One trap that hinders new leaders
Johnny was promoted to supervisor and within a few days, he noticed he was anxious and feeling sick. After a few days, he realized he had internalized the pressures from the deadlines, work demands and the new challenges of leadership.
The expectations that come with being a leader can be high, especially when it comes to creating high-end results. In the book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, they share lessons of leadership through their combat and military experiences. If you break the book down to its simplest terms, as a leader, everything is your fault. Be accountable, take ownership, take responsibility and in this, you find freedom.
Johnny did not feel the freedom; just the opposite, he felt the pressure to get the top results and not get blamed for any mistakes. How could taking any more ownership be the solution? Maybe something was missing in this ownership belief?
Johnny was in a leadership position because he possessed several precise key leadership characteristics: the ability to solve problems and get high results. As a problem solver, he often fell into the trap of thinking only he could perform the task, plus he would do it faster. He was right, he could do it faster, but only at a cost to his health. He felt so much tension from taking on the responsibility. Johnny had fallen into the leadership trap of doing it all himself. He had failed to change his mindset from doer to developer.
Johnny’s boss was wise and saw him struggling. She quickly set up a meeting and debriefed him on what was taking place in his new role. After talking through the challenges with him, she said, “Johnny, the struggle you are facing is being able to delegate the work you do to your team. As a leader, your thinking must change to develop others around you and let them have ownership in the project. Your role as a supervisor is not to solve all the problems or do all the tasks. Your role as the leader is to develop your team to solve them, give them support and allow them to be successful in getting the results needed. Yes, you can still participate, but if you take over someone’s job and do it for them, then you do a big disservice to them, you and the company. The project becomes dependent on you and that may cause a bottleneck in the efficiency.”
In time, Johnny kept practicing delegation to his team, while still keeping in touch with everyone. It was a hard transition, but he was starting to see how more could be done when everyone had ownership in the project.
One of the hardest areas for a new leader is learning how to delegate and keep team members accountable for the results. Let me know what you have learned through delegation. Email me at jeff@jeffmcmanus.com.
