“My job as a leader is to reflect, but not direct”.
This comment made me sit up and pay attention.
I was meeting with a leader the other day about what he felt were some of the characteristics of a great leader and he made this unique comment about his role.
He discussed that one of the mistakes that he had seen new or inexperienced leaders make was the desire to solve problems for others.
I have said before that many leaders have grown through the ranks of companies and are fantastic technicians.
In other words, they know how to get the job done as a front-line employee. They have built the habits, shortcuts, and skill to be effective in getting the job done in an effective and efficient way.
So, when someone comes to ask for advice, they rattle off the solution that they have built doing the job in the past and turn to fix the next problem.
Here are 3 reasons why that is not a good way to do things.
- It creates dependence on the leader to solve all the problems, so employees don’t have to think. They build muscle memory that if there is a problem, I don’t have to think. Someone else will do that for me. This is the number 1 reason why leaders are overwhelmed and burnt out according to my research.
- Our main responsibility as a leader is to develop the people who are working with us. Not much development happening when you are solving the problems for them.
- You may be wrong. Yes, you figured out how it worked for you, but is it truly the most efficient and effective way of getting things done? Maybe not. But you have just taken away the opportunity for the employee to go out and figuring out how to do a better job than you did. Remember, humility is one of the 6 characteristics of top performing leaders. Don’t be afraid to be proven wrong.
So the next time someone comes to you to get you to solve a problem, resist the urge to think “I could probably do it better and faster than they could so I will just do it” or “I have already done this so I will just tell them what I did in this situation before. Take a second and understand that your job as a great leader is to reflect the problem back and invite innovation, not to solve the problem based on what you have done in the past.
