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Remind your managers to pause before helping their people
"Speed is the ultimate weapon," the speaker on stage breathlessly proclaims. I agree. Speed is an advantage. First to market, first to adopt, first to respond, etc.
That said, when it comes to management, speed makes your people dumber. Believe me, I know.
Are you familiar with the Transition Curve?
When you're transitioning your people to a new and better tomorrow, progress is bound to dip at first as your people shed the shackles of the past on their way to growth. This pattern happens in school, in athletics, and in daily life as well. Any time we take on a new skill or learn a new lesson, we're excited at first, see some immediate progress, then we take what I call, "the plunge," into confusion, resentment, and withdrawal. We hang our there a while before finally latching on to hope, exploring new ways, and confidently enter our better tomorrow.
There's more too it, of course, there's conscious competence, unconscious incompetence, etc, but in general, transitioning from one state into a future state follows the curve.
Knowing this, and knowing how painful "the plunge" was for me, when promoted to management, I set out to eliminate the curve for my people. To speed up the learning process. Bring tomorrow to today.
How, you ask?
Simple. I told my people everything they needed to know. I was great at answering all of their questions, solving most of their problems, and eliminating all uncertainty, doubt, and fear.
It wasn't long before I felt overworked, stressed out, and miserable. Even worse, I made my people dumber.
Here's the thing. Remind your managers that their people need to wallow in the depths of despair. Just a little. They need to fight through the urge to bail out and find their way to tomorrow.
The fastest path to smarter, self-directed, and engaged employees is by monitoring their energy levels and helping them wallow in their filth just long enough to get a taste of failure. Then pull them out.
Your managers need to pause before making decisions for their people.
The next time you see a manager jumping up to take care of a problem that's escalating, remind them that sometimes, the fastest way to speed up results, is to slow down. They'll look at you and think, "Really, buddah?" but hang in there, you'll eventually get through to them.
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