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It’s easy to take something for granted when it’s a daily (if not hourly) part of your job. Asking questions, for example, is so woven into the responsibilities of a journalist that I’d wager many industry professionals don’t spend much time thinking about it.
But just because it’s a skill necessary to do the work doesn’t mean we’re as proficient as we could be. I recall interviewing veteran NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw some years ago and learning how he asked questions that would yield more informative answers: “What I do is anticipate how they’re likely to answer a question and try to steer them away from just a cliché of the moment.”
Another thing to consider is that asking questions of others doesn’t automatically make us able to do the sometimes-challenging and necessary work of self-interrogation. This is particularly crucial when you’re stressed and unhappy or have reached an inflection point in your career. So it’s worth revisiting how to ask better questions, as well as learning which questions to ask, depending on the circumstances.
Ask questions for self-improvement
Say you’re having trouble sleeping. It could be due to any number of factors; and there are some simple questions to consider to help determine the cause of your sleeplessness—like, Where do you leave your phone at night? Or questions that touch on work-related stress and unhappiness, which could be impacting your sleep.
