In a previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of “Asking Empowering Questions.” I wrote about the topic in reference to personal development – self-coaching, if you will.
Questions are also important in the leadership process of influencing people. If you are a salesperson, manager, corporate executive, public speaker – basically anyone who finds themselves in a influential position of leadership – “asking the right kinds of questions” will make a huge difference in your ability to reach higher levels of success.
Have you ever noticed that the best essays, articles, speeches, counseling sessions, etc. usually begin with a well-formed question? Let’s consider several reasons why questions are so important:
- Question get the attention of others and engages their mind. They begin thinking about possible responses to the questions being asked.
- Questions open the person to what you are going to say next – imagining that you will offer an answer (or answers) worthy of their consideration.
- Questions also help keep people focused. With so many things vying for a people’s attention, questions bring people back to the topic at hand, alleviating the impact of . One of the important factors in the leadership-presentation process is keeping your audience engaged and limiting the influence of various kinds of interruptions.
- Questions also allow you to anticipate objections to what you are saying? Once those objections are stated by you in a well thought out question, the listener’s defenses are lessoned. This allows you to easier address and overcome those objections during your speech or sales pitch.