Through extensive research and collaboration with executives, we’ve formulated a practical framework for the five types of questions to ask when making strategic decisions: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective.
At the same time, we’ve also created a tool to help people assess their questioning styles. The leader’s question mix is a self-assessment survey to help you determine your strengths and weaknesses and reflect on your decision-making process.
After you complete a brief questionnaire, you’ll receive an email from IMD that maps out your scores in each questioning area. Compare the totals for each section and focus your attention on the lowest-scoring sets.
When we offered a version of this tool to 1,200 executives, the combined results showed a fairly even distribution among the five styles we’ve described. However, individual answers revealed major imbalances. Many executives over-rely on one area of questioning and completely neglect another.
So, along with our online tool to help you assess your question mix – and, crucially, figure out your gaps – consider the following three tips: