A recent article by Jeff Haden in Inc Magazine, highlights the importance of asking questions to help build stronger relationships between leaders and their employees. Haden focuses on the weak question that many of us use both in our personal and professional lives; “How are you doing?” which more times than not leads to the response “Fine”.
The 10 questions are a great step in the right direction. He suggests asking some follow up questions, which are always important to show interest and care. So, what would be some follow up questions you can ask?
Well, in my coaching work, I often implore questions using a likert scale. For instance, Haden’s question 3 “What have you decided to do differently when things go back to “normal?” could then be followed by the question “On a scale of 1-10 how committed are you this goal?”, with another follow-on question “What would it take to move your commitment 1 point higher?”
Read Haden’s 10 questions here and start focusing on powerful not weak questions.
