What trigger snaps you into details like a hound dog after a rabbit? Is it the suggestion of a late delivery to an important customer? Or, a less than excellent e-newsletter on a new product release?
Usually, it is something that you value highly not seeming to be valued in the same way by your team.
In your own mind, you think “They should know!”. Your team should have the same priorities that you do.
Sigh. We all know this is not true so why do we stand by this assumption? As the boss, we delegate all the things we don’t want to/ like to or shouldn’t be doing so we can do more strategic work. The most important work which only we can do, right? Then, something happens and we get triggered, like: when the details aren’t completed the way we would do it, or another important value, or a customer or a strategic initiative overrides the one we are looking at in that moment, and we freak.
This is particularly true in the discipline you excelled at before you became the boss. If you came out of sales, your team can never acquire enough customers fast enough. If you came out of operations, it is your special love and you know how to do it better than the rest of your team. But, your critical eye is an asset and a curse. You don’t have time to do it yourself, and it undermines your staff.
Is your job to be the super “doer,” or to be the trainer, or is it your job to be the leader? Every time you jump in and change or challenge something, the team stops. It then must either readjust or recover from your interruption. It turns out that this is a really big time suck. Is that what you intended?
You are creating the team that follows you in your behavior. Picture what it would be like to be a leader who has a competent team. The team has the tools they need to succeed. The priorities of the organization are clear. Measurement towards goals is frequent and accurate, and communication is regularly scheduled and mostly complete so that decisions are made quickly at the lowest level equipped to make them. Sounds pretty good, eh? What can you do this week to make it a reality?
Picture of beautiful weathervane comes from skyartstudio.com.