Don’t Be The Super-Manager

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to the Leaders Kit Bag, your go to podcast for practical leadership insights. In just six minutes in each episode, we tackle real challenges faced by leaders and managers, offering actionable tools and strategies you can take away and immediately apply. And because leadership doesn't happen in a studio, the these episodes are mostly recorded outside on the move. They're raw, unscripted, and straight to the point. So wherever you are, let's dive in and sharpen your leadership skills six minutes at a time. If you find that you are having to work longer, harder and faster to solve the problem of having too much stuff to do, the reality is you might not be solving the problem at all. You might actually be the problem. And that's exactly what we're talking about in today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. It's what I call the Super Manager trap. It's a common leadership pitfall that stifles growth and leaves leaders feeling burned out. I want to start off by talking about the productivity paradox. Many leaders and managers falsely believe that the productivity or success of their team function or even entire business is tied directly to their personal productivity and output. But it's simply not true. A study by Gallup found that in organizations where leaders and managers delegate effectively, then Those organizations generate 33% more revenue than others. It's a pretty amazing statistic. You see, true productivity in teams and organizations comes as a result of leaders and managers enabling others to act instead of them trying to be the super manager. Now, the reason people become a super manager, which isn't a good thing, by the way, is when they try to hold on to everything themselves. And there are many reasons why leaders hold on to stuff and don't delegate. But perhaps some of the most common are thinking that if I don't do it, it won't get done right. If I don't do it, it won't get done on time. If I don't do it, it won't get done to the right standard. But again, this is a limiting belief. It's another paradox of productivity, because when we hold on to all of those tasks ourself, we stifle productivity. We reduce the effectiveness of our team, mainly because we become the bottleneck in our own team or organization. So how do we escape the super manager trap? Well, I've got three simple tactics that you can use. Number one, first of all, identify all of the tasks that you and only you can complete and then work towards delegating everything else. It's it doesn't mean you have to delegate them all immediately, but it does mean you create yourself a plan for delegating everything else that's on your list. Tip number two is to use the 70% rule where appropriate. If there's a task where someone in your team can complete that task to 70% of your ability, then delegate buys you back more time in your schedule to focus on the areas where you truly add value as a leader and manager. And tip number three, which brings us full circle. Use some of the time that you've started to save to invest back into coaching, mentoring and developing your team so you can get the tasks that they're now doing at 70% of your ability up towards 100% of your ability. And who knows, they might even complete some of those tasks better than we did ourselves. So there you have it folks, the Super Manager trap and free tactics to help you escape this common pitfall. As always, I hope it's been useful. Thanks for until next time, look after yourself and look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. Lead.