That's a Great Question: Provocative Questions, Practical Results - Softcover

Bustin, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604946717 ISBN 13: 9781604946710

Publisher: Wheatmark, 2011

Synopsis

Every great achievement starts with a question.

If questions wield such enormous power, why do our peak question-asking years top out around age four?

What are the contributing factors? More important, what steps can we take to re-learn and apply this valuable leadership skill?

Whether you're an aspiring leader or a seasoned executive, this book will give you the confidence to embrace the counterintuitive truth: when you overcome the urge to tell and instead ask a question, you put yourself in control by gently guiding the conversation.

This book examines:

• The 7 types of questions, when to use them, when to avoid them
• The framework for asking great questions
• A speedy way to raise your questions to a new level of insightfulness
• More than 1,000 questions in 20 categories essential to business and life

High-performing leaders create an environment where questions are welcomed because asking great questions changes conversations. And when you change the conversation, you can change a colleague's performance and an organization's culture.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"That's a great question," the CEO said.
 
The two of us were in the middle of our monthly coaching session.
 
It was a stiletto moment. I'd pierced the heart of the CEO's issue with a great question.
 
This book contains more than 500 provocative questions that probe the 18 most compelling topics the successful people I work with examine regularly. Each question represents an opportunity to help you understand what matters most to you in order to take action, increase your effectiveness, get results and enhance your personal life.
 
Start with the chapter that examines Purpose.  After that, feel free to skip around.
 
You can also use this book as a guide with your team at work to pinpoint what matters to your department, your division or to the entire business enterprise.  And use the book with any other group that you believe would benefit from answering thought-provoking questions that help sharpen purpose, affirm values and drive results.
Provocative questions provide an opportunity for us to ponder issues we've taken for granted, never considered or purposefully ignored.    Questions prompt us to dig deeper to expose - within ourselves and within others - what's most meaningful.
 
We go through life asking and answering millions of questions.
 
The questions you'll find in this book are different.  What you'll find here are thought-provoking questions that can unlock and open new doors for you.  The vast majority of the questions are framed from a business perspective because that's where most of the people I work with are focused.  But the reality is I'm hired by business executives and then human beings show up.  So you'll also find plenty of questions about personal matters that inform and influence business decisions.
 
We'll also examine how to ask great questions.  And we'll look at words that, when used in questions, often trigger undesirable responses. 
 
In this book you'll find more than 500 of the most provocative questions I've asked very successful people to help them get more of what they want out of their business...and their life.  Practical results.

From the Back Cover

Provocative questions matter because they:
 
·      Bring clarity to purpose, decision and tasks
·      Foster innovation 
·      Enhance problem-solving abilities
·      Strengthen trust
·      Improve listening skills Build confidence and grow careers
·      Build confidence and grow careers 
·      Improve individual and organizational performance
 
High-performing leaders create an environment where questions - especially tough questions - are welcomed, asked and answered before decisions are made and after results are produced.
 
In this book you'll find more than 500 of the most provocative questions I've asked very successful people to help them get more of what they want out of their business...and their life.  Practical results.
 
Excerpt from Foreword
 
"It would be hard to imagine a better person to write about the art of asking impactful questions than Greg Bustin.  You too can learn the art and value of question-asking from a master practitioner."
 
Rafael Pastor
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Vistage International
 

Edition details

• Publisher: Wheatmark
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1604946717
• ISBN 13: 9781604946710
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 203