List of Empathy Questions with Examples

Life Coaching > Interpersonal Skills > Effective Verbal Communication > Effective questioning is one of the vital elements of verbal communication skills and you need both your intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to succeed in this art. Besides effective transition statements and rapport building phrases, effective Questioning skills is one of the basics of communication and you must develop the art of questioning as it not only helps in building a interesting relationship with others but also helps you to solve conflicts in many personal and professional life events. So, whether you are trying to show empathy and compassion with your kid, or you are attempting emotional intelligence questions in a job interview, this simple mnemonic, EPRODUCTION can come handy as it summarizes different types of questions
Different types of empathy questions with a list of examples using EPRODUCTION mnemonic:-

Empathetic
Probing
Rhetoric
Open
Declarative
Unuttered
Close
Tag
Imaginative
One word
Negative
Empathy Questions
Examples List

Empathetic questions are Emotional Type of Questions

To Get emotionally involved and to show the care, love and consideration, empathetic questions are also called rapport questions. Few examples of emotional questions include:-

Are you alright? Are you ok?
How are you?
Are you a very passionate person?
Is everything fine?

Use emotional questions to show 7Es of emotions such as encouragement, enthusiasm and excitement, eagerness, expressiveness, energy, and engagement

Probing Questions are Known as Salesperson's Best Tool

To get specific answer, probing questions are used. Probing questions can be replaced with open ended questions when you expect more elaborative or descriptive answers from others. Examples of probing questions include:

Can you tell me more about this topic, please?
Are there any other ideas that could support your idea?

Sales trainers admire probing questions and consciously include them in almost all sales training sessions.

Rhetorical Questions and Its Definition

Answers are not expected for a Rhetorical question. They are used only to emphasize an idea. You can use rhetorical questions to highlight a belief, a fact or an opinion.
Few examples of rhetorical questions include:

Do you know how much your feedback means to me?
How many talented people are into their dream career these days?
Do you know how much I respect your opinion when it comes to professional counseling?

However, rhetorical questions are rarely used in interviews and in research survey questionnaires but most commonly used in verbal communication.

Open-ended Questions are the Basics of Communications Skills

The motive of asking an open ended question is to get an elaborative or descriptive answer. Open ended questions work great, if the corporate trainers want their participants to talk more.
Wh questions, "Why" and "How", are the most commonly used open ended questions and here are few open ended questions examples:

Why did you do that?
How to begin this task?
Can you explain on what basis you made this decision?

Declarative Questions in Verbal Communication Skills

Statements that are made into questions, by making an upward intonation at the end of the sentences, are called declarative questions. It is one of the effective questioning techniques when you want to clarify certain information from others. Few examples of declarative questions include:

You like coffee?
He is coming to the party?

Unuttered Questions are Non-verbal Questions

These questions are simply shown through a gesture, either by raising the eye-brow, or shrugging the shoulders. However, unuttered questions are avoided in a professional environment as it may lead to confusing thoughts to the participants.

Close Ended Questions are the Opposite of Open Ended Questions

Close ended questions are used to get answers in one word such "yes" and "no". You will find close ended questions very useful especially when they come people who are very talkative.
Some of the close ended questions examples include:

Are you closing this topic now?
Have you attended this training earlier?
Do you know the rules of this training session?
Tag Questions are Another Type of Close Ended Questions

A Tag question is One Type of Close Ended Question

Tag questions--also called question tags--contain two parts; a statement and a question. Here is a short list of questions that are questions Tags:

You understand what I said. Didn't you?
He is not coming for the corporate management training programs. Is he?

Imaginative Questions are "What if" Questions

Imaginative questions are fantasy questions that probe unrealistic future. Asking what if questions encourage others' visualization and thinking capability. Here is short list of "What if" questions:

What would you do if you were a prime minister for a day?
What if you were promoted as a team leader for a day?

One Word Questions Saves Time

Sometimes, asking a question with just one word not only makes the conversation precise and crisp but also facilitates others to interact more with you. Other than the commonly used wh questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how, a simple raise in the intonation of verbal voice, like really? OK? So?, can create one word questions.

Negative Questions Should be Avoided

Any type of questions that has a negative word or phrase in it is a negative question. A list of questions that are negative include:

Why didn't you tell me earlier? (Could be replaced with "Can you please tell me in advance from next time?")
What is your problem? (Could be replaced with "Is everything alright?")

Use can creatively use Empathy Questions when:

you're introducing yourself
you're showing empathy to someone
building rapport with someone
like to grab attention of the audience
like to move from one topic to other through transition statements
give compliments
persuade or negotiate with someone
communicating assertively
someone says, "No"
giving feedback
you're trying resolve conflicts
you're listening to anecdotes and short stories

What not to Say while using Empathy Questions

Here is a list of common verbal communication barriers to avoid when you are communicating empathetically:

redundant words
generalized statements
mother tongue influence (MTI)
negative words
verbal fillers
making judgments

Skills required while using Empathy Questions

Here is the list of skills required:Prosody of speecheffective verbal communication use of figure of speechuse of structure and content words.
Effective questioning skills are vital in both personal and professional situations and it is one of the vital life skill to achieve personal excellence Using this simple memory trick, EPRODUCTION mnemonic You will be able to remember and can effortlessly use these different types of rapport questions to build interesting interpersonal relationships.