When we landed in her organization as external consultants responsible for reviewing a project, Jane had a business card said that she was responsible for all IT purchases in her organization.Vendor evaluation, comparison and negotiations for every piece of hardware, laptop, server, cable or wiring that her organization purchased.
Buying a book that someone in her team needs, was a completely different thing though.
There was a systematic approval process involved which she had to go through.
The fairly convoluted process involved in taking her team on a quick lunch is even worse than buying a book that they need. Every time her purchase request for a book was rejected her organization silently signaled to her that they did not trust her judgments.
This was not a typical Fred mucking around with code. Someone who wants and needs to be monitored and questioned on every step.
This was not a typical robot.
This was a person with a job role that demanded that she took judgment calls and yet we sat in meetings where her own managers rejected some of her best judgment calls for all the stupid reasons.
The outcome? Detachment.
She had been given two promotions in the last two years. Clearly they knew what she was capable of delivering. And yet there was continuous reluctance in yielding just enough freedom that would let her do her job remarkably.
A promotion is the act of telling someone you trust their judgment with bigger stuff.
Getting out of their way is the act of actually trusting their judgments.
Most kickass builders, story tellers or movers will not judge you by what you tell them, they will judge you by what you actually do.
Trusting someone's judgment calls and getting out of their way so that they can take independent decisions, succeed, fail, learn and grow is one of the best gifts you can give someone.
Are you giving this gift to your team by trusting their judgments?
Just a little something to think about.
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