Have you ever stopped to think about how many closed questions you are asking versus how many open-ended questions? And the impact that this has on the way you communicate with those around you? People you interact with on Steemit? Your colleagues at work? Your clients? Even your partner!
I know that we have all had that awkward conversation with someone when it just doesn't seem to go anywhere...
You’ve asked them: “Did you have a good day?”
“Yes”
“Ah great, did you have much traffic on the way home?”
“Nope”
“Awesome, how is your mum doing? is she feeling better?”
“yepp”
“So you like your new job then?”
“Yeah, I do”
And you’re thinking... Come on. Are you really that boring? (Which is another closed question by the way). And the answer to that closed question is: No. They aren’t boring, you are just asking questions in the wrong way.
If there is one thing that you learn when you work in a call centre 🙋 and your job is to know exactly who Mr. Jones is so you can make a relevant sale to him, it is how to find out as much information about someone as you can in as small a time as possible.
I challenge you to spend a day asking people open questions instead of closed questions and see what a difference it makes. Ask your friend what it is that they like about their new job, instead of whether they like it. Ask someone on Steemit what it was that made them join Steemit. Take the time to really ask your loved one, how was your day? If they try giving you a short answer like "It was good", follow with another question, "what was good about it?"
Make the person feel like you are really paying attention to them, find out things you weren't expecting, improve the quality of your conversations and let that person tell you exactly who they are.
