A Simple Lesson from a Tiny Leader: Shifting Our Focus from Fixing to Facilitating.

This "Tiny Leader" is our middle son, our dreamer, creator, and a deep and curious thinker. He can, at times, struggle with the morning "get out of the house" routine. Recently, he transitioned to a new school, which meant an earlier start, more structure, and a more complex schedule. Despite him being a very capable young person, I was initially worried. I could see it requiring logistics and routine that might not inspire him.

While I was worried, he was not. He was excited! The learning and co-curricular activities at this school had piqued his interest, and he couldn't wait to start. This, however, increased my concern. I envisioned his passion and energy quickly replaced with frustration if he began to get in trouble for missing key tasks, not getting to school on time, or facing other challenges often encountered by "dreamers" like him.

However, the first day of school was a success. He came home happy and equipped with a diary. Inside the diary was a printed timetable of his school week. He explained how it worked, stating that each week the whole class plans for the week ahead, noting down important details about tasks due, activities, what to bring, etc. He then told me, "Mum, I share this diary with the whole family, and if I need help with anything, I can let you know."

Four weeks in, my feeling of worry has been replaced with a sense of humility and a refocus on this critical lesson in leadership. My son is ready to leave the house on time most days, usually has everything he needs packed in his bag, and always completes his homework. He regularly "checks his diary" to ensure he has everything he needs and hasn't missed anything critical. While I would love to claim some credit for this progress, I've instead been schooled on a critical lesson in leadership: how to empower progress.

The very leadership pillar I teach in our team performance program has been re-taught to me as a parent. We must constantly survey the conditions around our teams to decipher which conditions are enabling progress and which are preventing it. We need to actively co-construct with our teams the conditions that empower them to make progress without us.

While I know this theory, I had fallen into the same trap I coach most leaders to avoid. We pay too much attention to the problems or complaints we have and not enough attention to what would make progress easier, or even possible. We get distracted by the attributes or actions we don't want and try to "fix" them, when instead we should be looking more systemically at the conditions around them that make progress possible.

The school harnessed my son's intrinsic passion for learning, supported him with a tangible tool like the diary and timetable, believed that an 8-year-old could be capable of the task, and taught him the planning practices to maintain it. These were all examples of the conditions the school created that empowered my son to thrive in his new environment.

How Do We Create The Conditions For Teams To Thrive?

This experience refocused on the simple lessons of leadership that empower our teams to make progress:

• Create Energy: Spend time discussing the impact of your team's work, not just the daily tasks. When we can connect our work to "WHY" it matters and the impact it helps create, it energises the team for the work.

• Provide Clarity: Break bigger goals or targets into smaller milestones, so the team is clear on what is needed and how they can contribute towards the progress required.

• Build Empowering Practices: Review the conditions around the team. Are they suitable for empowering progress or are they inhibiting it? Do the team's daily or weekly practices enable them to make progress? In some teams, it's as simple as a daily standup or weekly planning meeting. In others, it's delegating authority for decisions when the manager isn't available, or using collaborative working tools to keep the team connected on each other's progress.

• Diagnose Before You Decide: If your team is struggling to make progress, before you act, step back and diagnose the real causes. More often than not, I find leaders have misdiagnosed the root cause of the team's challenges and placed too much of their time and energy on trying to fix the symptoms, rather than the cause. Wherever your attention is, simply ask, "What is going on around this that could be contributing to the challenge?" Our brains love to distract us with simple stories that make us feel better about the issue, but often don't help us solve it. These simple stories are often constructed about the people or systems that make progress hard, often these stories are not accurate diagnoses, but rather distractions from the real leadership work required.

Remember, by actively creating conditions that empower progress, you can unlock the full potential of your team and enhance their performance. To learn more about creating these conditions, check out our Leadership Hub for resources that support the ideas mentioned in this article.

Enjoying the Tiny Leader Series? Read more here…