Preventative and Supportive Questions: What You Need to Know, 2040’s Ideas and Innovations Newsletter, Issue 127

Issue 127, September 21, 2023

Chances are when things go wrong it’s because of poor communication. You’d think that we would have figured out by now how to communicate with each other effectively. All the strategy in the world goes down the tubes if you can’t speak it.  And managing a team starts and stops with listening and communicating clearly and empathetically.

The biggest landmine?  Asking questions.  Do it wrong and the conversation comes to a screeching halt. And most of us are not conscious of doing it wrong. We’ve established our style and we’re sticking with it.

So, we’re going to explore some of the more subtle, nuanced aspects of asking questions in the hope that we can become better communicators.

Preventive Questions

This may be a new one for you. And we’re all guilty of it from time to time. A preventive question implies judgment, bias, and power.  It prevents an open exchange and puts the speaker in a defensive position.  Here’s how it works: A sales rep is explaining sale…