You're accidentally ruining your leadership

Today I taught a (free) leadership course at Sagan U. We had a great turnout.

Here's something that I talked about that you're probably messing up right now: your "better idea" is probably KILLING the emerging leaders in your organization.

I believe one of the WORST things you can do as a leader—worse than a bad hire, worse than missing a projection—is regularly disempowering your people by substituting your judgment for theirs.

Here's what I mean.

Anya comes to you with an idea.

It's good.

Solid B+.

But you've got (what in your mind) is an A- idea sitting right there in your head.

Ten, maybe twenty percent better by your estimation. The temptation is overwhelming. You're the leader. You've seen more. You know more. Why not just... tell her your better solution?

Because… what message does that send to Anya about your confidence in her as a leader?

That she's a glorified assistant with a fancy title executing your vision.

That her job is to read your mind, not to build judgment.

That when push comes to shove, you don't actually trust her.

YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR LEADERSHIP POWDER DRY.

Save your ammo for the truly terrible ideas, the ones that'll actually break something...Or the decisions you can't come back from.

But that spark of energy when Anya comes to you excited about her plan?

Even if it's not perfect…hell, even if it's objectively worse than what you would've done…your job is to turn that spark into a bonfire.

I'd rather have Anya's 10% worse idea that she initiated and owns than my 10% better idea that I came up with.

Why?

Because over time, Anya develops judgment. Anya learns what good looks like. Anya becomes a leader who can handle the next ten projects without me. And yeah, maybe we take a slightly longer path on this ONE project. But we're building something way more valuable than the marginal improvement on a single initiative.

We're building an organization that can think, learn, and adapt for itself.

The question you have to answer for your organization is simple: Are you going to let other people help write the story of your company, or are you building a team of assistants with fancier job titles?

If it's the former, you get leverage. Real leverage. The kind where you can step away and things come back better than where you left them. The kind where you're not the bottleneck on every decision.

If it's the latter... you get to “stay important and busy forever”.

Which I guess some founders actually want. The phone ringing at all hours. Being in every Slack channel. Knowing you're indispensable.

But don't confuse that with building something that can take on an identity separate from you.

True belief, true trust, true empowerment means letting people step into the space you've created to tell their OWN story, to make their OWN music, to contribute their OWN unique skills to the organization.

Every time you override your team's judgment - you're training them to wait for you. You're teaching them that their job is execution, not thinking. And then you wonder why they keep bringing you problems instead of solutions.

You did that. You taught them that.

So yeah. Let them run with the B+ idea. Coach them afterward on what you would've done differently. Build their judgment gradually. Save your veto for the stuff that actually matters.

Or keep being the smartest person in every room and see how far that gets you.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

P.S. We work hard to get great reviews at Sagan from our members all the time, like the one we got this week here…

…. but we spend a LOT of time and money to try to get great reviews from candidates as well.