One of the first things they teach you in Journalism school is not to ask a yes/no question. Why? Because that’s all that you will get for an answer. Yes or No. And my hunch is that you were looking for more information than that, correct?
If you have young children, especially teens, you are very familiar with the yes/no answer. You have to ask more probing questions to get a grain of information. A simple, “How was your day?” won’t cut it. You ensured an answer of good or bad. But if you rephrase that to, “Tell me 3 great things that happened at school today.” I bet you get more information.
Practice doing this in your business as well. It can be questions you ask your staff, your customers, or even your business partners.
Did that hamburger exceed your expectations is a heck of a lot better than, how is everything.
I bet you learn a lot more!
