Good Communication Skills.... The Secret to Career Success 

Being able to ask the right questions

Being able to ask the right questions gives you the ability to gain deep insight, helps you on your career path and can make you successful in almost every aspect of your life. The trouble is that most people are dreadful at asking questions and communicating. So how can you learn?

Great questioning will provide greater value from business meetings

Ask yourself if a great questioning and investigative ability would help you to extract greater value from business meetings? Would the value of your mentors increase? Would networking and chance meetings with fellow executives lead to profitable relationships and new business? The experts say yes.

A former journalist and businessman, Evan Ratliff, (cofounder, CEO, editor of Atavist) explained that his time working at The New Yorker helped him to ask the right questions to get the answers he needed. This ability to question in a high-value way meant that the business could progress and all interactions became more valuable.

A great example of an interesting experiment of Evan Ratliff’s for Wired Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened. This offers great insight in to the sharp mind of Evan Ratliff and what makes him a great journalist.

Most of us ask very bad questions

The difficulty is, however, that most of us ask very bad questions. We accept poor answers, talk too much or get no response at all. Directness embarrasses us, as does a fear of revealing ignorance, so we do our best, fudge things and miss out on personal development and growth.

However, things can be different. Here's the way to becoe a great interrogator and a great conversationalist in the process.

Firstly, stop asking multiple-choice questions.

If you have a question, why is it you who's talking? Ask a simple, direct question and have confidence in your brevity.

Get used to silence as well and embrace it as thought time.

Elicit meaningful answers by starting your questions with what, why, how or when. Stop fishing for answers and give the other person the time to think about a response.

If you don't get a response, ask the question again in a different way.

If you don't understand the answer, ask a follow-up question to clarify matters. You can also check your understanding by rephrasing the answer in your own words. Finally, never be scared about asking what appear to be stupid questions. These are sometimes the best questions of all.

Another tip to remember is that the worst questions are those which are leading, or fishing for a specific answer.

Top journalists always recommend avoiding these. Basically, if you already know the answer then why you are asking the question? If you are simply seeking clarification of a guess or suspicion, ask directly and objectively. You'll show yourself to be confident and you'll tend to get more honest answers.

Other Good Communication Tips

Most people aren't upset by interruptions to their flow, especially if it shows that you are listening and responding to what they are saying.

Remember to re-frame a question in a new way if you feel that you didn't get a straight answer to it originally.

Media-trained people in particular will be skilled in the art of the dodge. Many times, the talker will simply have failed to understand the question or forgotten to answer it. When in doubt, be simple and direct.

And Finally

Don't risk pretending that you know something that you don't. 

The most embarrassing questions are the ones that never actually get asked and which cause problems or missed opportunities later down the line. Remember that you don't need to impress other people with your knowledge   you are simply information gathering. Most people are more generous with their time and knowledge than we realise. They simply need to know what you want to know.

The Secret to Success in your Career….. Good Communication Skills

by Marc Dewdney of Circle Square  

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