Key Takeaways
- The question that changes a meeting is almost always the one that takes longer to formulate.
- Good questions are specific, open-ended, and focused on the other person's thinking, not your own.
- Leaders who ask more questions than they give answers will receive more honest information.
In most professional settings, the people who get the most airtime are the ones with the most ready answers. The most valuable people in the room are frequently the ones whose questions reframe the conversation in ways that produce better answers than the ones that were being pursued.
Saim Abbasi has developed question asking as a deliberate practice and considers it one of the highest-leverage communication skills available to a business leader.
What Makes a Question Good
A good question is specific enough to be answerable, open-ended enough to allow a genuine range of responses, and focused on the other person's thinking rather than on demonstrating the questioner's perspective. "Don't you think the market is too crowded?" is a bad question because it is really a statement with a question mark. "What is your theory of why you will win in a market that has several well-funded competitors?" is a good question because it requires the other person to reveal their actual thinking.
The Preparation Discipline
Most questions asked in meetings are improvised reactions to what is being presented. The questions that change conversations are prepared in advance, based on research and thinking about what the key uncertainties are and what answers would most affect the decision being made. Saim's practice before any significant meeting or investment conversation is to write down three to five questions that would most change his thinking if the answers were different from what he expects.
"The best leaders I have watched are distinguished more by the quality of their questions than the quality of their answers."