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Monday 30 January 2023

Six tips for leaders as askers of questions

I have written about leadership by asking questions before (here). However, we all know people who just seem to keep doing things that make us shake our heads: it is almost like they forget to turn their brains on. Thinking ahead and the idea of consequences seems to be a disabled function. 

We all need to employ critical thinking in our lives. A key aspect of critical thinking is breaking down issues into their component parts so we can analyse them. From that analysis, we can then make sound decisions. Good decision-making can mean the difference between a smoother path or a much rougher one. 

A key element of sound critical thinking is to continue to hone our ability to ask ourselves good questions. One way we can grow our self-questioning ability is as follows (Harvard Business Review, 2022). We need to:

  1. Challenge our assumptions. "Hold [...]our hypotheses loosely. Good questions can lead [us to] reconsider [...]our initial assumptions — but [we] have to be willing to do so without defensiveness"
  2. "Listen more than [we] talk. Active listening allows [us] to fully grasp another point of view, making it easier to question [...]our own assumptions and biases"
  3. "Leave [...]our queries open-ended. Avoid asking yes-or-no questions. Instead, try to get the respondent to open up at length"
  4. "Consider the counterintuitive. Every group needs someone who’s unafraid to challenge the status quo, in case [we] need to change course"
  5. "Sleep on it. A good night's rest can actually help [...]our brain see a problem more clearly" (Harvard Business Review, 2022).
  6. Lastly, remember to ask ourselves some standard questions each time about the matter we are considering. We can ask ourselves: what is good about it; what needs to be improved; what is surprising; and what is missing, that we still need to find out. We can also ask ourselves what would happen if we DIDN'T do it.
I hope this is helpful!

Sam

References:

Harvard Business Review (2 May 2022). The Management Tip of the Day: today's tip - Ask Questions to Boost Your Critical Thinking Skills [email]. https://m.a.email.hbr.org/rest/head/mirrorPage/@KIQX1Dlj8fVqlaWjZwNkpBuKW5FsoKZ69HhZgyJhvHs-JtZwkNPjR-zuWstPPLQHryJ6tfr7F8ZPpTO3VkYyaJHeyK6tgmKTZCf0RUlW04cy8iUc.html?deliveryName=DM190598

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