The 4 Characteristics of an Unintentionally Disempowering Leader
What makes a leader disempowering?
In my opinion, it all comes down to whether or not you’re thinking from the perspective of an Expert or the perspective of a Leader, and how that impacts your ability to delegate tasks.
If you find yourself thinking any of these thoughts, you may be disempowering your team:
I feel like I have to micromanage even though I don’t want to.
My team doesn’t have the knowledge I do to make decisions.
It would be faster if I just did it myself.
Let’s break down some key differences between an Expert and a Leader and see how a simple change in perspective can change dynamics:
1. An expert finds it hard to trust people with limited knowledge; a leader trusts that the individual will find their way
Experts tend to think about the quality of results, whereas leaders recognize the importance of learning as a part of team members’ growth. It’s not that results aren’t important, but that taking an approach that highlights learning is important for the future strength of the team.
2. An expert has an inner perfectionist and worries about the impact of failure; a leader knows that results will get better with practice and failure is part of learning
This stems from point 1, but the key, in this case, is that the expert identifies as a perfectionist. This can lead to micromanagement, offering to take on tasks that could be done by junior members, and a feeling of stress to control output.
3. An expert avoids delegation (and winds up burning themselves out); a leader knows that delegating creates space for engaging with leadership tasks
As a result of distrusting team members and striving for perfection, the expert is on their way to burnout by trying to take on so much work. A stressed-out leader isn’t good for anyone!
4. An expert can be overwhelming with instruction; a leader meets the person where they’re at
Experts often find it hard to understand how to teach others and may wind up trying to overshare information to a person who is just learning the ropes. This means that the expert is spending too much time trying to mentor their team on information that will likely need to be repeated later on. A leader, on the other hand, may simply share info that the individual needs in that moment and also encourage them to try things on their own before asking questions.
What makes these disempowering?
Well, they’re a bit ego-centric, mostly out of fear. There’s fear in the work quality not being done to their opinion, there’s fear in how results will reflect on them, and there’s fear in delegating tasks and not having a sense of control. Team members wind up missing out on learning opportunities which stunts their growth and creates an imbalance of execution onto the expert.
How you can channel your expertise as a leader
What an expert can do is channel their energy into refining their team member’s skills in detail, and also helping their team members avoid mistakes. It’s important to note that you need to have answers in order to be an expert, but you don’t necessarily need to have all of the answers to be a leader.