What should I be asking?

What to ask when you don't know what you don't know

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that when you are not sure what question
you should be asking, that is your question, ask the

(00:23):
person you are talking with what question you should ask.
This can be a great way to learn about something
important that you didn't even know to ask about. So
when there is something you need to know, you can
ask about it. You can ask your doctor about the
side effects of a medication he's recommending. You could ask

(00:47):
the waiter how spicy a sauce is. You can ask
your boss the deadline for a project. But sometimes you
don't know what you don't know. Maybe you are buying
your fe home and you are unsure what information you
need to find out about the house and the neighborhood.
Maybe your doctor diagnosed you with a medical condition and

(01:09):
you have no idea what you need to learn. Even
in lower stakes contexts, you may sense there's more information
you need to gather, but you are not quite sure
what You want to tap into the other person's knowledge,
But you don't have a specific question to glean the
best information, So just ask the other person, what should

(01:30):
I be asking, then the real estate agent or doctor,
or swim teacher or cooking store salesperson or whoever can
fill you in an information you may find helpful or important.
This question can be especially helpful in interviews. If you
are interviewing job applicants, you could ask as a final question,

(01:53):
is there anything I haven't asked that you wish I had.
Likely the person you are interviewing has some great answer
to a question you didn't ask that allows them to
share something that is important to them. You will learn
something new, which is kind of the point of this
whole process, and if you are being interviewed, asking what

(02:16):
you should be asking can help hone in on insights
into the organization or the position that you might not
have learned about otherwise. When you ask what you should
be asking, you position the other person as a partner.
You don't know exactly what the best question is to ask,
but you both want to make sure that you have

(02:37):
the best information available, so you work together to make
sure you know what you need to know. In the meantime,
this is Laura, Thanks for listening and here to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.

(03:05):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback. You can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(03:27):
listen to your favorite shows.