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Not enough people ask effective questions. Precise questions allow you to understand problems in a team or with your client, find out what’s going on beneath the surface, defuse problem situations before they fully arise, get people to cooperate with you, find out important information, negotiate and persuade people to help and support you.

If you want to improve your communication in any business situation, then become a great questioner. You can become much more effecive in many situations by asking the right questions. This is particularly useful in challenging situations, such as if a mistake has been made or if you want to get others to agree to an idea or proposal.

Powerful questions are generally open-ended, thought-provoking or probing. This means they can’t be answered with a simple yes or no answer.

‘What’ and ‘how’ questions draw out the other person and are most likely to get them to reveal their real opinions. Here are some examples you can use again and again:

“Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom”

Chip Bell, American writer

 Information-seeking questions. These draw out additional information from the other person. “What do you mean by…?”, “Tell me more about…?”, “What else?”

 Exploratory questions. These allow someone to think about different approaches: “Could you approach this in a different way?” “What are the possibilities here?”, “What are the opportunities here?”

 Identifying a problem. “What seems to be the problem?”, “What is stopping you from…?”, “What is your main block?”, “What worries you most about…?”, “How do you feel about…?”

 Outcome questions. “What outcome do you want?”, “If you have this, how will it effect you?”, “What other factors do you need to consider?”

 Clarification. “What do you mean by…?”, “Could you put that another way?”, “Can you give me an example?”

 Action. “What will you do?”, “When will you do it?”, “How will I know you did it?”, “What are your next steps?”

 Response to ideas. “How does that sound to you?”, “What benefits do you think you will gain from…?”, “Does that answer the issue?”

Effective questioning combined with active listening form a fundamental set of communication skills for business.