One of the most frustrating memories I have from my time in the corporate world was hearing teams who said that they felt paralyzed because they couldn’t get their leaders to respond to questions, but whenever they made a decision without the leader’s input, it would end up getting reversed when the leader heard about it.
There are two areas of clarity those teams needed:
1️⃣ They needed to know what kinds of decisions they were allowed to make on their own, and which decisions required the input of the leader.
2️⃣ The needed to know what the expectations were for their team. When they did try to make a decision, their understanding of the current situation and their role in it was fuzzy. Because the leader knew things they didn’t, their decisions would be overridden.
Don’t frustrate your teams this way. Give them a clear understanding of how they fit into the bigger picture so they can make good decisions without you. And then give them a clear understanding of what kinds of decisions they do or do not have the autonomy to make without you.
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