I want to offer you a challenge…to change one small supervisory habit.
You may have read my post about keystone habits – those habits that have a ripple effect on other habits, and on the people around us.
Ok, so what is the habit?
It’s about being “Quick to Ask, Slow to Tell”.
So when someone who reports to you comes to you and says: “What would you suggest I do to solve this problem?” or “How would you like me to do this?” your normal response might be to give them the answer…to tell them what to do. It’s quick, and you get them back to work.
Maybe you also like the feeling it gives you – that ego boost that you knew the answer.
But what’s the downside of that approach? You miss an opportunity to develop their thinking muscles. Your job is to enable them to be independent, critical thinkers, people who can solve problems for themselves. That means that instead of telling them….ask them what they think.
Your reward?
It might be a feeling of lightening the load – that you don’t have to know all the answers.
It might be placing that monkey squarely back on their back, so that you don’t have to solve this additional problem yourself.
So will you try it out?
“Quick to Ask, Slow to Tell”.
Maybe something like: “What do you think about that?”
“What have you thought of so far?”
“What options do you see?”
And come back and tell us what the ripple effect is.
