I’ve been facilitating a lot of sessions recently around coaching and effective delegation, and I keep running into the same misconception from leaders at every level.
Somewhere along the way, people started believing their job as a leader is to remove every problem, obstacle, and uncomfortable situation their team might face.
It’s not.
Now don’t get me wrong, your job isn’t to intentionally make work harder for your people either. But if you constantly remove all friction from their world, you’re actually hurting their growth, not helping it.
Think about your own career for a second.
Back when you were doing the job before you became the leader, what happened when you ran into a problem? You probably dug in and tried to figure it out. You tested ideas. You made mistakes. You probably got frustrated a few times too.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, you learned.
My first coach gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. He said:
“Tim, you never really learn anything in this life until you get your head handed to you a few times.”
He was right.
Most of us can point to moments where things didn’t go well, where we failed, struggled, or flat-out screwed something up. But those moments shaped us. They taught us resilience, problem-solving, confidence, and judgment.
When leaders constantly jump in to solve every issue for their team, they steal those learning moments away from people.
I liken leadership to being the backstop at an old baseball field.
The backstop isn’t there to play the game. It’s there to keep the ball from disappearing into the woods.
That’s your job as a leader.
Your role is to make sure small issues don’t become massive organizational problems. You’re there to create boundaries, provide support, and keep the game moving forward.
But a lot of leaders today aren’t acting like the backstop.
They’re pitching the ball, catching the ball, fielding every grounder, making every play, arguing every call, and then sprinting the bases themselves. And at the end of the day, they go home completely exhausted wondering why leadership feels so heavy.
It feels heavy because you were never supposed to play every position.
Here’s a simple Quarter Turn Strategy you can start using immediately:
The next time someone comes to you with a problem, resist the urge to solve it for them.
Instead say,
“That’s a tough situation. What do you think the best solution is?”
And then stop talking. Just shut up for a minute.
Let them think.
Let them wrestle with it a little.
You hired them because they have a brain in their head, so let them use it.
And if they respond with, “Well that’s why I came to you,” don’t take the bait. Just calmly say:
“I trust you. Take a little time, think it through, and come back to me with what you believe is the best path forward.”
That’s leadership.
Not creating dependency.
Creating capability.
Start coaching your team to
Because great leaders aren’t the ones who do all the work themselves.
Great leaders build people who can.
Until next time, here’s to your continued success and learning to become the backstop for your team… one Quarter Turn at a time.
Thought for the week:
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
-Jack Welch
Recent Comments