Being a Leader Doesn’t Mean Having All the Answers

I started my career journey at age 22 after finishing my university education.  One year later I became an Executive Director for a nonprofit organization where I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to grow into my role as the organization flourished. At that age, I didn’t have formal leadership experience and learned a great deal from my wise board of directors, continuing education, and trial and error.

When I first became an Executive Director, one of the misconceptions I had was that I needed to have all the answers ready to go in my back pocket — and readily share them with staff whenever asked. In retrospect, I thought this was how I could show my ability to not only do the job, but do it great. Well, it didn’t take too long to realize that I was barking up the wrong tree!

Giving answers to skilled, intelligent employees builds unnecessary dependency.

I remember mornings where I dreaded walking into the office knowing what was waiting there for me —  my direct reports lined up at my door looking for direction before I even had my coat off. Each day this happened, I left the office without getting my work done. I was downright exhausted, but I believed I needed to have an “open-door” policy, which I interpreted as providing whenever, whatever, and however was necessary to my staff. I shared my dilemma with my supervisor — the board of directors — and they offered a couple of valuable suggestions which I immediately implemented. 

1)  Set aside “Do Not Disturb” time each day. Unless there is an emergency, there should be no interruptions and no phone calls during this time.  

After sharing this policy with my staff, we implemented it office-wide. I was amazed by what I accomplished in an hour each day!

2) Let staff know you trust them in decision-making.  

Of course, I needed to ensure my team was skilled and confident in their roles before I entirely delegated responsibilities. When they were ready, I asked them to assess whether their concern was urgent and required support or if it could wait until our regular meeting. The result was immediate: no more line-ups and even our one-on-one sessions didn’t have a list of concerns because they had already resolved them.

Secondly,  being on-call to my staff for everything resulted in burnout. My exhaustion was evidence — I could not sustain this level of responsibility for all tasks getting done so I taught my team to think through problems on their own. I asked, “What ideas do you have for resolving the situation?” If they struggled, I would coach them through problem-solving by asking questions on the 5 W’s, and moved them through brainstorming, evaluating, deciding and implementing. Upon developing this skill, staff reported to me about what they had done regarding significant incidents after they had occurred and we evaluated when necessary.

Implementing these two suggestions achieved awesome results. I reclaimed my time and my team enjoyed their work much more because I showed that I trusted them to independently make decisions. Win/win for my team and me!