REVELATION: Your Success Depends on HOW You Ask Questions. Part 8

First off, there are no such things as “powerful” questions—let’s leave that nonsense to the “impactfluencers.”

The nature of questioning is what can make all the difference. Your goal is to master the art of it! This works not only for guiding your teenager but also for making career decisions.

For me, questioning my choices and evaluating options has been a way of life for over 30 years.

Questioning a decision is what makes the difference between a good choice and a poor one—not because of the outcome itself, but because it leads to accepting the outcome. The decision should be made only after exploring all its implications.

That’s the ideal, and it’s what you should aim for. To do this, you need to dig in every possible direction as deeply as you can.

So let’s take a quick look at different types of questions:

Clarifying Questions:

• What do you mean by...?
• What is your main challenge?
• What is the connection between... and...?
• How does this relate to our problem/discussion?

Assumption-Based Questions:

• What are you assuming?
• It sounds like you’re assuming that... Am I understanding you correctly?
• Your entire reasoning relies on the idea that... Why base your reasoning on... instead of...?
• You seem to assume that... What makes you think that’s true?
• Is this always the case? Why are you taking this assumption as a given?

Reason and Evidence Questions:

• How does this apply to our case?
• What would you say to someone who argues that...?
• What reasoning led you to this conclusion?

Questions on Opinions or Points of View:

• What do you conclude from that?
• If that were to happen, what would the consequences be? Why?
• What impact could this have?
• Is there an alternative?

Implication and Consequence Questions:

• How can we find out if...?
• Would someone else frame this question differently?
• According to you, what will happen? If that’s true, what could it change or produce?

Strategic Questions:

• Before answering this question, what other questions should we address first?
• Why should we answer these questions in this order, and how would that change things?
• Why is this topic important?

Don’t limit yourself to this list; research, reflect, and train yourself as you would for any other skill.

Once a question is asked, pursue understanding by following up and delving into what they’ve said. Ask for clarification, go deeper, and explore further.

Want to apply this to yourself? Do the same.

Your one goal: Seek precision; work toward something concrete. Your teenager should write down everything you discover together through discussion.