I’m reading Angela Duckworth’s new book, Situated, and so much of it resonates with how I work with leaders and teams.
One idea in particular caught my attention. She talks about announcing to your team that you’re stuck on an important problem and need their “collective brain” to solve it.
It immediately reminded me of something that happened a few years ago when I was working with Bryan Belmont, a retired corporate vice president at Microsoft.
I had helped coordinate and was facilitating a global leadership retreat for Bryan and his team. At one point, we were working on identifying different ways to solve a problem, and Bryan said to me, “I’m going to leave the room and take a call. Let the team work on this together and you facilitate the conversation.”
So the team worked through the problem. They energetically argued in a positive way, disagreed, agreed, pulled from past experience, challenged one another, and came up with several approaches to share with Bryan.
Afterward, Bryan told me that leaving the room had actually been intentional. He knew that if he stayed, people would naturally look to him for approval or watch his reaction to their ideas and either hold back or not work collectively.
What he really wanted was for them to come up with new and fresh ideas without him. He fully trusted his team and their knowledge. Then they could present their ideas, and together they could have a discussion about the best approach.
It worked fabulously. And I remember thinking at the time how important it can be for a leader to step aside. Now, when I run this type of facilitation, I speak with the executive leadership first and coach them on either how and when to leave the room or how to remain quiet and listen.
We talk a lot about hiring the best people. But there isn’t much point in hiring really talented people if you don’t take advantage of what they bring to the table.
And that sometimes means being willing to say, “I’m stuck. What do you think?”.
I also think this is an important part of delegation.
We tend to think about delegation as giving someone work to do. But sometimes the better delegation is giving people a problem to solve. Let them think about it. Let them come up with an approach you might not have considered.
And, as Bryan demonstrated that day, sometimes you may actually need to leave the room.
Stephanie Wachman is the CEO of Symetree Strategies, where she advises law firms and executive teams on leadership, culture, strategy, and change. Over the past 15 years, she has worked with law firms in 23 countries and speaks internationally on leadership, partner development, mentoring, and business development. She is the author of OWN Your Time and Sell Without Being Salesy. Learn more at www.stephaniewachman.com.
This article is provided as a complimentary resource by Stephanie Wachman. Statements of fact and opinion are the author’s responsibility alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of CPA Crossings officers or members. The information contained herein does not constitute accounting, legal, or professional advice. For actionable advice, you must engage or consult with a qualified professional.