BE 589: How Leading Questions Can Be Dangerous at Work

This is the Business English Podcast, episode 589, How Leading Questions Can Be Dangerous at Work. Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.

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That's allearsenglish.com slash F L U E N C Y S C O R E. Hey, Lindsay, how are you? I'm doing well, Michelle. Glad to be recording. How's it going with you?

Good. Lindsay, we have so much work to do. You aren't planning any upcoming vacations, right? No, no vacations planned for me. I feel like I knew what you wanted me to say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, you know, yeah, exactly. So would you say what I asked you was kind of a leading question? I would say I would say it's safe to say yes.

Um, so the way you phrase that was very leading and I kind of knew what you were hoping I would say again, it pushes, you've pushed me to a certain specific answer, right? These show up a lot in life. Yeah, yeah. So they're not neutral.

I mean, there's already an opinion or a bias built into the question. So it's a bit like saying there's only one right answer here. I know. And a leading question can really make it harder for the person to answer, to respond with something other than that target answer.

So this can be dangerous if you're doing any kind of student, any kind of customer research. Yeah. Right. You're likely to not get an accurate opinion.

Information. Yeah. Yeah. So you and you guys love the show, right? So because of that, we want to ask you. to write us a review. Exactly, Michelle. Write us a review if you love the show or if you have a suggestion to improve the show.

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Perfect. All right. So, Lindsay, back to leading questions. So what do they sound like? Well, they're typically direct or yes, no questions, right? There's a few different ways to form this.

So let's give some examples grammatically of what would be flagged as a leading question. Yeah. So you could say don't or isn't or aren't and then add your opinion. So starting off with one of those words.

So, for example, a neutral question would be, what do you think about the product's pricing? Yes. And then the leading version of that would be a little twisted. Don't you think the product is priced accurately?

So you can tell the person is coaxing for a yes, right? Yeah. Yeah. So their target answer, what they want you to say is, yes, I do. Right? Exactly. Or we might phrase it like a statement and a confirmation word.

What would be a confirmation word, Michelle? Like right or correct or yes. Right. So the neutral version, how did the client respond? This is more open-ended.

We're not indicating what we expect to hear. A leading version would be the client responded well, right? Right. And then the target answer here is, yes, he did.

We want a yes, right? Yes. And that's what my joke was when I was asking for reviews. I said, you guys love the show, right? Right. So, yeah, that's a leading question.

Yeah, for sure. So or it could be statement plus the opposite, like a mini question. So aren't there? Isn't it? Are you right? So neutric would be like, are there any concerns about the product launch?

And the leading version would be there aren't any concerns about the product launch. Are there? So we're searching, we're hoping for a no. There are no concerns.

Yep. Exactly. So this is very similar to the idea of tag questions. Right. Yeah. If it's an open-ended question, though, it's usually an implied statement.

So that's interesting. Right. So neutral. How does the new iPhone compare to previous models? Yeah. The leading version is how is the iPhone an upgrade from previous models?

So I mean, new versions of phones are not always upgrades. you know yeah sometimes they just seem to be stuck in the same old place don't they kind of there's no improvement or sometimes the software is worse the way they decide i don't know some of these ui updates sometimes are just worse they make it harder to navigate yeah yeah it seems like we're just kind of we it seems like we've kind of like hit a peak with the phones and now we're just going to be moving to ai and all this stuff i know what changes it yeah and so the target answer here is it has a far better camera or something is better and

So it's almost like you send the person searching in their mind for how it's better. You don't give them the option to say, actually, it's worse. Yeah, right, right, right. You're not giving them the option exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're going to talk when we come back from the break a little bit about how and when these are used and what to do with them, right?

Really interesting topic today. Yeah, definitely. Start your gratis proof period on Shopify.com. All right. So, Michelle, when do people tend to use leading questions?

Yeah. Well, a big time would be in a courtroom interrogation, right? Like a lawyer might use it. So, you know, they're using it to guide a person toward a specific response or to limit their answers.

Of course. Yeah. So how might that sign? You saw the contract before signing it, didn't you? Yes, I did. And nobody forced you to sign the contract, correct?

Yes, that's correct, right? Yeah. Sometimes you might even hear in like the courtroom, hey, that's a leading question, right? Right, right. Objection, leading question, maybe.

Yeah, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a trial lawyer, but I feel like there might be an objection there that people do use. Yeah, for sure. But that is the goal that the...

If it's your lawyer, they want to bring out certain angles that the jury can see, right? To lead the jury to be more sympathetic towards you. Yeah, they're intimidating sounding, right? Oh, yeah.

And then a whole other area, of course, is sales. Gotta love it. Sales is all about framing something as the best choice or encouraging someone to purchase something. So framing, framing, framing, framing, huge.

For example, this software would save your team time, wouldn't it? Yeah, it probably would. Which could save you time in the long run, right? Yeah, that's true.

I mean, one place where I will say that it should not be used, but sometimes it is, is journalism. And especially where journalism hits podcasting because I listen to a lot of journalism podcasts like The Daily, maybe The Wall Street Journal podcast. And it's kind of like there's narrative there too. And sometimes you'll hear like a guest might say, I reject the premise of your question, right?

And that's kind of what this is. It's like the interviewee will call the journalist out and say, like, I think you're leading me to this, but I actually reject the original premise of what you're assuming in the way you're asking it, which I think is pretty valid, especially in a journalism podcast because journalists should, by definition, be neutral. But with podcasting, it's become a little less neutral, a lot of opinion, right? There's a lot of opinions.

A lot of opinions. Even not on podcasts. I mean, even just on the regular podcast. channels i mean so um yeah but yeah i mean people can feel when they're being asked deleting question and they might call someone out for it so and i think that it's fair too um yeah we're kind of in a moment now where we're like who gets to call themselves a journalist and we don't always agree on you know on that it's really interesting what's happening that's true yeah it is

And another thing would be surveys or reviews sponsored by a specific company, right? So to steer respondents towards the positive answers and get good reviews. Of course. For example, why would you choose this project over others?

Because it's easy to use. How did our customer service exceed your expectations? They responded faster than I expected. So again, as the respondee here, I am searching for the answer for what you're looking for, right?

I'm not taking the time in my mind. It's a really interesting mental trick. I'm not taking the time to go find the negative sides. Really interesting.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In this role play, Michelle, we are working on a software product launch. I'm the boss and I'm asking you about the progress so far.

So a bit of a progress update, right? Okay. All right. Here we go. So you're confident about the timeline of the product launch, right? Yeah. Mostly, yes, but there are still a few issues we need to work out.

But nothing that would delay us, right? No, we should be ready in time. And you still agree with the updates? Overall, yes, but I think they make the software much easier to use.

Great. Then after you tie up those loose ends, we should be good to go. It's a little bit of a dangerous management style asking these leading questions because as the manager, I might have a real surprise at the end.

right because i've been leading you to say yes we'll be ready everything will be fine but maybe that's not the case and you don't feel like you have the space to right i'm too scared to say it yeah yeah so yeah definitely like i i felt it i felt like that pressure of you asking me these things it's like So you said, so you're confident about the timeline of the product launch. Right. And, and I'm trying to give you these honest answers.

Mostly. Yes. You know, I'm like, I'm not responding to your leading question. Totally. Yeah. So that's why you ask another one. Yeah. You said mostly yes, but right.

So yeah, you're not really totally being led down that path. Um, but nothing would delay us. Right. And then you said no. So here now you are kind of agreeing with me.

And then I said, and you still agree with the updates? And you said overall, yes. So you're kind of tempering your answers a little bit by pulling back with overall, yes. Because if you say overall, there may be some things that you don't agree with, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Interesting. A little dangerous. Yeah. A little dangerous. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And then, you know, I think that on my end of this role playing, I am doing a good job of trying to escape the lead a little bit, but you kind of corner me, so.

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard. Yeah, it's hard as an employee, too, as you're answering these questions. You want to please your boss, right? You want to make them feel confident in your work, but...

If there's going to be trouble ahead, and software projects often get delayed like this, right? Software launches, there's always something that goes wrong towards the end, it seems like.

So really tricky. And also when you are talking with your team about how their job is going, you want to get good answers, correct answers, right? Yeah. So maybe in the moment it feels more comfortable as a manager to ask leading questions, but save yourself the discomfort later or any surprises later by asking more neutral questions.

That's kind of our recommendation, I think. Yeah, I think that's really smart because somebody could definitely just say like, yeah, it's fine because they're so uncomfortable in that moment. And then they feel, oh, I'll just email her later and tell her, you know, and wait a couple weeks. And you know what I mean?

Yeah, exactly. Good point. You're kind of creating a company culture of sort of dishonesty or pretending, which you as the leader create the culture of the company, right? So something to think about.

Definitely. Love it. All right. Well... Episode, let's see. Okay, here we go. Guys, if you didn't listen already, head on over to episode 578. This episode is courtesy of Lindsay and Michelle.

Yeah, fun little title there. You'll learn what this courtesy of expression means and more. Guys, go check out 578. And I think we've already given our listeners the takeaway.

If you are a leader in your company, think about what... vibe you want to create what company culture and then think about where you want to work you know if your boss is asking you these leading questions and then you're having these crises that might pop up right at go time that's not the best environment yeah yeah no i think that that's such a good takeaway for today to realize that that can leading questions can really be harmful even if they feel good in the moment um so all right lindsey i think it's time to go don't you i actually do michelle

All right, guys. Thanks for listening. Have a good day. All right. Bye, Michelle. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.

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