
argument is consistent with what was said.
 Voice your critical questions as if you are curious. Nothing is more deadly to the effective use
of critical thinking than an attitude of ‘Aha, I caught you making an error’.
 Request additional reasons that might enable the person to make a stronger argument than
the one originally provided.
 Ask the other person for permission to allow you to explore any weakness in the reasoning.
The idea with this strategy is to encourage the other person to examine the argument with
you.
 Convey the impression that you and the other person are collaborators, working toward the
same objective—improved knowledge and results.
 Show respect for their views by asking open–ended, unbiased questions.
 Focus your listening by asking questions such as ‘What is useful about this?’ and ‘What can I
learn?’ rather than ‘Whose fault is this?’
 Help people learn through the process of answering.

This is a component of the How to Have the Conversations You Have

Been Avoiding Toolkit
© 2016 Leadership Development Centre
Examples of powerful questions

The following questions are primarily used for Action Learning Groups, however, these powerful
questions can help you when you are exploring an issue as they will help the person that you are
questioning to explore their thoughts without feeling confronted.

Open questions Begin with ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ (not ‘why’)
Precision questions Clarify the nature, size, or significance of an issue:
 What exactly?
 How exactly?
 Bigger than...?
 More than...?
 Everyone?
 Always?
Powerful questions When the person says ‘I can’t’
 What’s stopping you?
 What would happen if you...?
Reflective questions Mirroring back what the person has said:
 So you’re saying...
 You seem...
Idea questions Which encourage the presenter to explore options (but without spelling out the
details):
 Would... be of any use to you? In what way?
 Have you thought about...?

This is a component of the How to Have the Conversations You Have

Been Avoiding Toolkit
© 2016 Leadership Development Centre
Other helpful questions

Questions to clarify the person’s challenge, issue or project:

 What is your position on this?
 If you were to draw your issue/challenge what would it look like? Would drawing it help you
‘see it’ more clearly?
 What problems does that cause? In what ways is that a problem?
 What isn’t happening now? What is?
 What do you want to be happening?
 How would you like them to respond?
 Ideally, what would you do?
 How does X see that challenge/issue?
 Who else could you talk to?
 What’s stopping you?
 What would happen if you (someone else) did nothing?
 Who else could you involve?
 What else would be helpful?
 Have you thought about...?

Questions to clarify the process:

 Can you tell me more about that?
 What can you do to help me really understand that?
 Are our questions assisting you to focus on the challenge/issue, or solutions? Is this helpful?
 What you will do next?
 What’s at the back of your mind?
 What would assist you right now?
 What are we doing at the moment that is working?
 What are we doing at the moment that is preventing us see a way forward?

Adapted from Krystyna Weinstein, Action Learning—A journey in discovery and development,
London; Harper Collins, 1995

This is a component of the How to Have the Conversations You Have

Been Avoiding Toolkit
© 2016 Leadership Development Centre