The Art of Asking: Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers

Chapter . Misuses of Management Skills: Inquisitions Are Not the Only Abuse of Questioning

Errors and the Misuse of Management Skills

Errors can creep into questioning skills even if managers are successful in avoiding the traps, adopt a positive approach, and avoid making faulty assumptions. In this sense, management skills seem to be present but may be misused. These are the four common mistakes seen among managers with good questioning skills:

• Assuming. The assumptions made by the questioner may be incorrect. This is the most difficult of errors to avoid because it is difficult to explain the underlying assumptions of every question you might ask. The cure for this is to use plain language in the question and ask for the response in plain language ...