Here is a brief excerpt from an article written by Nadia Goodman for Entrepreneur magazine. To read the complete article, check out others, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

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When your employees ask for help, how you respond can either empower them to find a solution or make them dependent on your input. One simple response consistently empowers employees: answering with a question instead of a statement.

“The most common mistake managers make when helping a direct report solve a problem is a knee-jerk reaction to deliver an answer,” says LeeAnn Renninger, director of LifeLabs, a Manhattan-based professional development and research organization, which offers a class on this technique.

The problem with advice is that employees don’t learn to solve problems independently. They rely on you for answers. Beyond that, advice conveys a lack of confidence in someone’s ability to find a solution, so it erodes your employees’ self-assurance.

LifeLabs has found, through extensive research, that extraordinary managers ask more questions. “Instead of simply giving an answer, they help their direct reports clarify and deepen their own thinking,” Renninger says. “It quickly increases the performance of their team.”

Thoughtful questions can move a meeting past a stuck point, uncover overlooked patterns, inspire innovation, and motivate employees. Plus, a team with a manager that asks more questions has higher work satisfaction and a greater sense of unity.

Here [are two of] four exercises to help you start asking more questions:

1. Track how many questions you ask. At your next meeting, ask a colleague to track your questions in one column and your statements in another. Look at the ratio of questions to statements and work on increasing the number of questions you ask.

Anyone can learn to ask more questions. “The best managers spend time building their questioning muscles,” Renninger says. “They practice and learn which questions make the biggest impact, and when and how to apply them.”

2. Have a questions-only conversation. When an employee comes to you for advice, experiment with asking only questions for the entire conversation. “See if you can phrase each of your statements as a question,” Renninger says.

Guide your employees to their own solutions by teasing out their thought process. Ask, what are your thoughts on this so far? What have you tried? What options are you leaning towards? Why? By asking someone to elaborate, you help them make sense of the problem. The solution often becomes clear.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Nadia Goodman is a freelance writer in Brooklyn, NY. She is a former editor at YouBeauty.com, where she wrote about the psychology of health and beauty. She earned a B.A. in English from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. Visit her website, nadiagoodman.com.