reat leaders don’t just provide great answers to questions; they also ask great questions. You can learn so much by asking great questions, and this is an important habit to develop.

As well as helping you to increase your knowledge and understanding, it also makes your teams feel more involved, because when you listen to them, it shows that you value their input, which increases their commitment and motivation.

Here are five great questions that great leaders ask:

Is there a simpler solution or

a simpler way of doing this?

Many people have a natural tendency to complicate things, especially when under pressure, and leaders need to step back, take a pause and ask whether there is a simpler solution.

Complex solutions are usually easier to find, and simpler solutions or simpler ways of doing things often take a bit longer. As a leader, you need to give your teams the time to take a breath and see if there is an easier alternative.

The people closest to the problem often have the best understanding of it, but they might not be involved in designing the solution, so it’s always good to get their input.

What you need is a solution that is going to work in practice, not just in theory.

Can you explain the solution to me?

If something doesn’t quite add up, or you don’t understand how the solution is going to work, ask the experts to explain it to you. If they can’t explain it, then they don’t fully understand the solution, and if they don’t understand it, who does? When you lack understanding into how a solution will work, you’re probably staring down the barrel of failure.

Also, when people explain things, it requires them to think through the process again, often at a deeper level. I have seen this increase understanding of the solution, or team members notice an issue that they were previously unaware of.

The better you understand the solution, the clearer you can explain it. And if you can explain it clearly, then you can get everyone on the same page — all of which increases your probability of success.

What should we stop doing?

At every company I have worked, there has been a lot of institutionalized bureaucracy, which just adds unnecessary tasks and dilutes effectiveness and efficiency.

You can see great returns when you ask your teams: If you were in charge, what would you stop doing? But you need to be open to the answers you get, and you should create an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up.

At a company where I worked, we had a monthly meeting at which the senior leadership team spent two days locked in a room listening to presentations.

Every person who attended told me these meetings were useless and an utter waste of time. However, whenever the boss asked what things we could stop doing to improve our effectiveness, no one ever mentioned canceling the meetings because we knew the answer would not be well-received.

You need to make your teams comfortable enough to tell you what adds no value.

Is this urgent or important?

In today’s high-pressure world, you are bombarded with seemingly urgent things, but quite often these are just urgent, not important.

As leaders, you need to ensure that the majority of your time — and the time of your team — is spent on the important items. Otherwise, you will always feel under pressure. Learn to tune out the noise of the seemingly urgent.

Do you think our approach will be successful?

According to research into failure, 75 percent of the teams who were involved in projects that failed knew the project would fail right from the start.

When people lack belief, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy; it is possible that some of these projects failed just because people felt they would fail.

If the team lacks confidence, it will give you an opportunity to be able to explain the approach, the solution and look to give the team the confidence they need.

It could also be that the solution is flawed or that you have missed something. By asking the team members, you give them an opportunity to point things out you might have missed or raise their concerns, which then gives you the chance to address them.

As leaders, you do not have all of the answers, and no one expects you to, but they do expect you to ask the right questions. I have worked with many leaders who felt that asking these types of questions showed weakness, a lack of their understanding or their ability.

But I believe this shows confidence. It shows that a leader is confident in the ability of his or her team and that he or she is prepared to appear vulnerable, and that takes great courage.

Gordon Tredgold coaches businesses and executives and is a speaker and author.