Guidance and mentor ship is a crucial leadership skill that we all need. My job relies heavily on operations and walking the talk. Meanwhile, my consultancy relies heavily on understanding what individuals are trying to achieve as end result and how can I contribute to their success. Personally, I found this practice quite useful and time saving.

If you are trying to pick my brain, I need some information from you.
-What is the subject and what are you trying to achieve?
-What is your current progress and what are your challenges/achievements?
-What other potentials ideas you have and how can we work together?

Having "above type" of information saves our time and also allows me to gather some information in advance. We will not spend our time trying to lay the ground work but move immediately towards brains storming session and working towards a positive outcome.