Stop Answering, Start Asking

​The clients I’m fortunate enough to work with have a few things in common. One of those being that they rose to their levels of success by being people who have answers; someone who can help solve complex problems, and understand how to take the knowledge they have and put it into action. And for many of them, that strength can become a glaring weakness. Here is what I mean.
 
When we are recognized for a strength, our tendency is to play to that strength; sometimes again and again. It feels good and gives us confidence to do so. So, if you are someone who tends to be good at solving problems, and you’ve earned a reputation for doing just that, you may rely on that ability often. On the surface that may not seem to be a problem. After all, you get paid to come up with novel solutions to the challenges you and your organization face.

“Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn - and those are all good things.”
​– Dick Van Dyke

And sometimes we become addicted to the feeling of being the go-to person. It feels good to help others, to solve problems, to lead the team through some impasse. A key question to ask yourself is whether the intelligence in your organization (or on your project team) flows in only one direction. In other words, does the intelligence flow only one way – from you to others? If you consider yourself a leader, then your job – actually your obligation – is to help those on your team to grow and extract more of their intelligence and genius for the good of the organization.
 
It can be incredibly disheartening for those on your team to come to work day after day and not be able to use all of their intelligence and ability. And when we set ourselves up as the answer man, that is exactly what they can experience.

​“The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.” – Walter Wriston