Closed-Ended Questions

Sport Psychology education, sales training, and executive coaching taught me to avoid closed-ended questions as if they were the plague. I was told they lead people to give one-word answers. And yet, I am starting to believe that the best questions on my podcast and in my 1-on-1 coaching sessions are often closed-ended. People often respond with their convictions and then expand on their convictions. For both the podcast and my coaching sessions I am trying to discover what the other person believes, and to do that, asking closed-ended questions can be crucial. 
 
We often are so afraid and timid to truly ask for what we are curious about that we dance around the question with an open-ended approach. That dance is useful for self-exploration and can be a great tool in our toolbox, but it’s not the only tool at our disposal.
 
Getting to “no” is extremely valuable. Getting to “yes” can be too. And if you have a strong relationship with someone and have created a secure environment, they will most likely expand on their answer as well. Are open-ended questions valuable? Yes. What about closed-ended questions are valuable? Well, hopefully, I gave some examples above to explain my thinking. See what I did there?
 
Do you agree?