I believe that all teams, with good leaders, can continuously improve as a result of their day-to-day activities. For that, the tasks and challenges delegated and monitored by a leader should bring new knowledge and experience.
One of the biggest difficulties in this scenario is to distinguish when a leader should or should not solve a problem for a team member, handing it to him on a silver plate. That’s even more critical for technical leaders who are expected to handle technical issues. I’ve seen two kind of problematic leaders:
First to Fight leaders act too soon. They maintain a forward-deployed presence, ready to solve everything on extremely short notice. They are usually stressed, overloaded and responsible for every… little… thing. In doing so, they don’t let the team think, try, decide and, most importantly, learn from mistakes and frustrations. The key to help those leaders is in showing that, instead of showing how to do things, they are actually preventing the team from learning.
Pilate leaders wash their hands. They say “it´s up to you, buddy” no matter what, even if the team doesn’t have the knowledge and/or the authority to solve it. They let the team waste time and effort, getting frustrated and sometimes even angry. The key to help those leaders is in showing that, instead of letting the team learn, they are actually wasting company’s money.
Seeing those extremes, we realize that even so called “self-managing teams” need help sometimes. But a leader has to know when to interfere. Some tips can help:
- If your team is stuck or they don’t see that they have everything to solve the problem, ask the right questions. They will learn a lot more than if you just give them the answers.
- Try to keep some buffer, some extra time in your planning, to let the team learn on-the-job. Almost always it takes them longer than you would take to do. “Of course. They need to learn, first.”
- If the solution space is limited or if decisions can be undone later, let them try, even if they are doing it wrong. Be careful, though, that you are not accepting only your solution. If the team is solving the problem in a satisfactory manner, even if you wouldn’t solve the problem that way, let them do it.
- In the end, it’s important to notice that there is always a trade-off between what is best in the short term (solve it yourself) and in the long term (let the team handle it). As the saying goes: “If I go there will be trouble. And if I stay it will be double.”
So, the next time a junior member of your team is experiencing some problems, think very well if and how you are going to help him. Let your team learn and try to do new things. But don’t let them do it if they don’t have the necessary resources, time or if the company / project / department is about to go under. ;)
PS: On a side note, if everything is “urgent” or “about to go under” in your company / project / department you should try to solve that problem first…