Stuff I'M Thinking About

As a leader it is often tempting to add our insights to any interaction we have with our direct reports. While this can be satisfying for our ego, and help us to feel we are doing our job, it can rob our direct of the chance to feel pride in their work and become autonomous leaders in their own right. The input we provide might feel valuable to us, but is it valuable to our direct, and to our company?

There are two situations where we can add too much value.

The first is when a direct comes to us with a problem, looking for a solution. Before we jump in with the solution, ask a simple question: how can I help? This helps our direct clarify what they really want from us. It could be that they have a solution, but they don’t trust themselves to go ahead. Perhaps they are blocked because they are waiting on one of their peer’s (or our peers) input.

Keep asking questions with the aim of helping them explore and understand the problem they have, and to come up with options to solve it. Let them choose the solution. Resist the temptation to provide answers for as long as possible.

The second situation is when we have asked our direct to work on a problem, and they present the solution to us. It is very tempting to make suggestions to improve the solution based on our own knowledge and experience, but this can have a chilling effect. How many of us have been presented with a document, and have gone in and immediately started editing it, remaking it in our own image? How do we feel when someone did this to us? While our input might add 5% more value, that intervention reduces our direct’s ownership of, and commitment to, the work they have done. Ask yourself, is that 5% really worth it?

If there are critical points that have been missed, then start by asking non-leading questions. Questions like, have you considered the impact on X, can easily convey a lack of trust. A better way to phrase that may be, what is the impact on X. A non-leading question will not suggest a solution or require a yes/no answer.

Our job as leaders is to develop the leaders of tomorrow. Resisting the urge to intervene does two things. Firstly it models an approach to leadership that they can adopt, and secondly, it helps them become more independent, freeing you up for other work.