“Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
“Give me a formula. I can follow a formula.”
That’s how I wanted to approach management after several years as an engineer.
And when members of my team came to me with questions, that’s also how I wanted to offer my help – by giving them a formula or telling them what to do.
Eventually I learned about the dangers of learned helplessness that can plague a team when the manager plays the recurring role of heroic problem solver.
So my pendulum swung too far in the other direction. I kept my hands off when I should have stepped in to guide or protect.
I found myself wanting a formula of my own. I wanted a clear rubric to help me calculate when I should solve a problem and when I should let my team figure it out for themselves.
Bet there is no formula.
A couple of days ago I talked about how important it is for leaders to learn to make decisions even while they’re dealing with uncertainty. As your leadership scope increases, more of your decisions will be thoughtful bets and not clear right-or-wrong choices.
But here are two questions you can ask to help serve as guiding principles.
First, how likely is it (and how significant are the consequences) if the team can’t solve this themselves?
Second, if you choose to intervene, to what degree are you helping them address similar issues on their own in the future?
If you’d like to explore your specific scenario further, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.