Good supervision of others, and developing their skills and capabilities, requires listening. One of the best ways to promote good listening is to ask great questions. This list is not in any specific order or grouping. My suggestion is to skim the list, pick one or two that grab your attention as a good question, and practice asking that question this next week. Bookmark this page and then come back in a month to find a few more questions to use.
Here are 52 great questions to ask your direct reports:
1.“Do you need anything from me?”
2.“When should I ask you about that again?”
3.“What concerns do you have?”
4.“What question should I be asking that I haven’t asked?”
5.“Who needs to know about this?”
6.“What would be required to get this done in half the time? [Or with half the effort]?”
7.“How can I help?”
8.“What did you learn from this?”
9.“What will you do differently next time?”
10.“What is the limiting factor?”
11.“When will you be able to see the first results?”
12.“How will you measure success?”
13.“What could cause a failure?”
14.“What is your fall-back position or alternative plan?”
15.“Why should we care about this?”
16.“How does this help our customers?”
17.“Who is working with you?”
18.“Who can you recognize for their contribution?”
19.“How does this position us for the next step?”
20.“Why did you do it this way, versus another way?”
21.“How can we make a story from this that others will understand and support?”
22.“How do we describe this to someone who doesn’t understand the technical details?”
23.“What is the most critical aspect of this?”
24.“Who do we need to involve in the future?”
25.“What is unnecessary that we could eliminate or stop doing?”
26.“What part of this could be automated or scripted?”
27.“When should you hand this over to someone else?”
28.“Why should my boss support this, and fund it?”
29.“What do you see as your next possible role, and how can I help you get there?”
30.“When is it time to give up and try something else?”
31.“If you were in my place, what would you say to yourself?”
32.“What is required to get this back on schedule?”
33.“What would you give up first?”
34.“Is there anything you haven’t told me?”
35.“How could we use this to teach others?”
36.“What do you think [your colleague] should work on next?
37.“What are you doing to stay up to date in our field?”
38.“What feedback do I need to hear?”
39.“Who could you be mentoring or coaching?”
40.“If you could start over, knowing what you know now, what would make this 10x better?”
41.“What are we not doing that we should be doing?”
42.“Have you considered other options?”
43.“What could you stop/pause/delegate in order to focus more on this?”
44.“Could you teach me how you do that?”
45.“Why did you come to work today?”
46.“What’s the best outcome we could expect? The worst?”
47.“Who have you connected with today?”
48.“What have you read recently that impressed you?”
49.“What can you recruit to help you with this?”
50.“Why should I trust these data?”
51.“Where do you think you need to improve your skills?”
52.“Have I said ‘Thank You’ lately?”
What other questions would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!
What a great list of questions, Glenn!