One of the most difficult abilities for any leader to develop is the willingness to allow their team to make mistakes. If your team doesn't have the freedom to make mistakes, you haven't actually delegated anything.
And sometimes that means allowing your team to do something in a way that you're pretty sure won't work.
I still struggle with this at times, even after years of practicing it. But this is where the real magic happens. Because sometimes your team will surprise you and get better results with their own approach than the approach you were sure was better.
It's rare for people to truly take responsibility until they know they're responsible for both mistakes and successes. But at least on the teams I've worked with, once people understand they own both sides, they almost always step up and deliver far more than I would have been able to if I'd done it myself.
Celebrating failure is important. Celebrating what comes from failure is even more important - knock out campaign, killer hire or new module/feature, an entirely new business - all possible of risk taking is fostered and risk taking means plenty of failures 💙
My trick and was go on holiday and be totally uncontactable. When I get back it's Clare - did I set the team up correctly, did they make all the calls without my input & can the operate semi autonomously or autonomously. That's been my trick for 3 decades
One of the most difficult abilities for any leader to develop is the willingness to allow their team to make mistakes. If your team doesn't have the freedom to make mistakes, you haven't actually delegated anything.
And sometimes that means allowing your team to do something in a way that you're pretty sure won't work.
I still struggle with this at times, even after years of practicing it. But this is where the real magic happens. Because sometimes your team will surprise you and get better results with their own approach than the approach you were sure was better.
It's rare for people to truly take responsibility until they know they're responsible for both mistakes and successes. But at least on the teams I've worked with, once people understand they own both sides, they almost always step up and deliver far more than I would have been able to if I'd done it myself.
Celebrating failure is important. Celebrating what comes from failure is even more important - knock out campaign, killer hire or new module/feature, an entirely new business - all possible of risk taking is fostered and risk taking means plenty of failures 💙
You build the early company by being in everything.
Then later you are supposed to delegate, step back, and stop yourself becoming the bottleneck.
In my experience as a founder, the hardest part is that there is no clean line for when that shift is meant to happen.
It's very hard to tell when staying close is still helping and when it starts getting in the way.
My trick and was go on holiday and be totally uncontactable. When I get back it's Clare - did I set the team up correctly, did they make all the calls without my input & can the operate semi autonomously or autonomously. That's been my trick for 3 decades
Going on holiday without any contact? Wow! I managed that, but only a decade in 😅