They seldom tell people what to do.

Via John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do:

1. They spend most of their time with others. The average GM spends only 25% of his working time alone, and this is spent largely at home, on airplanes, or while commuting. Few spend less than 70% of their time with others, and some spend up to 90% of their work time this way.

2. The people they spend time with include many in addition to their direct subordinates and boss. GMs regularly go around the formal chain of command. They also regularly see people who often appear to be unimportant outsiders.

3. The breadth of topics in these discussions is extremely wide. The GMs do not limit their focus to planning, business strategy, staffing, and other “top management concerns.” They discuss virtually anything and everything even remotely associated with their businesses and organizations.

4. In these conversations, GMs typically ask a lot of questions. In a half-hour conversation, some will ask literally hundreds.

5. During these conversations, the GMs rarely seem to make “big” decisions.

6. These discussions usually contain a considerable amount of joking and kidding and concern nonwork-related issues. The humor is often about others in the organization or industry. Nonwork discussions are usually about people’s families, hobbies, or recent outside activities (e.g., golf scores).

Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/08/effective-leaders/

They ask a lot of questions but do not make a lot of decisions.

I guess this is more of a Socratic method?