I once found myself in the position of simultaneously leading a team while also deep in the throes of developing a process to more efficiently generate milestone deliverables that eliminated a significant amount of last minute "forensic" work. This involved communicating my vision, getting stakeholder buy-in, regular working groups to hash out the details. That was the easy part (for me at least). The more challenging aspect was developing, testing and deploying a work-flow tool, the centerpiece of my vision.
I reached out to a quick-thinking, curious junior engineer on my team who enjoyed having a challenging side quest. I was not surprised that they quickly understood my vision at a high level and dove in with gusto. I made sure they were invited to all the stakeholder discussions as well as our working group meetings. Over time I gave him increasing responsibility in small bits and pieces.
One day I had a conflict with the working group. Rather than cancel, I asked the junior engineer if they would mind filling in for me. They were skeptical about their ability to handle the meeting but after convincing them that I had no reservations about asking for their help, they agreed. The day before the meeting, the junior engineer came to my office a bundle of nerves. I reminded them that they knew everyone and their roles in the working group and that we'd set the agenda at the end of the previous meeting. I also told this person that nobody would expect them to be me. I suggested that if anything came up they felt unequipped or unprepared to handle, to write it down and tell the team they'd check in with me and circle back with the team later. I knew this was unlikely to happen but giving the junior engineer this option greatly reduced their nervousness. After the meeting, they came by my office and said, "you were right, that wasn't so bad".
Over the following months, I strategically came up with reasons to have a conflict with the working group meeting to give them an opportunity to become more comfortable leading the meetings.
When I took a new growth opportunity outside of the company, I knew the effort I’d started was in good hands. I asked the junior engineer to take over those meetings and to continue moving the effort forward. By this time they were comfortable enough to agree. A month or two later, I met them for lunch and asked how things were going. They said, “Things are moving along, but the team keeps calling me the [effort] lead.” I laughed and said “You are the lead. I just didn’t use the word ‘Lead’ when I asked you to take it on because it would have freaked you out. I already knew you could do it, but you weren’t sure you could, so I didn’t put that extra pressure on you.” This was a lightbulb moment for them. They went away from that conversation feeling even more confident.
I ran into someone else from the Working Group several months later and they couldn’t stop gushing about how well the project was going and what a great job the junior engineer had been doing keeping the team on track.
Over breakfast not long ago a friend and I were talking about the concept of putting our dreams and aspirations out into the universe. She introduced me to the concept of adding, "or better" to the end of the dream/aspiration as an acknowledgement that perhaps there are amazing possibilities we are unable to fathom.
As humans we excel at having a self-limiting view of our capabilities and our potential. These self-limitations are due to any number of factors...perceived cultural constraints, limited knowledge of the option space, the stress of immediate pressing needs, inability to think past immediate financial constraints, etc. Sometimes we need outside help to dispel those limitations.
One of the things I enjoy most about leadership is helping other people be open to the possibilities of what they can accomplish at any given time. Here are some keys to successfully helping your team members spread their wings:
- Build trust with your team members so that when you express confidence in their ability to do something new or hard, they will believe you.
- Learn what your team members are curious about or what types of activities get them energized.
- Identify ways to ease folks into a more challenging role or broader responsibilities.
- Develop a backup plan to allow people to opt-out (while saving face) down the road if things don't work out. I find that people are much more willing to try something new if they know they have the option to pivot in the future. They are much more risk averse if they feel like they have to commit long term to something they've never done before.
Is someone on your team limiting themselves? How can you help them spread their wings?
I'd love to hear from you. Please comment below or send me a note via the Connect section of the home page.