642 | Too Little Leadership—Communication, Problem-Solving, and Guidance

Is your team in the dark, constantly stuck or just missing the mark?

Today we're looking at what happens when leaders pull too far back and what to do when communication, problem solving and guidance are in short supply. That is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are. Welcome to the show, folks.

I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. Today we are continuing our Leadership Balance series. How much is too much and how much is too little.

So we're diving into three key areas that suffer when you don't lead enough. Communication, problem solving and guidance.

Three foundational must haves for every single business. Heck, for every family, for every relationship. Right.

So I know that this can be uncomfortable to hear, but if you've got a frustrated team, if your execution is slipping, or if you're constantly disappointed at how things are going, then there is a good chance that you're leading too little and one or more of these areas.

So that is what we are going to unpack today. So the first thing we are going to hit is something we talk about all the time on this show and that is communication.

Too Little Communication Leaves People in the Dark (00:01:37)

So what happens when too little communication leaves people in the dark? So I have had the privilege of working with or leading many leaders who believe that telling somebody something once is all that is needed.

So there are so many times and I, I will say that in my early leadership years, that is something that I thought, I thought, you know, well, that my issue was actually more along the lines of I think, you know what I know, you must know what's inside of my head.

What we're talking about today is the type of person that says I told you once, you should already know this.

You should get this. I shouldn't have to tell you again. That type of leadership, that style, unfortunately is something that creates this hey, we're never really going to be on the same page kind of problem. Right.

Because what happens is life happens, information happens, change happens. Just because you told me once doesn't mean that I have got that locked and loaded in my brain. And that is my top priority and the top thing I focus on.

It could be that you told me and something else came up. It could be that you told me and I didn't write it down. It could be that you told me and I didn't understand it at the time that you did tell me.

There's so many different variables that comes with this concept of I told you once. That should be enough. The problem is, is that there is a good number of people, leaders, family members that lean on that concept.

So if you don't know this, if you haven't figured it out, unfortunately, the, whatever you want to call it, pride, ego, stubbornness, unfortunately keeps that person from setting the other person up for success.

So if what's going through your mind is, but I told them once, well, I hear you, I get it, I understand. There's been times that I've been frustrated that I've led somebody on something and they completely forgot it.

But if you're really considering personality styles, if you're really considering workload, if you're considering stress, you know, life stress, anything that's on that person, then what you might come to understand is once may not be enough.

The problem is, is when your, your communication is so sparse, then people begin to start getting guessing, right?

So if you've not done followup, if you've not created clarity, if you've not created a communication rhythm where you're setting somebody up for success, then what you're going to find is people are going to start guessing at what to do.

Or other personality styles might take that thing and put it on the back burner waiting for you to come and get things straight.

Either way, this leads to misalignment, it leads to frustration, dropped balls, a desire not to communicate. You might find some people feel like, why will this person not just help me?

There's so many things that can happen, a morale drop, right? Gossip can come out of something like this. Well, you know, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. So and so is supposed to be telling me.

Any kind of negative thing that you can imagine is probably a possibility here when it comes to a lack of communication. So what do you do instead? It's simple. Communicate.

Make sure that you are spending time communicating. Get past this concept of I told you once, you should know this. Instead, I want you to start fostering a mindset of asking questions and gaining perspective. Challenge the person on the thing that you taught them on.

Now, some people might get upset about that. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, right? Hey, I'm just wanting to make sure that you got this.

Could you repeat back to me what it is that I just explained to you or the thing that I asked you to do or how to do that project or whatever, just so I know that I didn't fail in communicating this to you.

Would you repeat back to me so that I have a confidence that I did what's right that I did a good job in delivering this information.

You'll be blown away at how effective asking somebody to do that is on multiple levels. For example, let's say that person was not really paying attention.

They paid attention, but it's kind of going in one ear and out the other. When you ask them to repeat it, all of a sudden their brain goes, oh, crud. What did this person say? What did they say? What all did they say?

And then they have to go through what they heard, and that starts to lock that into memory. It begins. I'm not saying this is the only thing you do.

And once you do it, everything's golden. What it does is it starts to lock it into memory. When they have to repeat it, then it locks in accountability. Oh, I literally just told the person what they told me.

They know. I know there's no: I didn't understand it. You didn't tell me. There's none of that going forward. So am I saying this is again the be all, end all? No, it's not.

But it is a fantastic start. Help me to know that I did take the responsibility. Help me to know that I did a good job explaining this or that.

You don't even say, I did a good job, that I did a clear job explaining this, that I communicated this well to you, that I'm setting you up for success.

Anything that has to do with setting the other person up for success or being clear, Right. Once they do that and they repeat it back to you, then there's a really good chance that's locked in.

The other thing is, is what if you didn't do a good job? Or what if you gave too much information or what if it was confusing or..

Or, or then by asking them to repeat it back to you, what you've done is you've given them the opportunity to go, I actually don't understand this part.

This part didn't make sense or I heard you say this, but I'm not sure what that looks like. You know, whatever it is they can, or you find out that they really just weren't listening.

Either way, at the end of them repeating back whatever that they can, that gives you yet another opportunity for clarity. Because if they've got it completely correct, then reward them.

Great job. Well done. That's awesome. Okay, all right, let's put a timeline on that. Let's do, you know, put a timeframe, put some other piece of accountability on it, and let's rock on.

But what if they didn't get it correctly? Then that gives you the opportunity to repeat it. That gives you the opportunity to ask questions like what part of this doesn't make sense?

Is there any confusion in this? What questions do you have about this?

I mean, you shouldn't always be asking what questions do you have about this. But that gives you the opportunity to dig in even deeper.

Now you should have their undivided attention at this point because they already realized they weren't listening very well the first time. Now you should have their undivided attention.

So by doing this, what you're doing is you're creating the ability to lock this into their mind.

I'm not saying that they are not, you know, their day is not going to get torpedoed by something 30 minutes from that point and they've forgotten what it is that they're supposed to do.

I'm not saying that at all. But you have a fantastic start. What do you do after that? Well, follow up. Don't leave them hanging.

Follow up until you know that this person can run with something and make it happen.

And by the way, not everybody can do that. Not everybody. Here's something, once is able to lock it in, run with it and make it happen. There are some fantastic people out there that can do that.

I know people, same personality styles, same values, so similar in so many ways.

And yet because of one person's Root System compared to another person's Root System, one person is able to lock it in and rock on, and the other person is not.

You know, it's just something that is built into experiences that they had when they were younger, you know, parenting issues that they experienced.

And so. And the other one may be able to lock it in because maybe they were, you know, they had a parent that was all about perfectionism. It doesn't matter.

The key is, did you set them up for success? So use your weekly meetings, use daily huddles, whatever it is, to create consistency with the communication as well.

Create follow up with the communication. Always explain your why when it gets to decision makings or what the outcome should look like.

You know, especially depending upon the personality style. If you got more of a high C or high S, they need to see a bigger picture. Why are we doing this thing?

So that they can understand how it should look. They're, they're asking those questions so that they can understand what the outcome should look like.

So make sure that you're explaining your why behind stuff like that. And then also, like I said, check for clarity.

Ask them to repeat it back. Ask them if they have questions, whatever it takes.

Make sure that you've communicated clearly as you begin this in a repetitive kind of way, that this becomes something that is DNA for you. Then what you will discover is your team will do the same.

If you're giving information short and sweet and expecting that people run with it, then guess what, your team is highly likely doing the same exact thing with other people.

So do this. Create DNA, create common language, and then you will be rocking with communication.

Ignoring People’s Problems Doesn’t Build Independence—It Breeds Frustration (00:11:36)

Second thing, you gotta stop ignoring people's problems. Sometimes there is.

There's many reasons why somebody would ignore a team member's problems. But I think sometimes people think if I just don't answer, it's going to build independence into them.

Right? It's going to. It's going to breed the ability to solve problems on their own. That can work with some people.

There's definitely some people that can work with. But what you will find, probably more than anything, is that it breeds frustration.

Is that in certain folks, if they're not getting things solved and taken care of, then you're probably going to find frustration. I will tell you, and this is zero justification.

I hate gossip. Gossip sucks and shouldn't be happening. But when a team member a lot of times doesn't feel heard, listened to by a leader, you will find that they gossip.

That is no good reason. There's no good reason for gossip, literally. But if you want to shut that kind of stuff down, make sure that you're not avoiding problems, make sure you're not avoiding issues.

So if somebody brings you the same issue more than once and you avoid it, then they start to think, why should I even bother?

Why should I even bring this up? That's not creating independence. That's not creating, you know, proactive problem solving. It's going to create silent disengagement.

It's going to create in somebody, you know, a person that just doesn't go after stuff, right. Because they keep bringing it to you and you're not doing anything about it.

Or you might not be talking to them, or you might not be addressing it. So without your involvement, people start to feel abandoned.

Am I saying, Chris, I thought you're saying people need to learn how to solve problems. Absolutely. But that's your job as a leader, is to teach them.

It's your job as a leader to get them there, right? So if what you're teaching them is I'm going to ignore you, I'm not going to address this thing that you brought to me, well, then guess what?

They're going to ignore the same problem that's happening, you will come around later on, go, why is this problem happening?

How come this thing happened? Yada yada yada and they're going to be like I told you seven times and you didn't do anything about it.

Well why didn't you do something else? Why didn't you? There's always going to be some other thing that frustrates the daylights out of you.

The question is why didn't you give input, why didn't you help? Why didn't you guide, lead direct, give information, ask questions, gain quality perspective.

I'm not asking you to solve it for them, in fact what I'm telling you is you, you hear me say this all the time, help me them to solve it through quality perspective gathering if you will, ask plenty of questions.

If you will get to the reason why the the how, you, you know, help them to see the how, whatever.

If you can dig in enough and get enough information out then you can start asking them questions on how should you solve this?

What should you do about this? What would it look like if you did? And they start to give information, they start to give answers.

How do you see that affecting this thing over here? You continue to ask questions, helping them to get to the solution.

If you do that, then you will be helping them grow by teaching them how to solve problems. As they learn how to solve problems, guess what? They will come to you with less things.

So when you lead too little in this problem solving area, unfortunately your team stays stuck. The same problems cycle through.

Morale, drops, ownership and buy in fades. Problems happen when problems don't get solved because to them, what are they experiencing?

Unresolved conflict and you as a leader aren't doing anything about it.

So be present, don't wait until crisis hits to get involved, get in there, ask strategic questions, gain quality perspective.

What's, what's been the most challenging thing about this? Why do you know for us we've got our five steps of how to solve almost any problem.

What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen? How do we fix it? How do we make sure it never happens again?

Ask those questions, right? Ask them, what do you need from me going forward?

What you might find is, is that if it's somebody who is good at, you know, learning and then you know, self motivated and proactive to solve stuff, they might be like, oh nothing, I feel like I've got this, you know.

Or I just need to be able to come and bounce this off of you in the future which gives you the great opportunity to say back, hey, when you do come with solution, so don't just ask me, you know how to solve it.

I want you to bring your best, Bring your A game, tell me how to solve this.

So guide without rescuing them. You know, they. They still need to do the work, but with your wisdom, they. Then it will help them to grow.

And then what you will find is that they will solve way more problems on their own.

Assuming People Know What to Do Creates Confusion (00:16:44)

Third thing, if you are assuming that people know what to do, then what you're probably doing is creating confusion now.

So I grew up thinking that if I know something, then you know it. Right? If it's in my head, then it's probably in your head. Right?

You know what? I know that's how I grew up. And I had to battle that process. And I'm so glad. A fantastic woman, Teresa Duke, who worked for me decades ago, pointed it out.

She's like, Chris, you always think that we know what's in your head. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I do always think that.

She's like, how could we possibly know? You haven't said anything. And that took me down this rabbit hole of trying to find out what causes that.

And there's a specific thing that actually causes that to happen. And as I learned that, I started changing the way I communicated it. I started realizing I have to set everybody up for success.

I can't assume that they know what I know. Now, that's a little bit different than what we experience the rest of the time.

And that is when people assume people should know what to do. You know, we've had so many folks that we've worked with that are like, how does this person not know what excellence looks like?

I mean, for the love, why can't they get that? They should know that.

I mean, how do they live their life? You might be somebody who knows excellence, has lived excellence, wants to continue to live excellence.

But that doesn't mean that somebody else is in the same boat. That doesn't mean that somebody else is on the same page. They may not have been raised that way.

Excellence may not have been something super important to them. Right. That's a---

Excellence is a big thing to me, not in every area of my life, but in the areas that I feel like are super important, be excellent, do things well, you know, bust your butt, do the best you possibly can.

But for some folks, they may not have been trained and raised that way.

So just because you think it or just because it's something you've been trained on does not mean that somebody else has been trained on it as well.

So assuming that people know what to do, unfortunately creates confusion because you get to this point of expecting that they do it.

You know, the team that keeps missing expectations creates frustration for everybody, especially the team lead or the owner or whoever.

So you have to make a decision not to focus on expectations that you have not clarified are actually real.

So I love my team. I love the leaders on our leadership team. I love the people that work, you know, the rest of the business.

I love my team because all throughout, from leadership all the way to the front lines, I see people who know excellence. Some of it is innate, some of it has been trained for years.

But either way, we've made it a priority to make sure that everybody on the team understands excellence, what we expect, what it should look like, what should results look like, all of that so that we aren't all frustrated.

So, you know, I'm not sitting back frustrated trying to figure out why something is happening or not happening the way that it should be happening. We don't think that way.

For us, it's like, hey, make sure so and so understands what that looks like.

Make sure they understand what they, the outcome should be when they're done right. Help them to see what excellence looks like in putting that together. That is just a common thing for our team.

But that's because I got tired of, you know, frustrated and tired of, of trying to help people get to excellence and then realizing as a young leader, they didn't know, they didn't understand it, they weren't taught that.

So if you are too hands off, then people are going to interpret that as most likely some level of apathy or even worse, you know, permission that they can do whatever they want to. Right?

You, you're not involved in this. You're not saying anything. You're not guiding and directing.

I'm just going to do the thing that I'm going to do.

Which is probably going to frustrate you 10 times more because very rarely do you know, when somebody has not been taught this or trained or guided and directed, very rarely do they do what you're thinking they're supposed to do.

So what are you going to experience? You're going to going to experience inconsistencies, you know, lack of performance, poor performance.

You're going to experience your culture start to get ripped apart and erode because people are going to do what they're going to do.

You know, sometimes people will just throw it on the back burner. Sometimes people are going to take it and run with it.

So the question is, should you spend some time getting them to the right outcome, teaching, guiding, helping them to get to excellence?

It's it. We're not talking about micromanaging anybody. We're talking about giving the guidance that helps them to get to that place.

Asking perspective, gaining questions. What questions do you have about this? Do you see?

You know, explain to me what this should look like when it's done. Explain to me a large view, a high level view of how you're going to get this done, whatever it takes. Help them to be able to verbalize it.

Make sure that you know through clarity that they know what they're doing.

Make sure that you know and they know what success looks like and how in the world are they going to get there.

So if you will do those things early on in projects, you know, whenever something is beginning, when you're the, the very front side of communicating a project or a directive on something, let them know with clarity early on, get to it early.

Ask do you feel confident in what's expected of you, what's expected for this project to, to look like when it's done?

Ask if they're confident in those areas. Right? Set a target, you know, put a timeline on it. Allow them to create and walk that path.

Maybe you put up some guardrails depending upon who, what they've explained to you. You know, if you've got to rein them in from time to time, that's fine, but put the accountability piece in place.

Help them to see that you're going to come alongside and go, how are we here? What's going on here? Things that you might see that they don't.

Sometimes, if it's not a fatal failure, there's times I will let somebody walk it out, right? It's, let me say, a book that everybody just needs to read, read, listen to. It's called the Anxious Generation.

This is a must. This is something that you need to listen to if you have kids at all.

This is vitally important for you. Just do this book, get it, listen to it, read it, whatever you do. This one for me was in Audible and I loved it.

When I say I loved it. You guys have heard me preach forever. Kids shouldn't have cell phones, smartphones, tablets, be watching TV all the time.

I mean, barely ever should they be watching tv. Barely ever should they be on tablets, computers, phones.

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan, I think you say his name is Haidt H A I D T.

Is a powerful book that will help you to see how a lot of people are so distracted from the way that they think, so distracted from understanding what excellence is, so distracted.

They've been trained and taught and raised by social media groups and peers online and so on and so forth.

So one of the things you might need to understand is that you've got a job to do as a leader.

Helping them to get to a place of thinking for themselves, of, you know, being able to explain themselves, being able to learn what excellence looks like.

All of those things are things you're probably gonna, you may have to help people get to. It's very possible. But I'm telling you, if you got kids go through that book, definitely get that one.

That one's just fantastic. So people need to be guided. They don't want to be, nor should they be micromanaged, let me say within the first 90 days of a hire.

I'm expecting you to somewhat micromanage until you could see which direction they're going to go. But after that, they don't want to be.

And you shouldn't be micromanaging. You should be setting them up for success. What does it look like?

How do you get there? Right. So are you confident? You know, check in early, set targets for them, set timelines and then let them go and see what they do?

Oh, that was the reason why I was going to share that. I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I'm an, I'm an 80s kid. I'm a Gen Xer. I grew up with the kids that we didn't have phones.

We stayed out late. I literally, you know, was working, getting paychecks at 14 years old. I was- called it a pearl diver, a dishwasher in a restaurant at nighttime.

And during the wintertime I would take my cross country skis.

I was a downhill racer, but I would cross country into town, bury my skis and poles in the snow, change out my shoes, walk into work, wash dishes for a few hours, come back, throw on those skis in the dark of night and ski all the way back.

Do you know you would get arrested as a parent for allowing your kid to do that nowadays, right?

Kids from, you know, raising kids in the 90s on, people have been, children especially have been so protected and they've been turned into fragile beings.

Listen, kids are not fragile. They're anti fragile. They really are. You just might not know that they're not fragile. They need to bump around and, and run into things and make things happen.

And they need to be able to be given the opportunity to find the path and find the way.

If you are doing everything for people on your team, if you are not allowing them to go and make some mistakes, if you're hovering over them, if you're micromanaging them, if the first time they make a mistake, you take the thing back.

And they're just, you know, not good enough and you're not leaving them in that role or position or whatever, then guess what?

You're doing the same exact thing as all the terrible parenting that overprotects the living daylights out of kids. Right?

It is horrible. And it turns out people who can't think for themselves, if that's what you want in your team, great.

Don't let them find the path. Don't let them work on it. But I promise you, if you will allow them to go after it, then you will be blown away at what they will do on their own.

And they will be so proud of themselves that they're able to think for themselves and solve problems.

Okay, I'm off that soapbox. The Anxious Generation. Get that book.

Too Little Leadership Feeds Uncertainty and Insecurity (00:28:37)

Number four. Too little leadership feeds uncertainty, and unfortunately, it feeds insecurity. So leaders who are.

Who under lead, often they think that they're giving their team freedom. I used to. Oh, if you ever watched the show The Apprentice back in the day, I don't know how long ago that was.

A couple of decades ago or so. I used to watch the end of that show. I didn't care about the series, but I used to love to watch the end of a championship.

I don't know what you call it whenever the apprenticeship, when they would win their apprenticeship or whatever.

Because there would always be this, you know, at least one of the two leaders at the end, one of them would be this horrible leader.

You know, they bring back the people out that lost earlier, and those become your team members. Here's people who were crappy before.

Now they're your team members. And you will always see at least one of those leaders competing where they're like, you know, the camera's on.

Like, you just gotta tell your people what to do and trust that they're gonna solve it.

And then the camera cuts to some guy at Home Depot pushing a big cart with nothing on it going, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

I know I'm supposed to get stuff, but I can't get them to answer the phone. I can't. And they have no clue what to do.

Listen, this concept of under leading, not. Not being there for your team members is going to give them freedom to grow.

And I, I know I probably sound like I'm contradicting what I just said, but understand what I just said before.

You need to lead them and then allow them to go.

Right? Set them up for success and then allow them to go work out the success on their own.

The part where people are like, nah, just let them do it. They'll figure it out. They'll get there. Or, you know, just trust.

While they said they could do it, when I hired them, it was on their resume that they've done this before. That is a terrible way to lead.

And you cannot be shocked or surprised that a team member is going to fail. They are going to fail.

It's going to keep them in a definite place of uncertainty. Like I say, go back to some of those. Just go to the last episode or episodes.

I don't know what it is. I don't even remember. This is decades ago. And just watch how badly the team members do when they're not communicated too well.

I mean, you will learn how not to lead somebody. Right? It creates anxiety, it creates stress. So uncertainty when there's a lack of leadership creates instability in your culture.

Because then people are going to start thinking, I just need to keep my head down and do the bare minimum. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

I'm not going to take risks. I'm not going to jump out there.

They're going to be unstable. Your culture is going to be pretty unstable as well, or unstable, I guess I should say.

So even great team members will start to doubt themselves if you're not getting in and even just holding them accountable or checking in on them and making sure things are going well and making sure that they understand what they're supposed to be doing and making sure that they understand what the vision is.

If they doubt the direction, then what you may find is they will start doubting whether or not they're doing the right stuff.

Or even worse, they might totally check out emotionally, which is the opposite of what you want.

You want people who are set up for success knowing that they can take risks in certain areas because they've been led well to be able to do that. And then they will.

But if you back out, if you're not leading at all, if you're not, you know, being attentive at all, then what you're going to start to find is for most people, some people are going to just still be a bull in a china shop and make things happen.

But what you're going to find out is a lot of people are going to start to back off.

So what do you do instead?

Create safety in the team members by giving clear direction. Here's where we're going.

Don't solve everything for them. Don't give them every answer. Help them to see what direction we are going in and how what they do helps us to get there.

Help guide and direct, be there, lead, show them right, affirm if they're doing the right stuff. You know, celebrate when they are accomplishing what.

When what they're doing is accomplishing the vision.

You know, help them to understand that there's a purpose behind the work that they're doing.

Don't go silent. Make sure that you are speaking up because your voice can create alignment.

You Can’t Expect What You Don’t Express (00:33:17)

Number five. You can't expect what you don't express. Now, there's an old saying, you can't expect what you don't inspect, which we've kind of been talking about that.

But once again, we're going to talk about something different here that is more along the lines in this communication piece.

Now, we all want our teams to be proactive. Everybody wants, hopefully, hopefully everybody listening to this wants their team to be proactive.

You want them to be excellent, you want them to have accountability.

But if you're not clearly expressing what those specific things look like, those desires that you have, those expectations that you have, if you are not clearly communicating the things that you expect, then you're most likely not going to see it.

Right. If a team member is underperforming, it may be, you know, it could be because they don't care, could be because they're a slacker, could because they're lazy.

But it also could be because nobody has shown them what winning looks like. Nobody has helped them to see what success looks like.

Nobody's helped them to see not the task. And this is why we are so massive on doing KRAs.

KRAs are not, you know, big blown up tasks. It's the result of doing the job correctly. What does that look like?

Because if you can see that result and understand the result and then you can look at what you're doing, you can see if you're getting there or not.

You know what winning looks like, you know what success looks like.

So if nobody's ever shown them what winning looks like, then we cannot be surprised that they are not getting to the expectations that we have.

A crazy thing to realize is most underperformance isn't rebellion. Many times people think it is.

Well, this person's just not doing a good job because, you know, this person just doesn't care. Well, this person just is lazy. They're just, you know, not excellent folks.

I'm telling you, there's a really good probability it's because of poor leadership. Clarity. It doesn't mean that you're not a good leader. It doesn't mean that you're not trying.

It doesn't mean any of that. It may just mean that you're not being clear enough. You might not be driving enough Clarity.

So what do you do? Define what success looks like for the love. Help them to. If you want them to get to your expected result, show them, teach them, model it for them.

Reveal it to them what the expected result looks like. At that point, then they can start understanding what success looks like.

And then as they go down the path, if they don't actually hit it, then they can stop and go, hey, something's not right.

I'm not getting this. I'm not doing this correctly. So help them to understand what success looks like.

Make sure that you're sharing examples, things that you've done, things that other team members have done.

Especially if you're training a new person or delegating to somebody. Share examples of what it looks like.

Share examples of how to get there. And then when they hit the mark, celebrate it. When they are on the right track, celebrate it.

Make sure that you are pointing out what they're doing well, if you will, celebrate. Guess what? People repeat what they're always rewarded for.

So reward them and they will continue to do great stuff.

Action Steps (00:36:46)

So action steps that you can do this week. First thing, audit your communication.

Where are you? Assuming your team knows what's going on, they know what to do. Audit what you are doing. Audit how you feel about them.

Right? Reconnect with someone who's stuck on a problem. Find somebody who's struggling on something. Get in there.

Ask just a couple of questions before you offer your input. Don't solve it. Don't just give them the information, but ask them perspective gathering questions.

Review expectations of a project that's going on or a directive that's going on, something that's happening.

Have you provided clear information? Have you, have you provided a clear target of where they're supposed to get to?

Have you defined what success looks like? Fourth thing is get feedback. Ask a trusted team member.

Not somebody who wants to hurt you or guilt you or shame you or anything like that. Ask them where do you need more from me as a leader, right?

And then take that to heart. Don't be defensive. You know, don't battle back on anything. Listen to what they say.

You know, I shared with you that, that decades ago when Teresa looked at me and she said, we don't know what to do on this thing because you haven't shared it with us.

And I'm like, I thought you knew. And she's like, yeah, that's your problem. You always think we know what's in your head and you haven't told us anything.

So take that kind of fantastic constructive criticism and do something about it. Right?

Number five, commit to some sort of a weekly rhythm where you're communicating.

Establish a recurring meeting, check ins wherever you need communication and wherever communication is going to be purposeful and directional, put it in place.

Additional Resources (00:38:32)

So additional resource Episode 641, the role of coaching and leadership Growing teams through mentorship.

Also, last week's episode, the first of the series, go and check it out if you have not listened to that.

Conclusion (00:38:46)

So underleading doesn't feel like a problem until the consequences show up.

So when you have missed goals, frustrated team members, you know a culture that starts to drift, then you know something is wrong. But the fix isn't overcorrecting, it's being intentional.

Have intentionality, right? It's showing up with clarity, with presence, with a coaching mindset and understanding that you may not be leading them enough, not leading well enough.

Lead more, put more on them, allow them to work things out. They'll start to figure this out.

So next week we're flipping the script. We're going to look at what happens when leaders go too far, communicating too much, solving every problem and over directing the team.

So that episode is called Too Much Leadership and you don't want to miss it. So folks, until next time, lead, boldly lead.

Well, hopefully this has helped you today. Hopefully this has helped you to realize that there are people who need more of you.

Not more of you solving everything, more of you leading them to success. As always, take this information.

Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.