Open Ended Question Examples

do you want to be more effective in your business communication skills you can quickly do that by asking open-ended questions in this video I'm going to share with you my top 10 favorite open-ended questions here we go as coach we have to ask lot of open-ended questions and so I'm going to share with you ten of my favorite open-ended questions and I'm gonna go ahead and demonstrate the tone and how want you to practice asking these questions so here's the first one it's tell me about question question number one tell me about your relationship with your supervisor see did that tell me about your relationship with your supervisor you can modify this question you can you can ask it tell me about any number of different things that tell me about part is the key question number two what if it doesn't work out that way this is great question to ask direct report if they've come to you with plan and you want to find out if they have back-up plan or how they're gonna modify their approach throughout the way you can say and what if it doesn't work out that way question number three now you're gonna ask this question if then you have direct report you have peer you have someone that shares someone else's opinion that's not their own with you they share someone else's opinion right after that you can ask this question what does this look like for you maybe you can ask it this way what does it look like for you you're trying to get at hey what is your opinion understand that you shared someone else's opinion want to understand your opinion now and then that gives them the open door opening question to begin to share their own opinion you may be in collaborative meeting with your team members and you share some information maybe feedback card that client shared maybe with some maybe negative information or maybe ambiguous and you can't really tell what they're trying to say and you want to hear what the team has to say maybe they have some greater insight with other conversations or communications they've had them with this client and you can ask this question what do you think that means maybe you can ask it this way what do you think it means if you're asking specific person hey Jon what do you think it means hey Susan you've been quiet what do you think it means see how want you to catch the tone because it does matter how you ask it what you think it means it's clear it's pointed but it's also light and it's not accusatory or attacking what do you think it means see that that that's gonna put someone in defensive mode so what do you think it means that's that's curious tone number five now this is this is probably my favorite coaching question when I'm asking someone to share all possible options and maybe they shared three four or five options that they can see right now and they go well think we could XYZ and then they stop talking and go what else and then give another one and now go anything else what else until they they just say look don't know I've exhausted all ideas that have and then you know that you've got the best right you've got the best ideas you got all the ideas now you can truly make decision with all the options on the table what else question number six is this can you give me an example maybe someone makes it kinda go for example this is great question ask when someone makes an unsubstantiated claim they they make hyperbolic statement and it just seems little bit all right don't know mean can you show me some evidence for that and you go can you give me an example number seven if you could do it all over again what would you do differently see want you to hear the curious kind of playful tone that had there you don't want the question to come across as canned or that you are you practice it or you're reading off list wanted to come out naturally like you're truly inquisitive in this moment and mean it helps if you are inquisitive and you're curious in this moment but if you could do it all over again what do you think you would do differently it's great question to ask when maybe you have young leader that has just gone through an experience where they don't feel like then they necessarily handled everything right or you know they didn't handle everything right but instead of you just telling them where they went wrong it's best and they're gonna learn more if you ask to open-ended question if you could do it all over again what do you think you do you would do differently and let them answer it's fantastic question it'll help them learn and gain so much insight through through that that process of examining how they would go about different question brain now we know that yes or not enough we have to have implementation we have to have execution and and so great question to ask when someone has this wonderful idea hey I'm gonna do this for the company and and I'm really excited and this is my plan and they give kind of general overview of the plan and you say so what is it gonna take to get that done or so what do you think it's gonna take to get that done interesting idea what's it gonna take to get that done and now it's time for them to go layer deeper right the idea is great but we need implementation we need execution and that question really probes to find out where they're at in the process have they thought deeply about this idea and through that opening question you're gonna get all of that information this is great question when someone has once again kind of an ambiguous plan or they're really unsure of where they're trying to go in that what's your that's what you're picking up on what you want to ask is how would you know if you've reached that goal that question right there so Susan how will you know when you've reached that goal what'll be your indicator what will be your key performance indicators to show you that you've you've attained the goal how will you know if you've reached the goal it's fantastic question to get once again clarity of the endgame right Stephen Covey seven Habits of Highly Effective People said begin with the end in mind how will you know if you've reached the goal great question asks and then this question this is this is question to test the creative thinking of your team members question number 10 how do you think this all work out so I'd love to get the team's input on this how do you think it's all going to work out Wow our competitor is struggling right now how do you think this is all going to work out this is where people are gonna begin to brainstorm it's different way of brainstorming and they might say think they have good leadership over there in our competition and they'll figure it out or it's or they'll say hey think this is an opportunity for our organization and we could do XY and and maximize this opportunity to take the the lead position in our industry right it's different way of creative thinking and getting some great ideas around the table instead just asking hey guys where are some great ideas for us to increase our business it's kind of you know that's not fantastic opening question it's better and it's more playful if you ask so how do you think this is all gonna work out and people can kind of think little bit creatively and figure out way it'll work out those are 10 questions open-ended questions that you can ask I'm telling you if you ask these questions you are instantly going to be better business communicator because you're gonna get more information out of people you're gonna build more trust by asking questions and listening to the feedback and you're gonna be better leader better team member and better Sales Professional if you learn how to ask open-ended questions if you found value from this video please like and subscribe to the channel to receive the free influence assessment simply click on the link below that says influence assessment if you have any questions or comments about influence please comment below and will look forward to connecting with you always remember increase your influence realize your dream