A recent article from Entrepreneur.com, “Why the Best Managers Ask the Most Questions,” explains why it’s best to respond with a question of your own, rather than a directive, when an employee asks for help.

The reason is two-fold. First, providing specific advice or offering a direct answer for inquires for help doesn’t allow employees to learn to solve problems independently. Also, providing too much advice shows a lack of confidence in the employee’s abilities, thus eroding their self-assurance and inhibiting professional development.

“Instead of simply giving an answer, [extraordinary managers] help their direct reports clarify and deepen their own thinking,” says LeeAnn Renninger, director of LifeLabs, a professional development and research organization. “It quickly increases the performance of their team.”

Try these exercises to help you start asking more questions:

1. Track how many questions you ask. Next meeting, ask someone to keep track of how many questions you ask and statements you make. Keep track of the ratio moving forward and work on increasing the number of questions.
2. Have a questions-only conversations. When an employee asks you a question, see if you can go through an entire conversation phrasing each statement as a question. Guide them to the answer by engaging their thought process with questions.
3. Keep a list of questions during meetings. Try to avoid dominating a meeting with statements and directives. Jot down questions that come to mind as you listen to subordinates speak and guide the conversation in the right directions with leading questions.
4. Write 20 questions about a random object. To help get your brain into “question mode,” pick a random object and write 20 questions about it in three minutes. “Around question 10-12, the brain moves into innovation mode,” Remminger says. “We start seeing a [positive] shift in the quality of the questions.”

Click here to read the entire article from Entrepreneur.com.