As a manager do you find it hard to get your personal deliverables done because you team needs so much support from you? Are they constantly asking for direction or what their next step is?

Perhaps the issue is that you are telling your staff “what” to do instead of discussing the “why.” Let me explain…

As a manager and leader my strength comes not from myself, but from my team.  My team gives me leverage, if I allow them.  The best way I have found to do this is to discuss the “why” of the situation with them: why this task is needed, why it is critical to the big picture, why particular outcomes are favored.

Why?  Why take the time to do this? It takes time and emotional energy to discuss “why” with people.  It is faster and more efficient to just tell them “what” to do.  But here’s the issue: while telling your team “what” is quicker in the short term, it is slower in the long term.

The old adage goes “give a man a fish and he will be hungry tomorrow, teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.”  The modern corollary is “give a man a task and he will need direction again tomorrow, teach a man why he is doing a task and he can do it more quickly and autonomously tomorrow.”

Here are some reasons “why” this approach is good:

• Capacity: your staff can act more autonomously (that famous “empowerment”) which gives you more capacity
• Speed: your staff doesn’t need to wait for your direction or approval.  They move quickly because they understand what needs to be done and what great outcomes are.
• Quality:  my direction may be wrong or sub-optimal.  If my team truly understands the problem then they may propose a better solution than mine. Without context my team will deliver what I asked for, not what I needed.
• Motivation: the team is more engaged because they are empowered and have more meaning, they see their importance in the big picture.

Don’t tell people what to do, tell them why…