Digging into the Details - How Far Down Should a Leader Go?
We've all met them...we all know them...heck...we are most likely one of them! You know... the leaders that have been excellent practitioners and tend to dig in and do too much themselves rather than delegating or trusting their teams. On the other hand have you met the leader who espouses to be SO strategic that they cannot be bothered with the details AT ALL and just keeps pushing work down and yelling "row faster I can't help....I'm supposed to be strategic"?
I think over the years the jury of popular opinion on leadership has swung from one extreme to another. As with most things in life... it's complicated. It's less about saying..."well...it's a balance" but in my opinion more of being able to have enough understanding so you can ask questions and guide the team through the day to day challenges they face. I also think it reliant on the severity/urgency of the problem as well as how long you've left the team in the wilderness struggling with it.
So, depending on the book you last read or the philosophies you buy into it can be a struggle to figure out how far down in the weeds you should go versus relying on other experts in the company to just go "figure it out".
For what it is worth...here are my top 5 suggestions for leaders struggling with this dilemma to not be afraid to:
seek first to understand. This is my biggest and most important lesson learned. As the leader...sometimes YOU need to call a "time out" and bring a group of people together to ask some questions and walk everyone through what is causing the frustration or challenges. In the asking and retelling of the details... as you poke and prod you can often start to see lightbulbs go off in people's heads. The lead in question to the conversation is always "help me understand...."
say show me. A lot of times teams rely too much on talking though things or communicating solely through email. They are SO busy trying to explain their point of view that they end up missing the mark or communicating past one another. My "go-to" tactic in these cases is "show me" or "let's walk through a concrete example". It may seem "too far in the details" for some leaders but most often only YOU asking this question can help get the team to resolution faster.
facilitate expertise. Too often a lot of assumptions are made around "who is doing what" and in what time frame. Statements like "well that is THEIR job and THEY need to be held accountable". It always makes me smile when I hear statements like that. My next question is "who are THEY and are YOU sure THEY know it or are able to do it?" As the leader often your understanding of roles and responsibilities can help guide, coach and facilitate the team to ensure that the assumptions of "who should be doing what" don't derail things. It can also often reframe things and identify gaps in resources that should have been brought in sooner.
know enough... but not too much. Is this a vague enough suggestion? As the leader, you DO need an understanding of the business, the numbers, the processes, the tools etc... so you can guide and lead the team. I wish I had the exact formulae but my lesson learned is that you need to know enough so that when you look at something "your gut can tell you if it looks correct or not". Your understanding of the processes, tools etc., can also help facilitate the expertise and accountability needed. YOU don't have to do it ALL yourself but it doesn't excuse you from the baseline understanding of the business unit YOU are leading.
keep calm and carry on. At the end of the day...what YOUR team needs is a calm steady hand at the wheel. They don't want you to micro manage them or do their work for them. Nor do they want you to be so far removed from what they are doing and how they are doing it that they feel abandoned or perceive that you don't care. It is your support, faith and understanding of what the team is doing and YOUR part in THEIR success that will mean the most.
In Closing...
If I think of the best leaders I have ever worked for...known... or that I aspire to be it can be best summed up that "they always had my back". They knew enough of the details to coach me...they knew when to roll up their sleeves and help out... and they knew when to just wind me up and let me go! They never told me they couldn't help or didn't want to know because they were too busy being strategic.
How about YOU?
Leadership Questions of the Week for YOU:
What type of leadership philosophy do YOU subscribe to? Too much detail? No Detail? Or something in between?
How do YOU know how much detail YOU should dig into? Do YOU find yourself swinging too much one way or another? How do you course correct when YOU do?
What do you think of the 5 suggestions above? Is there one that YOU feel is most important? Would you add any others?
If you think of the best leaders YOU have worked for...known or that you aspire to be...what did THEY do to strike the balance between being too far in the details versus being more strategic?
Thanks for reading….and remember…YOU make a difference!
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