Candle or Fire

 

“Do not give them a candle to light the way,

teach them how to make fire instead.

That is the meaning of enlightenment.”

― Kamand Kojouri

 

It's a fine line- balancing between helping your partners achieve a goal, and teaching them the skills (and building the experience) necessary to achieve their goals over and over and over again.

 

⛔ "Just tell us what to do, and we will do it."

⛔ "Provide us the steps or the checklist."

⛔ "How do you want us to do this?"

 

This language is common, and it suggests to me that the team (regardless of level) has been conditioned to not take risks. To me it means they have learned through experience that their safest course of action is to have someone else solve the problem and instead just do as told.  

 

In other words, they are doing exactly what they have been trained (and incented) to do.

 

Sure- some problems need to be solved right now! There can be an immediate benefit to getting the problem solved fast... so telling the team what to do and how to do it is the fastest path to the problem going away.

 

Until the next time there is a problem.

 

In the words of Captain David Marquet "If you're always the answer man, you can never go home and eat dinner!"

 

🤔 Are you frustrated with your team because they don't take the initiative?

🤔 Are you tired of always being asked what needs to happen next?

🤔 Are you getting the types of results you expect out of your team?

 

Perhaps you may benefit from taking a hard look at how you are leading your team.

 

🔎 Do you tell them what to do, instead of challenging them to solve problems?

🔎 Do you put a focus on execution rather than rewarding creative problem solving?

🔎 Do you celebrate the problem being solved, but not HOW the team solved the problem?

 

🕯️ It's faster, for sure, to simply tell your team what to do (give them a candle.)

🔥 In the long run, you'll get more effective, efficient results and a more engaged team if you help them build the skills, experience and confidence to solve their own problems (teach them how to build a fire).

 

We all win together.