Help Them Grow By Letting Go

What if I told you that you are mistreating your people? What if I told you that you are the reason that they can’t do more? What if I told you that you are treating them as if they are incompetent, inept or just plain stupid?

I am hoping that you are ready to argue with me. Hopefully you don’t agree, but if your organization is struggling to grow and you feel like you have to do everything, it might be true.

As an organization evolves, it normally starts as a ‘one man band.’ At the beginning, you have to do everything… and you get it all done. As the organization grows and team members are added, we try to delegate and have them do more, but sometimes we struggle to allow them to do what they could. We put up the smoke screens of: They are too busy already… or I don’t want to burden them with this… There are times where your team is overworked, but the majority of the time it is your own control freak nature (that ironically got you to success when you were small) that is holding things back. Did you hire incompetent people? If so, shame on you. My guess is: That is simply not true. So by not allowing our team to work WITH us, we are telling them that they are not good enough. We are telling them that we don’t believe that they could do it as well as we can… Ouch.

So in the spirit of allowing you to keep a measure of control and them to start to grow and take over duties, here are a few tips that might help:

1. Give things to them slowly. Allow them to ‘do’ whatever it is with you watching first. Example: I want them to do the sales call, but I don’t want them to screw it up… Go over it with them first with just the two of you, have them practice once on another person, then go with them on the first few calls until you see that they have it or not. Don’t just shove them into the pool and hope for the best.
2. Talk to them. Ask them what else they think they should be doing or would like to learn. Have them help you devise a training plan and timing of what they need to learn. They can take ownership of this process.
3. Allow them to fail. This is the hardest thing for most of us. Those of you that are parents will really understand this one. You have to allow them to fail in order to truly learn. The important part is that you do it in a relatively safe environment so the failure is less painful. Example. We want our new team member to present a project at the next meeting to upper management. Instead of having them go into the meeting and potentially fail in front of a large group, have them do a run through in front of their team that is supportive and understanding. If they fail, the damage is minimized to the team member as well as any damage done to your team’s image.

Paul Martinelli says “Grow your wings on the way down.” And while I believe in this when I am making my own decisions, I tend to at least jump with them if I am putting