As a leader, you?re used to having people bring you lots of problems. But are you expected to solve them all?
That could be eating up a lot of your time, time that you could be spending on your big picture goals (also known as the stuff that makes you more money). If this is your work life, no wonder you feel like your productivity should be better.
It?s important to remember that as a leader, you should be making decisions and not searching for solutions. Don?t let your team treat you like a parent. That?s not your role. To Clear the Path to increased productivity, you need to change how you handle these challenges.
Start with making sure that your team understands that if they bring you a problem, they should also bring you some potential solutions. You don’t have to pick one of those options but it should keep you from having to learn about the problem from square one.
It also lets your team know they need to take an active role when confronted by challenges. Let them do some of the mental heavy lifting.
Your role as a leader is to weigh the options, make a decision, or ask for more information.
It’s tempting to think that you need to know everything about everything. This is a trap that will eat huge chunks of your time. If you have a good team, then you should use their talents. By empowering them to think critically, you’ll ultimately make them better employees.
This is also a great way to make yourself bus proof. We’ve discussed this term in the past, regarding how an organization needs to be able to function when the unexpected occurs to a team member and takes that person out of the office.
Still not convinced? Think of it like this: You drive a car every day but do you need to know how each part works? You pay a mechanic to worry about that stuff, while you focus on driving. On the job, let someone else look “under the hood,” while you plot your destination.
