Better Parents Ask Better Questions
by
Lindsay Tighe
BETTER PARENTS ASK BETTER QUESTIONS
© Lindsay Tighe, 2012
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0872-9
All materials contained in this book are the copyrighted property of Lindsay Tighe. To reproduce, republish, post, modify, distribute or display material from this publication, you must first obtain written permission from the author at: [email protected]
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (pbk)
Author: Tighe, Lindsay, 1963–
Title: Better parents ask better questions / Lindsay Tighe.
ISBN: 978-1-4566-0872-9 (pbk.)
Subjects: Parenting—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Child rearing—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Child development—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Parent and child.
Dewey Number: 306.874
Text design by Sunset Publishing Services Pty Ltd, Brisbane
Cover design by Peter Reardon, Sunset Publishing Services Pty Ltd
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
Dedication
Thank you to the humble question mark for inspiring me to inspire others about the topic of asking Better Questions. I am eternally grateful.
To my beautiful Mum who has always been a fabulous parent – I wouldn’t be who I am today without your care and guidance. THANKS, Mum!
Acknowledgements
There are too many people to thank personally, but I particularly want to mention my wonderful husband Michael who always supports and encourages me, my caring and supportive family who have always loved and believed in me, lovely Tina for her beautiful and inspiring presence in my life and tireless effort to help me spread the word about Better Questions, and also my ‘technical experts’ who are fabulous parents; Vanessa Parsons and Mary Mangos, your insights and wisdom have been invaluable to me. To all the other wonderful people I know, thank you for being such a special part of my life.
Illustrations
Illustrations provided by Georgia Harper, my beautiful niece, of whom I am so proud.
About the Author
Lindsay Tighe is a successful and highly regarded speaker, businesswoman, author and coach who is passionate about inspiring people to improve their own lives and the lives of others. She has a unique blend of life experiences that include working in the corporate world, establishing and running her own business, and gaining formal qualifications, while her genuine love of people give her the ability to inspire and really make a difference to others. In this book, she shares the wisdom gained from her life’s journey (so far!) with real passion, compassion and a desire to make the world a better place.
Described as ‘inspirational, wise and intuitive’, Lindsay lives and breathes the philosophy that if you ask a better question you will get a better answer. She is committed to changing the world by helping people to have more empowered thoughts and conversations with each other in order to tap into their own wisdom.
Lindsay holds an MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management and regularly speaks at a variety of functions. She has appeared on Channel 7’s Sunrise and Morning Show programs and has been featured in national publications such as Woman’s Day, Good Health & Medicine, New Idea and the Qantas In-flight Magazine.
Lindsay lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband Michael and two little dogs, Wilson and Becky.
Note from the Author
I am not a parent, so how come I am writing a book on parenting?! I am sure you are intrigued not only by my interest in the topic, but would also like to know more about my credibility to be able to write a book on parenting! Well, let me tell you that I ‘fell into’ this book more by accident than good planning, but the more I have thought about writing it the more excited I have become, given that the parenting role is such an important one in our society.
Perhaps I should start by saying that my absolute passion in life is asking people Better Questions, in the knowledge that when I ask people Better Questions I know that this will enable them to find better answers. This passion has led me to have a desire to share the wisdom in using this skill that I have learnt over the years with as many people as possible, given that it is such an amazing life skill and a real gift to bring to the table in so many contexts.
My first personal experience of asking Better Questions came about when I took on a leadership role in the corporate world, where I was technically incompetent but had a real interest and passion for turning around underperforming teams. It was a very interesting challenge for me personally in that I was unable to fulfil the role in any way other than to ask Better Questions, and I have to say that this first experience of questioning more and telling less was quite magical for me – not only in terms of my own growth, but also in terms of what it facilitated in my team.
As a result of having quite literally ‘fallen in’ to a more questioning way of approaching things, I soon discovered that this was something that I wanted to learn more about, as well as do more of, and about 10 years ago I left the corporate world to further develop my skills and passion for asking those Better Questions. Since then I have not only become more practiced in the skill itself, I have also developed an absolute passion for training others in the skill, given that I know how much of a profound difference it makes in the world.
Whilst most of this training has been done in a workplace context, I have been most recently extremely busy training people who work in the aged care and health sectors, on the basis that the philosophy of asking rather than telling is not only far more respectful to use in these areas, it also is about enabling people to be empowered to make decisions rather than have others taking over and making assumptions about them.
It has been during the training of thousands of managers, nurses, aged care staff, community health professionals and case managers in the skill of asking Better Questions that it became clear that this skill is not limited to the work situations that they are in. Indeed, the majority of people have seen how the skill can be immediately applied in their roles as parents, and I have been so inspired to hear how they have used the skill in a practical sense, with the absolute knowledge that they know this has undoubtedly enabled them to now fulfil their parenting
