What Aren’t You Hearing?
Before I launch into this topic, I want to start by sharing an assumption that we operate under at Pilea: Everyone is a leader, and leaders create other leaders.
In this context, “leader” refers to anyone who steps into a position to guide, support, and inspire others in pursuit of a shared vision. A leader can be a CEO, a VC, a manager, or someone who simply cares about the common goal.
When talking with leadership, there are often questions around when leaders should step in and offer help to their team members, and when they should let folks figure out issues themselves.
While stepping in can be great for getting something done right now (and there is a time and a place for that), on the flip side, letting people figure things out on their own creates deep learning. However, we find that the most brilliant leaders are choosing a third option.
Great leaders coach their teams to develop self-leadership.
In a company context, when leaders don’t coach their teams for self-leadership, the teams struggle to scale and adapt quickly. The leader then becomes the decision-maker and bottleneck for all the goings-on within the team. This leaves the leader overtaxed and the team feeling disempowered to execute.
This is where listening comes in. As a listening leader, you are taking the time to understand systems, motivations, blocks, assumptions, and hidden contracts that may be keeping your team stuck. You have to understand what is blocking team members from executing on their own. Is it a lack of knowledge or resources? Lack of permission to make decisions? Poor process? Are you the block by not trusting your team to execute (and why is that)?
Taking the time to ask probing questions and understand the issue on multiple levels will help you to find a way forward together. To put this into practice, the next time someone comes to you with an issue to solve, ask these two questions:
For yourself: Is this something I want to answer five more times? If not, then try coaching the individual to find their own solution.
For them: What support do you need right now to help you get an answer?
Try it out and let us know how it goes!