Step Back and Let Others Lead
By Dr. Francis Eberle
When I talk to groups I often tell them that leaders should step back more. The biggest concern I hear in response is that if they step back, they won’t be able to help their employees do the task right.
I will probe and ask what “do the task right” means. Usually, they describe steps to do the task, and then launch into outcomes they don’t want, such as embarrassing the company, insulting a client, a grammatical error, inadequate research, and so on. These outcomes feel like they could be the result of a fully hands-off approach. That is an incorrect assumption about what stepping back as a leader means.