Stop me if you’ve done this before…

You’re in the middle of a conversation with a direct report, and they present you with a problem. You respond with one of the options below:

• Have you thought of…

• What if you try…

• What do you think about…

You shouldn’t offer advice to someone in the form of a question; you should coach them to help them figure out the answer.

When coaching someone, focus on helping them find their own answers. Asking questions that are really just advice is not how you develop your people. It’s actually how you inflate your own ego—making your team more and more reliant on you as their leader.

My goal as a leader is always to help people get better. That means I shouldn’t have the same direct reports for years. I should improve them and enable them to find a new role with a new leader from whom they can learn.

Don’t be insecure. You don’t need to have the answers. That’s not leadership. Leadership is about helping others find their own answers. You’re just there to facilitate the process.

Your employees want autonomy to figure things out. Let them have it. 

Reflection

Think about the last time you wanted to coach someone. They bring you a problem, they explain it, and you immediately say, “Did you think about…”

Instead of doing that, try asking these questions to help coach and guide your employees to their own answer:

• What is the core challenge?

• How do you think we could solve it?

• Do you have any other ideas?

• Which solution is the most feasible and likely to succeed?

Try it out and let me know how it went!

I’m going to keep sending out some quick tips over the next few weeks—something simple and practical you can try.

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