Entry 06: You're Not Helping
You may be the anchor that's holding your team back.
I see lots of visual depictions of what is and isn’t a leader. The one that always sticks with me shows a boss sitting elevated being pulled by their team, juxtaposed against the leader at the front of the rope, helping the team pull. And while I don’t disagree with this concept completely, I think it creates a false narrative around the role of a leader especially when it comes to day-to-day work. The idea that a true leader is shouldering the same burden as the team is simply off, and it’s why many leaders are unable to do the first leadership shift and end up staying buried in the daily fires.
But if you aren’t supposed to be helping pull the rope with the rest of the team, then you must be sitting on your throne barking orders right? Wrong, the life of a leader involves many things that are often invisible to the team. These things can appear like you aren’t really doing anything because there often isn’t something tangible in terms of output. But these leadership tasks are essential for the team’s growth. Things like planning for the future, clearing unforeseen roadblocks, establishing culture and planning for growth are key responsibilities as a leader. But if you are spending the majority of your day pulling on the rope with the team, where will you ever find time to work on them? When you realize that you need to both delegate and empower your team to own their tasks, only then will you find the time and headspace you need.
⚓︎ Are you an Anchor for your team?
Collaboration can feel noble, even necessary, but for some leaders, it becomes a disguised form of control. They sit in every brainstorm, review every draft, and insist on being part of every decision under the banner of “collaboration.” But instead of creating alignment, this level of involvement becomes an anchor, slowing the team down, creating bottlenecks, and breeding dependency. When collaboration becomes a means of micromanagement, it’s not helpful, even if you are doing it with the best intentions.
Empowerment, however, can be the engine for your team. It means trusting your team to think, act, and create without the need for constant oversight. It’s what propels progress. Empowered teams move faster, learn quicker, and grow stronger because they’re not waiting on permission, approvals, or endless input. The best leaders know when to pull up the anchor and let the engine run.
Micromanager? Me? Never!!
One of my first bosses was a major micromanager. Everything that I did had to be reviewed by her before I sent them to the team. She would forward me changes from our clients, and I input them into the system. She insisted on seeing every document, marking them up, and making me redo them. Sometimes, especially in the early days, it was necessary. I was new and had a lot to learn. But as the months went by, the changes became more personal preference than correcting errors. The constant critiques made me think that I was really terrible at my job. It wasn’t until I moved onto another team under another leader and was given a ton of autonomy that I began to thrive.
And so I promised I would never be that leader. I was going to empower my team members to stand on their own two feet. And I did…until I came into a meeting and was questioned by senior leadership about something someone on my team had done wrong. It was that moment that I realized my team’s work reflected on me. So I began to have all approvals go through me, and began making changes based on personal preference because I knew best. I became the micromanager. And it was all because of fear and lack of trust in my team. It’s taken me a while to realize this about myself and it’s still something I wrestle with, especially as a recovering achiever.
Handing over the reigns blindly is not the answer either. If you have hired the right people, you need to begin the process of empowering them. In a previous post I shared the steps of delegation that will help you hand off tasks. But you have to actually actually step back once your team gets to stage 3 & 4. You have to trust your team can do it without you. Does this mean you will never need to step in again? Of course not, but doing this the right way will allow your team to step in and own their tasks without your well-intentioned micromanagement.
🪞 Journal & Reflection Questions:
As you look for areas to step back, here are a few questions to think/journal through to identify places you should start empowering your team more:
Am I making most of the decisions, or are my team members taking initiative?
Do I feel the need to be present in every meeting and conversation?
If I stepped away for a week, would my team continue to function effectively?
Are my team members confident in taking ownership, or do they always look to me for approval?
Final Thought: Letting Go to Move Forward
A great leader isn’t the one doing all the work, they are the ones ensuring the work gets done at the highest level. By shifting from collaborating on everything to empowering your team, you free them to grow, innovate, and succeed on their own. And you free yourself up to tackle the things that only leaders can do. Remember, it’s a sliding scale. Figure out what is right for you right now, and start moving that slider to the right.
🗓️ Next week: From Focusing on Self to Focusing on the Team.
Keep Leading. See you next week!
Kacy @ Drawn to Lead