Power Questions
Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others
Author: Andrew Sobel & Jerold Panas
My Rating: 9/10
Length: 224 Pages
Description
Skillfully redefine problems. Make an immediate connection with anyone. Rapidly determine if a client is ready to buy. Access the deepest dreams of others. Power Questions sets out a series of strategic questions that will help you win new business and dramatically deepen your professional and personal relationships. The book showcases thirty-five riveting, real conversations with CEOs, billionaires, clients, colleagues, and friends. Each story illustrates the extraordinary power and impact of a thought-provoking, incisive power question. To help readers navigate a variety of professional challenges, over 200 additional, thought-provoking questions are also summarized at the end of the book.
In Power Questions you’ll discover:
The question that stopped an angry executive in his tracks
The sales question CEOs expect you to ask versus the questions they want you to ask
The question that will radically refocus any meeting
The penetrating question that can transform a friend or colleague’s life
A simple question that helped restore a marriage
When you use power questions, you magnify your professional and personal influence, create intimate connections with others, and drive to the true heart of the issue every time.
The Book In 3 Sentences
Never underestimate the power of a good question! Each chapter in the book is about just one new question. The authors tell of questions they’ve used in various scenarios: with former governmental officials, in employee evaluations, as they consult, under pressure, and at leisure
Always get clarity. Asking questions forces us to be clear. When preparing for a meeting, why not ask a colleague, “What’s the most important thing we should be discussing today?”. Each story by the author relays some unexpected breakthrough that came because he asked a good question.
Questions invite relationships and help you get to know the other person better. The authors point all the way back to Socrates as he summed up this method very clearly. Socrates said, “The highest form of Human Excellence is to question one’s self and others.”
Who Should Read It?
If you are in consulting or management role you should 100% read this book.
If you have a tough time cultivating deeper personal or professional relationships, this is an excellent book for that as well.
The book highlights over 300 essential questions that can lead to deeper meaningful answers. In each short chapter, they highlight a question(s) using their real-life professional experiences consulting with hundreds of management teams. They go into detail on 44 of these questions and give a list of 293 more at the back of the book.
In addition to the list of questions and some outcomes you might expect from asking them, the authors offer coaching for each question. This coaching includes appropriate times you might ask the question and variations on the question, so that you may use it more skillfully. This is arguably the most helpful part.
How The Book Changed Me
I have to admit, when my Dad handed me this book in high school, I misread the title of this book. I thought it read, The Power of Questions. I expected I would read arguments designed to convince me of the power of good questions. In reality, the title is simply, Power Questions. What I got instead was an actual list of questions – “power questions.” And that is what I love about this book.
It is so practical and gives such actionable content and advice, just take 2-3 questions that you read about and use them the very same day on someone.
I read this book YEARS ago, and to date, I still have 3-4 power questions memorized in my back pocket that I use on a weekly basis. I’m also convinced I’m amazing at interviewing because of this one question I have used hundreds of times:
Interviewer (typical lazy question): “Tell me about yourself.”
Most People: *goes into robotic memorized 5min elevator pitch*
Me (after reading Power Questions): “Sure! I’d love to, but what exactly would you like to know about me?”
Interviewer (true story): “Oh wow, never thought about that actually. What a great question, hmm tell me why you are interested in our company?”
“Tell me about yourself,” is the laziest question ever - do you want to know where I am from? Where I went to college? My skillset? My hobbies? My relationship status? By asking that question, it forces the interviewer to think about what they actually want to know. Every time I used that 1 question, I’ve always gotten the 2nd round for interviewing.
Even now at my corporate job - every day, I try to end almost every meeting with, “What have we decided today?”. If someone is struggling to articulate what they need to say to you, draw it out of them with, “What’s your question?”, I used this on a client just yesterday!
This book changed me by showing how asking the right kind of questions and listening to the responses can strengthen your professional and personal relationships.
My Top 3 Quotes
“It's not about you. If you do all the talking, you learn nothing about the person. If you do all the talking you're in the spotlight. If you do all the talking, you don't empower the other person." ― Andrew Sobel & Jerold Panas
"The questions we select have the power to give new life to your conversations in unexpected and delightful ways." ― Andrew Sobel & Jerold Panas
“A perfect day for me is any day I am vertical… and any day in which God disturbs me to move outside the normal noise of my life and serve a greater purpose.” ― Andrew Sobel & Jerold Panas
Best Big Ideas
Each chapter highlights 1 unique question (which is essentially the book’s big ideas). I parsed through that and selected my favorites:
Power Questions
What exactly do you want to know about me?
What do you think?
Are you ready to buy?
How will this further your mission and goals?
What does innovation mean to you? (Get out of your cave)
How did you get started?
Do you mind if we start over? (Foot in my mouth)
Why do you do what you do
What in life has given you the greatest fulfillment
Is this the best you can do?
Is it a yes or a no
What are your dreams?
What do you feel is the right decision for you
What did you learn?
Can you tell me more?
What parts of your job do you wish you could spend more time on, and what things do you wish you could do less of?
What's the most difficult question you have ever been asked?
What was the happiest day in your life?
Can you tell me about your plans?
If the circumstances were turned how would you like to be treated?
What do you wish they would do more of?
Why do you want to do that?
What is the greatest achievement in your life?
What decision do we need to make today? -- what have we decided today?
What's your question?
What made this day more special than any other?
Is there something else you'd like to accomplish? Is there a dream you've yet to fulfill?
What's the most important thing we should be discussing today?
What would you do if you knew you had only three years to live, what would you hope to achieve personally and professionally?
