Ep#229 How to Get Your Team to Succeed Without You

[00:00:00] Hello, my friend. This is Dex Randall talking leadership performance under pressure. If you're doing everything right and it's not quite working, don't worry, you're a diamond in the rough. Here's the polish 

[00:00:22] What we're going to talk about today is how to get your team to succeed without you, even when you're there. Because most leaders secretly believe "If I'm not involved, standards will drop". This is not because they're arrogant, but rather they've spent years, decades often, being the person who fixes all the problems, makes the decisions, maintains quality, and keeps everything moving.

[00:00:49] They've developed their own skills to the highest level attainable. And that behavior often creates success early in a career. For example, if you are a highly qualified specialist -physician, lawyer, accountant, engineer, some professional like that- then probably you've been very successful at that, and at some point in your career, you will be promoted on merit to leadership.

[00:01:18] And on that day, your M.O. begins to create a different kind of problem.

[00:01:25] As an inveterate problem solver, you begin fixing all your team's problems for them -because it's quicker, easier, and more reliable than letting them do it. You don't need to worry about results.

[00:01:40] However, your team then becomes dependent on you. Every question, every decision, every problem comes to you. The team performs because of you, not without you. They probably don't dare act without your blessing, never mind think.

[00:01:59] The highest performing teams, of course, don't work that way. At the very least, it's not a scalable method.

[00:02:06] So this is the leadership trap. Many professionals think, "My job is to have the answers." And perhaps it was, but for leaders, that becomes, "My job is to help others develop answers."

[00:02:21] The goal is not to become indispensable. The goal is to create capability. And the ultimate test of leadership then is does performance continue when you stop driving it?

[00:02:36] There is a hidden cost of being needed. At first, it feels good. People seek your advice. They ask your opinion. This is you establishing authority. They want your approval, and it comes quite naturally to most people after years of being an A player.

[00:02:55] But over time, your team's decision-making slows. Ownership decreases, and along with that, motivation and effort. Initiative drops because it's not needed. Accountability weakens. Innovation declines as your team stops speaking their minds and sharing their brainwaves.

[00:03:18] Your team starts waiting rather than thinking. This is atrophy, shrinking the capacity of your team to perform. You've become the bottleneck.

[00:03:29] So okay, why do teams become dependent? Let's take a look. It's almost never because people are lazy. It's rather that they want their own moment in the sun, and they can't get it.

[00:03:42] Leaders accidentally train that dependency. Or another way of putting that, in the end, is learned helplessness. They realize that they can't be trusted, so they stop trying.

[00:03:56] Some ways of spotting this, or some examples of it.

[00:03:59] Number one: providing answers too quickly.

[00:04:04] A team member brings you a problem, before they're finished explaining it, you've solved it.

[00:04:10] And I must admit, in my first leadership role, this was my go-to, because up until that point, it's what I've been paid to do, solve problems quickly. I'd built my whole reputation on it.

[00:04:24] Trouble is, in a team, it might be efficient today to do that, but it's very expensive tomorrow. Hiring brilliant, if not completely formed, talent to your team, will backfire if you then shut them down rather than building them up.

[00:04:44] But for a professional, even one who's been mentored already up the ladder, mentoring a team goes against their founding principles for success in their career so far. To that point, they've largely been rewarded through personal talent and exertion, solo expertise, and now the boot's on the other foot.

[00:05:07] Number two, jumping in to rescue.

[00:05:10] The leader feels responsible at all times for outcomes, so they intervene, usually a little bit too early, and the team learns, "If this gets difficult, the boss will take over." In fact, the boss will want to take over, so they relinquish control to you.

[00:05:29] Number three, rewarding compliance over ownership.

[00:05:34] Many organizations unintentionally reward agreement (in other words compliance), speed, completed execution, instead of rewarding judgment, initiative, independent thinking, which can almost be threatening as it scuffs against the status quo. It can also, by implication, be very expensive. But on the unseen flip side, the upside, independent thinking is what catches mistakes early, notices opportunities, thinks out of left field, makes room for the intellectual curiosity and creativity that brings innovation or solves problems in new and often more efficient ways.

[00:06:27] So what then is the shift from being a fixer, a professional expert, to being a mentor and developing out a team? Fixer to mentor. Leadership excellence does require a reframe on your rules of success. Instead of, "How do I solve this problem?" The true leader asks, "How do I mentor others' capacity to solve this problem?" One creates short-term results, the other creates long-term capacity, success, and growth. This is what you'll be remembered for in the end.

[00:07:03] So, here are five ways to build a team that succeeds without you, and as I mentioned, without you even when you're present. This is the ideal state.

[00:07:21] Operate on the basis that your job is to build capacity in others and foster productive collaboration between them.

[00:07:30] The first way to build team success is stop answering the first question. When someone asks, particularly in a meeting, "What should I do?" Respond with, "What do you think?" Not as a trick, as an invitation to think.

[00:07:45] When you invite, allow space and time for them to think. Don't crowd them out impatiently. Listen without offering your opinion. Only very gently guide the direction of their thinking by asking more questions, and then also calmly expressing your confidence in them even before they know the answers.

[00:08:09] Skills building can't happen in a pressure cooker. It takes time, and it needs to be done ahead of crisis. You can't delegate the answer only when a crisis hits. It's too late. The best leaders listen and ask for as long as the conversation is developing. And if they quietly offer an opinion, it will be at the close of the meeting.

[00:08:33] This is the way to empower your people to grow as fast as they are capable.

[00:08:40] Number two, ask for recommendations, not problems. When you've got your team together, prompt them to bring solution thinking first.

[00:08:50] So that might be suggesting that instead of saying, "Here's the issue", they could instead lead with, "Here's the issue, and here's my recommendation." This develops the skill and judgment that they will need. In a team where trust is established, it also allows others to respond in kind, helping to flesh out workable responses to problems and surface any adjacent issues that might come up from the solution that they can then fix together.

[00:09:22] Which brings me to number three, allow safe mistakes.

[00:09:25] People cannot develop ownership if they're punished for every imperfect decision, half-formed idea, or "stupid question." Growth requires room to learn. I'm pretty sure we all learn by making mistakes. I know for sure I did. The trick is to let the mistakes come out when the stakes are low, not during crisis. This is the single most powerful way to transform a team of reluctant contributors into innovation powerhouses. No bad questions.

[00:10:04] Number four, delegate the decisions, not just the tasks. Many leaders are tempted to delegate execution, although often to tightly bound rules, in fact, designed to prevent missteps, but few delegate authority, and that's where ownership lives. Start developing out your 2ICs. Give team members authority on projects.

[00:10:30] This lets them test their wings while you're still on hand. Your job as a leader is to develop future leaders, the people fit to replace you.

[00:10:42] I'll hazard a guess, in fact, that you've always wanted to mentor people, that your instincts are right there. So now's the time to brush up this talent in yourself first.

[00:10:53] It is as deeply rewarding as you think to mentor these people through the ranks, and it takes workload off your shoulders that no longer belongs there.

[00:11:06] Number five, praise thinking and contributing, not just outcomes. When someone demonstrates initiative, judgment, problem-solving, good teamwork- recognize it.

[00:11:22] For best effect, do this in team meetings as well. Remember the initiative, not the outcome. Praise is most effective when it's given verbally and in public, as opposed to correction, which is best given privately.

[00:11:40] For extra bonus points, encourage your team to recognize each other's efforts, too. Maybe that could be a thing that you do at the start or end of each meeting, because you get more of what you reward.

[00:11:54] So what do high performing teams actually need?

[00:11:59] Well, let's start with what they don't. They don't need a leader who solves everything. That isn't true leadership. They need a leader who creates vision, purpose, and clear goals so that direction is established. Everybody shares the same understanding of the problem and the goalposts.

[00:12:23] A leader who creates trust, who holds standards and accountability, and who creates a culture of psychological safety. You can't underplay this one because without it, team members will not contribute. Also a leader who creates learning opportunities and mentors their team members up the ladder.

[00:12:46] A leader's job really is to create the conditions for success, not to personally manufacture success.

[00:12:57] The paradox of great leadership is the better leader you become, the less people need you for everyday decisions, and the more they need you for vision, direction, strategy, culture, and growth. You become more valuable by becoming less involved.

[00:13:19] If your team cannot currently succeed without you, you've built dependence.

[00:13:24] Okay, no worries. You simply have the shift to make to be a new power under your team's wings, and that's just a practical matter. You need to sharpen up a few of your leadership skills.

[00:13:39] If your team can succeed without you, whether you're there or not, you've built leadership.

[00:13:45] The shift is from being the person who performs to becoming the leader who multiplies performance in others. And I really believe this is the maturity that we can most productively offer to the next generation of leaders. If you don't agree, of course, please let me know. Leave a comment, send me an email.

[00:14:07] Hope you found value in what you've heard today. Thank you for listening. I wish you every success with your leadership journey, and I'm always available as a guide. You can find more information at leadership.dexrandall.com. I do hope as well that you will share this episode with others who may benefit and/or rate and review the podcast, which is how we reach more people.

[00:14:33] I will catch you next week.