Judy Answers Questions Instead Of Asking Them - For a Change!
Interview With
Book Title
Good Question! The art of Asking Questions To Bring About Positive Change.
First Published
Who is this book written for?
Everyone really, since everyone I've ever met wants to be making a difference in life in some way or other - and it's especially useful as a resource for coaches and facilitators and all in the business of positive change.
How much did you know about your subject before writing this book? In other words, what qualifies you to write this book?
Quite a bit, since it's about all sorts of life situations. I was already a coach and I'd been leading groups, working with people one to one, teaching, lecturing and all of that and going on workshops, retreats and seminars of quite a few varieties for many a moon. I already knew some of the people who contributed to my book and I'd learned from them and from many others. Plus I have always asked a lot of questions. Why wouldn't I when there's so many interesting things going on in life? When I ask questions my coaching clients keep saying 'That's a good question!' and going quiet while they think deeply, so I must know a thing or two about asking the right question at the right time!
What makes your book different?
In Good Question! it's easy to access a variety of questions, techniques and questioning styles. You can discover how different coaches and leaders think and work and you can learn from them - but it's much more than a series of different essays because the questions are grouped so that you can find what you want for particular situations very easily. You can read it all in one go or skip around and alight at will. You can keep returning to it as a valuable handbook whether you are a coach, in any company role, running your own business, moving your own life forward, helping friends and family or contributing to your community or charity. It's pithy, clear and full of ideas, inspiration and motivation.
Why did you write this book?
Id been hatching someting of the kind and then had a bright idea when I was with a group of inspiring people who had been brought together by two of Good Question!'s contributors, Tony Burgess and Julie French (co-authors of Bookshaker Book 'Oops, I dropped a Vowel'. Suddenly I had a publisher, Debs Jenkins, and all these interesting people agreeing to tell me about their favourite questions, the ones that work really well when they help people to make changes in their lives - and each of these contributors is highly successful at doing just that. I made a few phone calls and all but two of the people I asked said yes straight away. I had a list of 28 contributors. Some spoke and I recorded them. Some wrote chapters. I wrote quite a bit too. With help from my two wonderful editors, Debs and Joe, I turned it all into a book that is inspiring, easy to navigate and good to keep around as a reference book (so say my readers). So why did I write it? Because it's important. Because we live in a time when many people want to make a difference, whether in the lives of the people around them, on a bigger scale or in specific arenas such as improving the environment and developing charity projects. You could keep quiet or keep asking the questions you are asking already or - and here's a question for you: What significant breakthroughs could you create for yourself and others by reading 'Good Question!'? And another: 'How helpful would it be to learn new questions and to further develop your own questioning skills, so that your conversations, client sessions and meetings make an appreciably better contribution to life?'
What kind of research did you do for your book?
Interviewing, reading and in some cases going on workshops/seminars.
Tell us the single most important thing we'll learn from your book...
That asking questions really IS an ART. You learn the techniques from others and then you really do have to get going and develop your own art of asking questions.
How would you describe yourself?
Interesting, versatile, creative, inspirational, motivated and thoughtful with a twinkle - and modest.
What's your greatest achievement so far?
Bringing up my daughter.
Who are your role models/influences and why?
I'll start with all the contributors to good Question, and I'll add my meditation teacher for over twenty years, John Garrie, who taught me the zen of asking and answering questions and the importance of the thoughtful silence that surrounds good conversation. Then there are teachers and lecturers and so many people from literature, so many friends and my parents who were brilliant conversationalists in completely different ways from each other.
What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you as a result of writing your book?
The most exciting thing is when people tell me what good happens as a result of asking the questions in the book. I feel so chuffed! And I'd love to hear how you use good questions too please!
What are you working on now?
Workshops, a very exciting book collaboration, my blog www.thinkingblossoms.com , another book which I'm longing to complete and get published and coaching some very wonderful people.
What else do you do?
As well as writing I coach people one to one, mainly on the phone. So far I've worked with people in six different countries. I usually coach coaches and trainee coaches, people developing service businesses, highly creative people, people who want to develop their confidence and their creativity, and people who design and lead workshops and seminars. I run Confidence Workshops, 'Confidence and Creativity' workshops and 'How to Lead Lively Workshops' .I also do bespoke work for companies and give presentations.
If my work was a stick of seaside rock then anywhere you cracked it you'd read these words: Confidence, Creativity, Communication and Clarity - and Questions of course, which at least sounds as if it starts with a C :-)
Do you have any free samples for us?
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