Effectiveness and performance are on the line of preparation, not protection.
The natural tendency for most leaders is to protect their team members. To shade them from harm, discomfort, and struggle. However, just because it’s a tendency doesn’t mean it’s effective. In fact, you are doing more harm than good.
Take Paula, a manager at a law firm, as an example. Due to high voluntary turnover on her team, the firm hired three new team members in the same position. The role’s primary responsibility is to complete real estate closings. However, due to the sensitive and specific nature of the role, Paula had a hard time letting go of responsibilities that were ultimately her responsibility. She micromanaged her new team members by limiting their tasks and double-checking every piece of their work.
Eventually, doing the jobs of four people and the ever consuming thoughts of failure created her own failure. While Paula meant well, she failed to understand a fundamental leadership principle:
Only leaders who are tested become great.
Said differently, team members don’t get stronger and more capable by being protected. Team members build mastery of skill when they’re tested repeatedly.
Protection vs. Preparation
I used to think my primary responsibility as a young parent was to keep my children safe. To fly around like a helicopter parent, ensuring they didn’t get hurt. One day, a mentor saw how I was acting around my young son, and he pulled me aside and said something I will never forget: “Your job as a parent isn’t to keep your kids safe; it’s to make them courageous.”
He didn’t mean to let a toddler walk into traffic in the name of courage; the point is if all a parent does is keep their kids safe, they won’t know courage, which is simply being scared and deciding to do it anyway. In terms of organizational leadership, you could think of it this way:
A leader's job is not to protect; it's to prepare and inspire courage.
The best way to teach someone swimming is by having them swim. The best way to develop a skill is by doing the skill. You can think of preparing team members like a road. Building new skills is a rough and rocky road. Then, over time, the tire tracks smooth a path that makes it more comfortable to ride on. Eventually, the road becomes smooth pavement with a few tiny potholes.
When you’re in protection mode as a manager, you make the road rougher for longer. At some point, you have to take the training wheels off and allow team members to learn from successes and failures. Said differently, the best teacher is experience.
How to Stop Protecting Employees
1. Establish a 30-60-90 Day Plan
Quit hoping team members figure out what and how they need to do their work. Establish a plan. Determine a baseline of ability and then create a clear 30-to 60-to 90-day development plan for a new team member. The plan should be divided into three phases, each with goals, activities, and tasks designed to test knowledge, resourcefulness, and build confidence.
Since each team member comes from different places and experience levels, the first few days must introduce them to the company or team culture, values, standards, and expectations. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make the most of it to ensure help build positive momentum from the jump.
2. Delegate Responsibility
You are busy. However, despite your heavy workload, you struggle with effective delegation. Perhaps it’s because you are protecting an already busy team member, or you don’t believe others can complete tasks better than you. Moreover, this reluctance to delegate denies team members opportunities for growth and coaching.
Do you still not think that empowering your employees with responsibility is essential? A study by Paul Zak found that compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report: 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, and 40% less burnout. It’s time to empower people with responsibility, which means with both the tasks and the results that come with it.
3. Coach Daily
Great leaders identify where team members are currently in their development and align their coaching appropriately. They do this because they know they must help people reach a stage of development that exceeds where they are today. However, it’s only possible to make that a reality if you personalize the coaching to the individual team member.
The secret to personalizing the coaching is understanding the boundaries of where they are comfortable. The reason is simple, growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.
Growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.
While there are different tactics, tools, and strategies for stretching people outside of their comfort zone, one coaching tactic is effective at all levels. It’s centered around asking insightful questions. This allows you to pull the information out of your people instead of the other way around.
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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and the 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.