It’s not uncommon for a manager to step in and solve a problem for a team member to keep them from failing. After all, the manager is ultimately responsible for the results, so they better get it right.
While the logic makes sense on the surface, managers don’t often realize they are hurting their team members more than helping them. Doing someone else’s work in the short term hurts their development in the long term.
Managers who do someone's work in the short term hurt their development in the long term.
This begs the question, what should managers do instead?
The answer is one word, encourage.
Determining precisely what percentage of managers actively encourage their employees can be challenging. However recent research suggest most managers don’t encourage their employees.
Encouragement is giving support, confidence, or hope to someone. The word encourage comes from the prefix “en” to put into and the Latin word “core,” which means heart. So, to encourage means to put courage into someone else, which goes straight to their heart.
When you provide encouragement, it goes straight to the heart
The reason managers need to encourage their team is twofold. First, it helps meet a basic psychological need to be known, valued and understood. Second, it helps them persevere when things are challenging.
A mentor often reminds me of a powerful lesson: “Everyone is going through something whether you know it or not.” Encouraging someone can be a catalyst for helping them continue through difficult times.
Jordan Montgomery said it well, “If leaders knew the battles their team members were really facing and how people really felt about themselves, then they would be a whole lot more encouraging.”
A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs crowded around the hole and saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that there was no hope left for them.
However, the two frogs decided to ignore what the others were saying and they proceeded to try and jump out of the pit.
Despite their efforts, the group of frogs at the top of the pit were still saying that they should just give up. That they would never make it out.
Eventually, one of the frogs took heed to what the others were saying and he gave up, falling down to his death. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die.
He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?”
The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.
The moral of the story is people can go further than they ever thought possible when they are celebrated and encouraged.
However, most managers hesitate to encourage their team members because they feel uncomfortable doing it. Which is a critical time to remember:
Encouragement isn't about you; it's about others.
If you don’t encourage others to keep going when it gets hard, it’s likely they will quit before they are supposed to.
Most people who encourage do so naturally without thinking about “how” they do it. However, it turns out there is a simple formula Jordan Montgomery, author of The Art of Encouragement, shared on a recent episode of The John Eades podcast:
Words = What
Substance = Why
Here a few three simple examples of the formula played out:
If you want to improve your encouragement, make it a habit and use the formula words + substance.
Being an encouraging voice is a skill that’s worth developing. While you might not get to see an immediate result of your encouragement, take solace that it will go directly to the heart of someone else, and that’s meaningful.
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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, and creator of the Accelerate Leadership System. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.
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