Stop spoon feeding your people
And teach them to feed themselves
One of the most valuable things you can do as a leader is to stop spoon feeding your employees.
This was a tough one for me to learn early on, because I knew that I knew the answers to most, if not all of the questions that my team would bring to me. And I liked the feeling of being able to solve the problem or answer their questions and help them progress in their efforts.
They got the information they needed to move forward. And I got the dopamine hit of being helpful and useful. Of being the “smart” guy.
But here’s the problem with that thinking.
It doesn’t teach your people how to feed themselves. How to think for themselves, to find the information out in the wild, and to solve the problems on their own.
Over time I’ve learned that it’s much more valuable for my team if when they bring me a problem, challenge, or question, that I help them think through the issue and show them where and how to discover the answers on their own.
This allows them to make the same level of progress as if I’d given them the information, but it teaches them the process of discovery so that they can repeat it next time when a different situation arises, but without needing to come to me for help.
Some of the ways we do this now include:
Creating playbooks and frameworks that team members can use to solve regularly occurring questions and challenges.
Recording videos that answer common questions so that they are available as references for the team and for future team members.
Focus on asking great questions that help people sort through what is interesting and what is important, and how to tell the difference.
Providing coaching and encouragement without going as far as giving people the answers — so that they can discover them on their own.
Asking team members what they would do in the situation, how they think they should solve a challenge, and encouraging them to crowdsource additional insights from their peers.
Resisting (this is the hard one) the urge to give direction and answer the question on the spot.
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