Ben Morton, a leadership coach, recounts keeping a bright graduate named Doug shadowing him instead of giving real work, showing how leaders unintentionally hold people back by stepping in too quickly with solutions. He argues leaders should coach for answers rather than provide them, allow mistakes, and delegate meetings and presentations so teams can develop confidence and rise.
Over the past 13 years, coaching and training leaders, one of the things I commonly hear is along the lines of, I just need my people to step up. But here's the thing. I've realised it's very hard for people to step up if their boss has got their foot on their chest, pinning them down. And hear me out before you dismiss this idea. It's very rare for us to do this intentionally. We don't set out to suppress and pin our team down, but it happens through some subtle, unintentional behaviors and actions. And if I'm honest, I've done this myself in the past. When I was working in the leadership academy at Tesco, I was facilitating a workshop and I had a new graduate, Doug, working with me. He was young, bright and very capable. And because he was new, I thought it would be best for him just to shadow me. And at that time, within Tesco, there was a standard protocol in the business that at the end of every meeting or workshop, you would do something called Bs and Cs or benefits and concerns. So as I was asking the group what benefits they'd taken from the workshop and any concerns that they had, a member of the group said, yeah, Ben, I've got a concern. He said, you've had Doug with you all day shadowing, but you've not let him do anything. And he was absolutely correct. He had me bang to rights. I didn't let Doug do anything and I should of. How was he ever going to step up, grow and develop if I didn't give him the opportunity? Now, sure, I would have given him the opportunity and I did further along the line, but actually, I could have got him doing something straight away. It would have been much more beneficial and it would have accelerated his development. And here's the pattern. I've realized leaders rarely hold people back deliberately. They do it with good intentions, just as I did with Doug. So let me give you a couple of examples of where this might be cropping up for you. Let's say someone comes to you with a problem, and because it's fast, it's efficient, you've experienced a particular challenge before. We jump straight in with a solution instead of pausing for a second and asking, well, what do you think? And before we know it, we have trained and conditioned our people to rely on us for the answer, and they stop bringing solutions, they stop trying to step up and they just become happy and stuck where they are. Another way you might unintentionally prevent your people from stepping up is is by redoing their work. Imagine they send you a draft report, you tweak it here, tighten it up there or restructure it somewhere else. You think you're adding value and raising the standard, but their experience is. Ben doesn't trust me. He'll redo my work anyway, so what's the point? Yes, our adjustments might improve the quality that of that report or piece of work by 5%. But as Marshall Goldsmith says in his brilliant book what Got yout Here won't get you there. That 5% improvement in the quality of the document might result in their motivation being reduced by 50%. Why? Because their work or their plan has just become our plan. If you've been tuning in to the Leaders Kit Bag for some time now, you've, you'll have almost certainly heard me talk about my definition of a leader's job. And my view is that a leader's job is to support, develop and look after the people that we have the privilege and responsibility to lead so that they can deliver the result we're accountable for. And sometimes the best way that we can do that to support them and their development is, is to step back and let them get on with things. That's not to abandon them, it's not to totally disengage. It's just allow them some space and freedom to try things, have a wobble and then we can be there to pick them up and provide the support. But if we never let them have those wobbles, if we never let them try, then how are they ever going to be able to step up? So here's something for you to reflect on and try this week. Ask yourself, where am I unintentionally pinning people down whilst at the same time hoping, asking and wanting them to step up? Is there a meeting you could let people lead instead of you? Could you coach them to find their own solution instead of simply giving it to them yourself? Or is there a presentation they could give in your place? You see, people can only rise up when we take our foot off of their chest. That's it for this episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. As always, look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. Until next time, lead on.
