One major takeaway I have from working on startups over the past 10 years is that asking the right questions is more important than providing the answers. With startups, many if not most challenges that arise require someone to accomplish a task that they haven’t done before. Naturally, as one of the leaders of the company, people come forward with issues looking to you for answers. This is where it’s important to ask the right questions and do your best to empower the person to solve it on their own.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important to help, but the best way to help is by asking the right questions. Some thoughts on asking the right questions:
- Ask the five whys
- Ask for his/her current recommendation
- Ask what was done so far
- Ask about the next steps
What else? What other questions should be asked?
David Cummings on Startups 
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