‘Ask no questions and you will be told no lies’ is an oft quoted idiom while Hamlet‘s famously problematic line ‘To be or not to be, is the question’ has been part of our literary education that has raised questions on questions ! Asking questions in quest for knowledge and understanding has been a part of growing up. We’ve been asking them at all stages in life & work and answering them all the time as parents, teachers, mentors, coaches, workers, managers, guides, directors etc and surely as ruling political leaders !
Senior executives in leadership roles have much of their workday is spent in asking for information from HR brass & other Depts., requesting status updates from team leaders on competitors, pushing sales guys for targets or marketing efforts. Unlike professionals lawyers, journalists, accountants and doctors, who are taught how to ask questions as an essential part of their training, few people and bosses in general, think of questioning as a skill that can be honed or consider how their own answers to questions could make conversations more productive or provoke discontent. So, Communication courses and Soft Skills experts have sessions on ‘asking questions’ that emphasize that you’ll get the right information based on what and how you ask, as questions are of various types.
I recall a gentle ragging session in our College – the fresher knocks ‘Can I enter ?’ Seniors correct him with ‘Kind Sirs, may I please join your esteemed company !’ If this is painfully didactic, then people while proposing may have quirky styles, but popping the ‘big question’ needs some tact. ‘You are an amazing catch’ isn’t polite even if exciting but ‘My name is Chance, do I have one ?’ isn’t bad ! Sure, in the new world it sounds archaic. In job interviews, questions posed may sound irrelevant but test one’s presence of mind. Biggest challenge is with generations so apart, one doesn’t have answers to their questions.
Some of us who have been teachers, trainers or well versed in the art of public speaking, aren’t afraid of any questions thrown at them by the audience. In fact, after a session, a confident speaker will say ‘If there are no questions, it means that you’ve either not got anything or understood everything !’. But here’s the catch, experienced ones discern the ‘wrong uns’ that are meant to hijack the main theme or create confusion for others ! For that one needs to be a good listener and get the drift for answering without discomfort.
Ideally speaking we teach- be a good listener, don’t be afraid of questions, do your research, use silence to advantage, ask probing questions, keep the questions short etc. It’s different with the current the trend of public debates that are aired on prime time TV, where angry speakers and aggressive anchors slug it out on political issues. There’s little listening, lots of interjections, personal barbs exchanged and diversions from the topic, so that their parties are not shown in bad light at any cost. At times, the anchors ask such long questions that the concerned speaker loses track of what’s being asked !
Let’s set right examples to Gen X, Y Z for choosing the best type, tone, sequence, and framing of questions and for deciding what and how much information to share to reap the most benefit from interactions, not just for themselves and their employers but for the society at large !
Working on Living 