Asking Focused Questions

Kekich Credo #12 - Success comes quickly to those who develop great powers of intense sustained concentration. The first rule is to get involved by asking focused questions.

This twelfth Credo Statement had two thought provoking sentences.  Here are my notes as I think about this statement.

1.  Success comes quickly to those who develop great powers of intense sustained concentration.  

• Success comes quickly.  How quickly?  Not right away.  This sentence says to those who develop.  Developing takes time. So before we can experience success quickly we have to develop something. 

• Develop great powers. Not just a little bit but great powers.  That takes time too. 

• Great powers of intense sustained concentration.  Concentration is the action of focusing one’s attention.  To stay focused one has to eliminate distractions and reduce multitasking. 

• 2.  The first rule is to get involved by asking focused questions.

• Asking focused questions.  Use questions to open conversations, inspire deeper thoughts and promote interaction.  Effective questions focus on the how and why rather than the what. When you ask questions, you discover something new. 

• Once you ask a question, allow adequate wait time.  Don’t be afraid of silence.  People need time to consider their responses.  

• Don’t ask yes/no questions.  Instead ask open ended questions so you can discover new opportunities, uncover the roots of a problem and find creative solutions to the problem. ‘Why’ questions help you discover the roots of the problem and ‘how’ questions help discover different ways to improve the situation.

• Asking searching questions needs to start by challenging assumptions.  Don’t just ask one or two questions and then jump right into a solution.  Without understanding a problem completely it is easy to reach the wrong conclusions.

How good are you at asking questions?  What can you do to further develop your questioning skills?  Any thoughts? 

# living life abundantly      # published author