The president of a $100m company hired me to work with one of their key executives because he needed help working on his leadership skills.

He was extremely knowledgeable, bright and was a superior problem solver.

However this was a problem because he ran towards problems without hesitation, knowing he could always figure out how to handle any situation. While these characteristics are ideal for an individual contributor, they are not ideal for leaders.

As a result, he was often giving advice or simply rushing in to handle it himself, and these actions left his team feeling unappreciated and unmotivated to do more than just their job. 

We spent time discussing his view of leadership, how he motivated team members and his communication style. 

What became apparent during these conversations was that he was struggling to assess himself as a leader, rather than the person who is responsible for doing the task/project etc.  He did not recognize this but when we began to discuss how he measured himself as a leader it became clear. 

When his staff came into his office to talk he moved into advice giving mode, explaining how something should be handled. 

Because he was so goal oriented, success driven he didn’t recognize how he left others feeling. 

We discussed him shifting his perceived role in conversations.  Instead of responding to others with how to handle the situation, to ask questions.  “What do they need from him”, ‘what have they done thus far” …to find out what the situation is and what do they need?  

We focused on how he could achieve results, without him being the one to handle. 

As a result of shifting his perspective, he shared that ‘one of his guys’ came into his office and began talking.  This time instead of jumping in to offer his ideas or advice he asked him what he needed from this conversation. 

To his amazement the employee said, “I just want to share my thinking, what I did and what I was thinking of doing and make sure there wasn’t anything I missed”. 

As he listened he realized that not only did he not want or need his input, the employee had handled it superbly.  Going forward he adopted asking questions as his way of interacting with his team. 

He learned that his team was smart and capable, and that his role had to change. 

As he moved away from giving advice, acting quickly to handle a situation, rushing in to fix problems others stepped in to fill those roles.  And he identified who on the team needed more attention and hands-on help and worked with them. 

Team members complained less, work got done well and people were happier.  It was a big shift for him learning how to motivate people simply by asking questions rather than jumping in.

When one doesn’t know how to measure success for themselves except by doing it themselves they won’t delegate.

Take our Delegation Quiz and find out what type of delegator you are. You’ll also get our Super Delegator’s Checklist as a bonus.