Any Questions?
Why, Yes!
NTP—The Debater. This is my Myers-Briggs personality type. Debaters are driven to ask questions and play devil’s advocate. They are also contrarian by nature and must learn to develop empathy for others to advance professionally or, for that matter, maintain deep personal relationships. The Debater personality type can prove challenging for supervisors, colleagues, and direct reports. Fortunately, only a small portion of the population fits this descriptive mark.
Children, especially young children, are masters at asking questions, as any parent of a five-year-old will attest. However, we often lose or at least reign in that ability, that curiosity, as we grow older. Critical thinking starts with asking questions. Some days it feels like there are more problems than solutions. I naturally tend to go to questions when discussing issues with my colleagues, but the ability to ask questions, and the manner in which they are asked, can be honed. Developing and maintaining the ability to ask questions and find solutions is a crucial skill for any leader.
There is a common idea that you shouldn’t bring problems to leadership. But is that how this should work? If there is a problem, a leader should provide support and guidance, and facilitate the process of getting to an answer.
When it comes to questions, asking a lot of them is a good tactic. Have a group of people sit down for a timed period, say 15 minutes, and write out all the questions that they can come up with on sticky notes. Then group the questions by themes. This will help to start isolating the main themes to the issue. Go for quantity over trying to make sure that you are asking the perfect question or a smart question is a good tactic. The most pressing questions will become apparent.

Britteny Cioni-Haywood is an economist and aspiring futurist. She is currently a senior administrator at the Alaska Division of Commercial Fisheries. Her eclectic career path includes financial analyst and qualitative research manager at a Fortune 500 company, assistant professor of economics, and former director of the Alaska Division of Economic Development. She holds a Master of Science in economics. She is a committed lifelong learner whose current study topics include strategic foresight and complexity theory.