Three Thought-Provoking Questions with Senia Maymin
Senia Maymin, PhD
Chief People Officer | Stanford PhD | Data-driven, ROI-focused, people-first leader | Board Presentations, HR Strategy, M&A, Employee Life Cycle
What are the three most thought-provoking questions you can ask anyone, anywhere, anytime? After conducting many interviews, Senia Maymin is ready to share her favorite questions and tell us why she believes they work.
To watch the whole conversation, click here or watch the video embedded below.
All of the words below are Senia Maymin's.
Why Should You Care?
Being ready with these questions can help in a job interview or when you meet someone new, such as a senior leader in your company or a friend of a friend. You can use these questions whenever you want to have deeper discussions and you want the discussion to feel new for the other person.
After many interviews and many coaching calls, these are the three questions that I've found most thought provoking. Are they the best questions? Not necessarily, but they do stop people and make them think. It’s helpful to have questions like these ready because you don’t want to ask people you meet for the first time the same questions that everybody else asks them. A CEO is used to being asked, “What do you expect for the company?” or “What's important to you?” The questions I suggest can stimulate them to think anew.
One caveat: Sometimes the best question is literally “How are you?” expressed with authentic concern, as I discussed in an earlier webinar. Sometimes people need you to just be there and listen and be responsive. In fact, whatever you ask, it's important to be present and listen closely to what people say. These questions make listening fun.
You can remember them as the one thing, the surprise, and the seesaw.
One Thing
Interviewing people, I like to ask, “What is the one thing you most want people to take away at the end of our time together?” When I interview guests that have done TED Talks, they have already formulated their main concepts into one clear takeaway idea. Others may need to think for a minute. The question could take different forms. “What is the one thing that you want people to take away when they have a conversation with you?” or “What is the one thing that's most important for your business in the next six months?” Ask it in a way that narrows the scope to a particular setting. That helps them say something specific.
Surprise Question
I get the most unexpected answers when I ask, “What has surprised you the most?” Make the question fit the context. Thus, when I’m interviewing an expert on resilience or inspiration, I might ask, “What is the thing that surprised you most when you were doing your research?” It's really fun because when people know their fields deeply and you ask them what surprised them, out come fun, quirky, unexpected things that they've noticed. It's almost like you're going to their level of expertise and then asking them to drill deeper.
Seesaw Question
Please imagine an actual seesaw with two kids on it at a playground. But first, let me put it in a specific context. Suppose you're at the end of a job interview and you've been talking to your potential hiring manager. Let’s assume it has been a good interview, and you've covered a lot of ground. Here’s a question that you can ask at the end when your potential manager says, “What questions do you have?” You could say, “I'd like to ask you two questions. First, ‘Based on the discussion that we've had, where do you feel that I'm a good fit for this job?’ Then in a moment, I'll ask you, “Where do you have hesitations?’” That's why it's a seesaw.
I really recommend phrasing it in that way, starting with “I'd like to ask you,” … then asking the first seesaw question, then saying “and in a moment I’m going to ask you,” and asking the second seesaw question.
You want to hear both answers, and it helps if you ask them all at once like this. First, both questions are ones where you want to know the answers. You want to know both where you’re a good fit and where there are hesitations because then you have a chance to address them. Asking both questions all at once like this gives the person a choice about where to put the emphasis. They may not want to answer one of the questions. This approach lets them focus where they want to.
Example One: Senia and The Webinar Series
Let me give you two examples of these questions in action. For the first example, imagine you are interviewing me about this webinar series.
You: So, Senia, what is your one thing, your main point in today’s session?
My one big thing is to keep it short. My questions are short. The time needed to ask them is short. That opens space for a deep conversation.
You: What are you surprised by?
Doing these broadcasts that go out live to LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter, I'm most surprised by how much fun it is to have interactions with you, with the people who join live. I get to interact with Monica and Brian and others. Here's Brian saying, "I also want questions at the ready when the flow of conversation seems to stall."
You: What is working the best in these broadcasts? What can be even better?
Right now what's working best is that we come up with content that you have asked for. What could be better is we'd like to know even more about your needs for content. When you tell us what you most want to hear, we can invite the coaches and book authors and business leaders that can best answer your questions.
Example Two: A Senior Leader
Let’s ask the same three questions with a business leader. Suppose you’ve just been introduced to a senior leader in your company.
For the first question, you could ask, “What's the one thing that's most important for the company to execute in the next six months?” That's super specific. The leader has to focus to come up with one thing.
For the second question, you could ask, “What's been most surprising thing you've learned about leading within this the company?” I would love to know what senior leaders find surprising. They might focus on the people, on the challenges of the company, or really surprise me.
Then the seesaw question. I might phrase it in the context of what's going on. I might say, “If you think about the pandemic, what is one thing that the company has done extremely well? In a moment I’ll ask you, what's an area in which the company has yet to grow?”
To close
Let me ask you my thought-provoking questions about your webinar experiences.
What's one thing that you most want us to know?
What's one thing that surprised you the most?
What's one thing that's gone really well? Where is there still room to grow?
Photo Credit: Photo 15632578 ? Konstantin Kirillov - Dreamstime.com
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