How do we ask quality questions?

1.Make friends with your problems.

Do you remember how we wanted to know everything about our best friend? And were you always super curious about learning more about them?

We wanted to know everything about them—the good and the bad, their past and present—and we did our best to understand them. It was easy, as we decided to choose them as our friends. Making friends with your problems is very much the same, except you don’t choose them.

But I promise, once you make friends with your problems, Once you start taking an interest in your problem and understand it, you will learn that every problem has a solution and how easy it is to find it.

2. Be honest and genuine.

Have you ever noticed that when someone asks us anything, we can tell by their words whether they are genuinely concerned for us or are simply faking their interest in knowing our response? We somehow know they do not care about our answer. So, we only provide information that is fine enough to get you through that question.

Being honest and genuine saves us time and helps the person answering us know which direction to go and how they need to respond. So, let’s not fake it. Let the source know that we need to learn about a particular subject and tell them where we stand with your understanding of it.

Asking honest and genuine questions helps the source understand that they need to start from the basics and refer us to more knowledge bases. It makes the job easy for all of us.

3. When asking questions, be curious like children.

Have you ever listened to children when they ask questions?

They get curious, ask many follow-up questions, and keep questioning until they understand or relate it to their developing viewpoint. They would only stop once they had reached a place where their curiosity had been well fed. Be curious like a child and get interested in knowing the details rather than stopping at learning about something on a surface level.

Our interest creates a field that is so powerful that all the perspectives, knowledge, and information about your subject start entering that field. The higher your interest level, the heavier the information flow. You will be surprised to see how answers will start coming to you.

Once you practice asking questions, it will increase your knowledge, information, and the qualities of the future questions that you will ask.

If you get better at asking questions, you will have better answers and be more informed and equipped with more knowledge as you explore it all.

4. Be Specific

Ask specific questions. Before asking a question, try refining it until it is straightforward. When our question is precise and directed towards what we want to know, the person we ask understands what we seek. Vague or ambiguous questions can lead to confusion, which never leads to a conclusion.

Just like job interviews, where we are asked straightforward questions to get detailed insights and information about you, I know they are boring, and I am not asking us to become a headhunter. We can always tailor our questions to make them more fun and engaging.

Ask questions and have follow-up questions. It shows we are interested, and the source of our answers feels encouraged to provide us with deep details and help us explore more and more.

For example: “What did you do over the weekend? and then you can ask a follow-up question: “Oh, you went rock climbing? Where exactly did you go, and how was it?

5. Ask questions that are welcoming of all perspectives

When we ask questions that hint at our expected answer, we may receive responses that only support our perspective rather than another view that may have been more useful for us to know—so, asking questions in a way that does not give out our views brings in more perspective and valuable information.

For example, rather than asking, Do you like summer?

Ask, What is your favourite weather? It opens a wide floor where more information will flow to you with a deeper and broader perspective.

Here is a list of quality questions on how to ask questions to break the Ice and develop some real meaningful connections.

6.Avoid asking too many questions at once.

Ask only a few questions at once, as when we ask too many questions, it may come across as interrogation and show that we are suspicious of the source.

It overwhelms the source of our information and needs to be clarified to understand what it needs to answer.

Have you ever noticed how doctors ask questions? They ask one question at a time, and in no time, they can understand what you need help with.

7.Be respectful

When you ask questions, be open to other people’s perspectives. Avoid confrontational or disrespectful language.

Be open-minded and accept what you think makes sense and reject what doesn’t.

Being respectful and open-minded encourages your source to share more details with your queries. If we interrupt and argue, we are more likely to go home more confused than we were already.

8.Be a good listener

All information is of good use if we listen. We have all seen people who do not listen and often interrupt when any information is shared with them.

They are so rigid in their beliefs that they are not open to knowing and accepting other perspectives. They are bad listeners. They question a lot but are always receptive to the answers. To receive, one must listen first. Being a good

listener will attract everything you need to know to you.

We can recognize someone’s potential just by listening to the kind of questions they ask and the answers they seek.

Be curious, stay curious, and start asking questions.

Love

G