Remove the 'loaded question' from your leadership skills kit bag

Questioning people as leaders is our duty but we ought to use caution.

"Is this a loaded question, sir?" I would ask this jokingly of a leader of mine. It meant that I wanted to know if an ass-chewing would follow my answer. It was funny in those situations but I was on the receiving end of some serious loaded questions in my career and I found each one of them inappropriate and unprofessional. 

I found a good definition on the website, Fallacy in Logic. "A loaded question is a type of trick question: it is designed to imply something that the interrogee probably disagrees with and make the listeners into believing that the implication is true. Moreover, it is typically made in a way that protects the person doing the questioning." Loaded questions are often used in debates to trip up an opponent. They have no place in leadership. Here are a few examples: