One challenging skill for new leaders is being willing to separate themselves from the details of projects and say, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” when they’re asked. Those who are unwilling to leave details unknown often exhibit the leadership dysfunction of micromanagement. As you move up in leadership with a scope that spans more work than you can personally track, not knowing becomes easier, and you may leave that kind of micromanagement behind.
But the next temptation is to try to impress others with how quickly you can get the answer. And that desire for speed often leads to another leadership dysfunction. And that is skip-level interruptions. You believe which of your skip-level team members knows the answer, and you ask them directly.
But there are three reasons to avoid doing this.
1️⃣ It’s possible that someone else actually knows a better answer. When you’re a layer removed from those doing the work, your perspective may be out of date.
2️⃣ The one who knows the raw answer may not have enough of the business context to interpret the question and choose the right raw technical details to provide the answer you’re really looking for.
3️⃣ Perhaps most importantly, you probably don’t realize the negative impact that you cause by interrupting a skip-level with a question. Because technical experts spend much of their time in heads-down focus mode, the cost to even a brief interruption can be extremely high – often higher than the cost of waiting for an answer.
But when you funnel your question through management, you can often make up for the expected delay by getting the right answer, from the right person, with the right context, and with a minimum disruption of productivity.
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