Never have I ever tried to be helpful when they really didn't need it.??

Never have I ever tried to be helpful when they really didn't need it.??

The following is a preview of what I’m pondering for my free weekly Show Up newsletter. Each edition shares an insight, tool or story that will help you be a force for making work good, written by me, Moe Carrick -an internationally respected pioneer in the study and practice of workplace culture. Subscribe to get the full impact delivered straight to your inbox at the end of every week.

I thought I was being helpful.

An employee and I were meeting for a client event in Chicago.

He got stuck due to a cancelled flight and was delayed.

I got on my phone to see about a hotel for him.

He texted me, “is that your highest and best use?”

Ha!

I was caught in the act that I see many leaders make of solving a problem that wasn’t mine to solve. He is fully capable of booking his own hotel when delayed.

It seems silly, but problem-solving is a dirty little habit we (as leaders) often use under the guise of being “helpful.”

But guess what, my helpfulness in that moment was not necessary. He had it figured out.

AND, it took time and energy away from my HIGHEST AND BEST USE.

Even those few minutes I spent solving his problem should have been applied to what only I could do: figure out how to adjust the agenda of the day without one of the team arriving until noon.

Highest and best use is a term that attempts to define for each of us what is ours to do. It also helps us discern what is the most important thing that only I can do that serves the client or the business right now.

When everyone knows what is clearly theirs to do, the whole system of focused accountability flows.

There are more things to do at work in any given moment than most of us can even get to daily. So, we have to pick what to actually do.

When leaders DO the things that are not theirs to do, they rob employees of the awesome feeling of solving their own problems while also over-burdening themselves and adding to overwork and overwhelm.

The problem-solving habit is expensive, on leaders and on employee engagement.

What habits to fix or solve get in the way of you serving your work by staying in your highest and best use?


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