Asking Good Questions -- Identity & Leadership -- Learn & Lead

Identity & Leadership

The Right Question Opens a Door the Wrong One Closes

Giving Your Opinion is about expressing what you think clearly. Asking good questions is the other half of communication, actually drawing out what someone else thinks, rather than assuming you already know.

Communication researchers have spent decades studying a simple distinction that changes conversations more than almost anything else: open questions versus closed questions. It is one of the most widely taught tools in counseling and coaching.

This section covers that distinction, and something just as important: a good question is only the start. What you do with the answer matters at least as much.

Open questions come first, but research on this kind of listening has found something worth remembering: what you do after the question, actually showing someone you understood them, is just as strongly linked to a conversation helping as the question itself.

From research on open, curious listening

Reflection

What Students Sometimes Think

Here are some thoughts students have shared about asking questions.

All of these are honest responses. Most people do not think much about how they ask questions, they just ask. What this section explores is how a small change in wording can completely change what a conversation is able to become.

Practice

Check Your Understanding

Six questions on the ideas from this section. You will get immediate feedback after each answer.

Question 1 of 6

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Well Done

You have explored the difference between open and closed questions, why the follow-up matters as much as the question itself, and how to turn a flat question into one that actually opens a conversation. The next step is a small one: try asking one more open follow-up than usual the next time someone tells you something. Head back to Rising Leaders to explore what is next.