Better Questions than “Any Questions?”

It can be very instructive to ask, “What questions do you have for me?” or “What questions do you have about us?” or similar variants on this theme. The goal is to get the candidate to voice information about what he or she really cares about, and it also tests how well the candidate knows the job or project under consideration. On top of all that,

Here are some examples of powerful questions to ask someone, that you can modify per your needs:

• What do you really want?

• What about this is important to you?

• What does that look like?

• How do you feel about this?

• What’s next?

• What else is possible?

• What’s right about this?

• What are your concerns?

• What is standing in your way?

• Tell me more

Elevating Questions - How To Think Bigger About Ideas What interests me most about these ideas? What elements could I have missed earlier? What is below the surface? What is the bigger picture? Where is the connection between ideas?

• What are your goals for yourself? What steps are you taking to achieve them?

• When are you most energized at work? How can you do more of that?

• On a scale of one to ten, how challenged do you feel? How challenged would you like to feel?

Notice that some of these questions are abstract, while others are concrete. Some express deep longings, while others are more like spontaneous interests. Many are questions about how to live a better life, while a few are focused on how to succeed professionally. The key to this exercise is to make them open-ended questions that don’t necessarily

Ask better questions when interviewing. Use the above list or something that creates a bit of real-life pressure. And know ahead of time what you want to hear from every question you ask.