How Do I Fix This?

If you’re a fan of US legal dramas, you’ve probably heard the term ‘fixer’ – the person who works behind the scenes to discreetly handle problems of a significant magnitude.

As a leader, you might find yourself asking yourself the same question - but in service of your team – and for situations that are not a crisis, a regulatory infraction or a policy violation.

If this is a question that frequently comes to mind, you might want to consider your assumptions around the why, what and how of your fixing compulsion.

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Why is it important for you to fix this?

At times there are situations you need to handle – an escalation or the earlier mentioned violations, but if you feel the need to step in during the course of everyday activities, what is causing this?

Do you lack trust in your team’s ability?

If you’ve noticed a gap between what you expect in this situation and what your team member can currently deliver, how critical is it that things are done your way? What is the expectation you are setting in your team member’s mind if you sort out the challenge? How will that benefit you and them longer term?

Are you concerned about timelines and your team member’s ability to meet them?

Stepping in now can save time short term, but how does it impact he team member’s belief in their own efficacy? But what kind of a precedent does it set in their mind – that the boss will always jump in, so why do I need to sort this myself?

Do you believe you can do this better than your team member?

Given you’ve got more experience than your team member, you probably can. How does you flexing a fully formed muscle support the development of your team member’s strengths?

Is there a challenging question you can ask yourself here: What is it that you are less confident of fixing that’s in your remit?

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What are the accountability boundaries you’ve established?

If you find yourself seeking to fix a challenge a team member faces, or telling them how to fix it, without first eliciting their thoughts on the situation, you might want to revisit the accountability boundaries you’ve agreed.

If the defined roles and responsibilities clearly indicate this is a team member accountability, what’s causing your agitation to act in their place? Perhaps revisit the above points to fathom your drivers.

And if you haven’t clearly outlined accountabilities, perhaps its time for you to head back to the foundation stage of expectation setting.

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How can you transition out of your self-appointed fixer role?

You probably experience constant pressures in a people leadership role. You have targets – and you’re balancing achieving these with developing your team.

But the desire for results now often outweighs the focus on longer term team development – equipping team members to deliver results independently for the long term.

Here are a few suggestions from the coaching world:

• Don’t assume they are stuck – they may have determined a way to fix the issue.
• Avoid telling them what you would do in this situation, instead reiterate confidence in their abilities and assure them they can always reach out for any support.
• Avoid hovering – you may unintentionally be concerned about the way they are handling a client complaint, and exhibit this by circling round your team member.
• In your desire to control the situation – and your team member’s actions, ask yourself how you would feel if you were being ‘controlled’ in the same manner.
• If you’ve built the trust with your team member, can you bounce the pros and cons of various options with them – without being attached to any – and with both of you clear that failure is always a possibility and the impact, if any, of a failure in that situation??

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Though speaking of outsourcing business, the words of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, apply equally to people leadership:

“If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you’re putting yourself out of business.”

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As a people leader, your role is to create the conditions for your team members to fix the issues. It's not to be the fixer.

Because if you’re fixing, at some stage, a leader will move into the role you were hired to do.

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Andrea Stone is an Executive Coach and Educator, working with global technology leaders and their teams to create greater success based on a foundation of emotionally intelligent leadership.

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? Andrea Stone, Stone Leadership