Slowing Down To See People, Not As Problems
Do you see your employees as problems that need fixing?
Do you spend time googling “executive coach for new managers” hoping to find someone who can fix your team for you, instead of helping you lead them more effectively?
Are you so focused on the work that you’re neglecting the human beings you’re leading and influencing?
If so, you’re not alone. When we see a problem, our impulse is to try and alleviate it. Our society rewards this as a skillset in business leadership, we promote people who fix. But only for so long, at some point the pivot from great technician to great leader has to happen to stay relevant.
How we’re engaging in our organizations, however, shapes how the culture feels to every team member. Becoming conscious of how we’re interacting with each other, and what we’re creating in our organizations, is the first step to transforming your company’s culture.
What if, you broadened your notion of leadership to include more than just achievement, output, and your advancement and success?
Instead, creating the financial success, but also the workplace conditions where those with whom we work can do the best work of their lives, and soar on their own.
The Work Of A Leader
All of a sudden, your work is no longer fixing and micromanaging, instead it becomes creating a container where human beings can thrive and become their best selves. Your work is no longer about believing you have to have all the answers, all the time, and telling others what to do, instead it becomes seeking input from the team around you and empowering them to get the job done.
If you find yourself struggling to inspire and motivate your employees, and keep them feeling supported so that they can do their best work, I’ll tell you what I tell my clients—it’s not your fault, it’s human nature.
Why Do We Fix?
Given your pressing deadlines and long list of important tasks, quickly providing solutions to your employees’ problems is tempting given it’s expedient. For example, if a team member comes to you and says, “I’m struggling” and you have a full plate of things you’re trying to get done that day, your impulse may be to respond, “It’s ok, just do X, Y, and Z,” and having fixed the problem, you can get right back to your unforgiving To Do list.
Whether or not your employee actually feels better, or learns more, doesn’t really matter to you, because it’s about your feelings, your needs, and your deadlines, and thus you automatically default to your command and control setting.
This isn’t always a bad thing, however, it is a missed opportunity. In this moment, although it may have required 90-seconds more, you could have responded with a question or prompt, allowing your team member the satisfaction, pride, and autonomy that comes with solving their own problem.
Investing this 90-seconds of time today, prevents countless unnecessary questions in the future, because as their leader, you’ve taught them how to solve their problem, rather than fixing it for them.
How To Empower Your Team
By asking great questions, and listening even better, you’re helping to define and shape the problem, thus empowering your team to develop a solution. This value-building approach enables team members to understand one another’s perspectives, eliminate ambiguity, and create alignment around issues, what they’re dealing with, and an agreed upon destination. While you’re emboldening your team to pave the best path forward, the more tangible and measurable you make the goal, the more likely it will be achieved. With this inclusive, respectful approach, you’re showing up as the leader you want to be, and they need, rather than the reactive, dismissive one. Your team respects and trusts you more, because you show up for them—acknowledging their struggles and feelings, and helping them to realize their full potential—rather than dominating the conversation, and shutting down those around you.
If the switch from fixing to empowering is harder for you, you aren’t alone. Decades of programming has conditioned you to fix, rather than empower, and it makes sense you’ll need to train these new muscles. Feel free to reach out and see how I might be able to help you sharpen your tools to lead more effectively.
Or check out these other musings:
Great Leaders Ask Great Questions, And Listen Even Better
WHO IS REMM CURTIS?
REMM CURTIS is an executive coach working with NYC and beyond's best and brightest leaders stay at the top of their game. If you would like to talk about what the best version of you could look like, get in touch.