Let Them Be Heroes

If you're lucky enough to be a leader of people, one service that you might consider rendering is to remember to let your team be heroes. Sometimes, as leaders, we act from the "individual contributor" mindset, and that means we deny someone on our team to answer and create value and earn a "heroic moment" for the team. Sometimes, even though you know what has to be done, it's better to let your team show you, so they can capture that feeling for themselves.

Goal and Approach

Leadership is about clarifying and defining the goal and then encouraging your team to deliver an appropriate approach. Success comes from getting the team to attack the goal and succeed. The whole point of being a leader is so that you can scale your experience and knowledge out to the people who you've brought on to execute the vision of the organization. That's hard to do if you're stepping in to give the answers.

But What If They're Not Quite Rocking It Out Yet?

Sometimes, a leader will realize their team needs a bit more development, or needs something else to get the job done. This is when the leader has to apply their coaching hat. Does the person lack the skill, the vision, or the confidence to execute? What's getting in the way of smooth success?

Often, this is where the real work of leadership happens. Maybe you've got a really smart player but they seek you out for the rubber stamp of approval all the time. Then, that's your coaching goal: to get them to act more on their own. Other times, it's clear someone is missing some core skills they'll need to accomplish the goal. They might benefit from you building up some templates, or assigning some teammates to collaborate. A lot of times with missing skills, the only real next step is training the person up, because without that training, they'll just repeat the issue over and over. Training brings capabilities, though, so it's never time lost.

A massive amount of understanding how your team is or isn't performing relies on the intersection of your observations and your empathy. Once you see the issues, the mission needs to be adjusted to account for the extra time it will take to train in the missing capabilities. If you don't pay that tax now, you'll just have to pay it with interest added on throughout the pursuant months.

Give People Hero Moments Along the Way

If you've got a weak performer, you still have to give them moments to shine. People can't thrive without some praise. It might have to be somewhat minor, the thing you'll credit them for doing, but find it. "Wow! I'm glad you're seeing now when there's a missing piece of the project. That's an improvement for sure."

You've seen enough action movies. There's always a montage scene where the young hero ("young" in the journey sense - they can be 80 years old for all it matters) fails a bunch, then makes a small victory, usually crushes that with a little too much pride, and THEN catches up to where they should be. It's up to you to create those "montage moments" and give people their chance to be a hero along the way.

Leadership is Options Management

Quite often, a lot of what happens in the course of pursuing a goal is that people either chase too many options, or they feel penned in and have too few options. Give them the right amount. Better still: show them how to add and remove options and explain how to recognize it.

Your goal as a leader isn't to achieve glory. It's to be the person who develops the most successful leaders in their ranks. And there are zero short cuts for that kind of success. The best teams in the world take time to let the individual contributors develop their capabilities and apply them to the strategic pursuits of the team.

Are you ready for it?

Chris...