Four Words to Replace 90% of Your Answers
It's not the leader's job to provide all the answers.
by Janet Ply, PhD · The Practical Leadership Newsletter · April `14, 2026
You were likely the go-to person at some point - the one everyone went to when they had a question. You quickly solved problems. It’s what you were known for. It was part of your identity.
Most leaders are addicted to having the answer. If you’re like me, we love problem-solving - and that translates into providing answers. It’s hard not to give solutions when that’s what we've done most of our lives (even if they weren’t the best answers).
The job of the leader is not to deliver answers. Yet, they think that’s their value. It’s not. It’s actually one of the fastest ways to weaken a team and make them dependent on you.
Every time someone comes to you with a problem and you answer it, here’s what happens:
- You train them to come back to you.
- You slow down decision-making.
- You create dependency instead of capability.
- You become the bottleneck.
And over time, execution starts to take a hit. It’s not that you don’t have a capable team. It’s because you’ve given them permission to stop thinking for themselves.
The Leadership Misunderstanding
There’s a persistent belief that leaders are supposed to have the answers. They’re not.
As a leader, your job is to build people who can think, decide, and act without you in the room.
Research backs this up. Studies on coaching-based leadership and self-determination theory show that people perform better when they have autonomy and are encouraged to think through problems themselves, not when they’re handed answers.
When you constantly provide solutions, you create reliance.
The Four Words
If your job isn’t to give answers, what should you do instead?
Use four words: What do you think?
When someone brings you a problem, options, or are stuck: Ask them, “What do you think?”
If they say they don’t know, ask “How much quality time have you spent on this?”
Asking questions sounds simple but it’s not always easy. Because it requires you to pause your instinct to jump in and solve.
What Those Four Words Actually Do
“What do you think?” is not a deflection.
It says:
- You are capable of developing solutions.
- Your judgment matters and I’d like to hear it.
- I trust you to think this through.
That’s how you build confidence in your team. Stop giving people the answers and start pulling thinking out of them.
This aligns with what the best leaders do - they coach, not command. Michael Bungay Stanier’s work on coaching leadership reinforces this: better questions lead to better thinking, which leads to better results.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
If you keep answering everything, here’s what you get:
- A team that waits instead of acts.
- Leaders who never develop.
- Endless interruptions.
- And a workload that never shrinks—because everything still runs through you.
You don’t scale. You don’t get that next promotion.
A Simple Practice
Try this. Start paying attention to how often you answer questions.
Then replace just a few of those answers with:
What do you think?
At first, people may be a bit surprised because they’re not used to being asked.
That’s the point. Give them space. Let them think. Let them struggle a bit. That’s where growth happens.
Over time, you’ll notice a shift in your team. They’ll start thinking more before they come to you. They’ll take more ownership. And they won’t be as dependent on you, freeing up your time to do more important things.
Final Thought
If you want a stronger team, stop being the smartest person in every conversation.
Start being the one who develops other people’s thinking.
The next time someone comes to you with a problem, pause before you answer.
And ask yourself:
Am I about to solve this…or develop someone?
Then ask them: What do you think?
Leadership Is a Learnable Skill
If you want tactics you can use right now, Practical Leadership: A Guide to Building Trust, Getting Results, and Changing Lives would be a great addition to your library.
Mel Robbins, New York Times bestselling author and host of the Mel Robbins podcast had this praise for the book, “Janet Ply is the real deal. I’ve seen way too many talented people flail in leadership because nobody ever taught them how to do the job well. This book fixes that. Janet has been in the fire, she’s led through chaos, and now she’s giving you the tools she’s used to rescue high-stakes, high-dollar messes. If you lead people - or you want to - Practical Leadership should live on your desk. Get it, use it, lead better.”
Order it on Amazon or your favorite local bookstore.