Just this morning I saw another meme stating, ‘Good managers shield their employees.’ This time it was on LinkedIn and the post went on to highlight all of the things ‘toxic’ supervisors allow their staff to deal with. This post, and many others like it, would have you believe that office politics, difficult conversations, and uncomfortable run ins with senior leaders should all be intercepted by your boss and avoided by employees. The thing is, flat out avoiding all of those cringe-worthy situations does nothing to make you better. If you were new to the work world, uncomfortable in almost any sort of conflict, a post like that would be comforting. It’s not me, its them. If I had a good manager they would protect me from the difficult things at the office. If you’re that manager, trying to be the most effective, with the best culture, and the strongest results, shielding your employees is not the answer. Let’s figure out what to do instead. (Click here to watch this on YouTube)
Shielding people has unintended effects
Think of a child who needs to tie her shoes. It is frustrating for her when she doesn’t know how and despite wanting to be independent, (Mommy, I DO IT! comes to mind) one of two things will happen. She’ll eventually either run out in untied shoes, or ask an adult for help. In either case, she hasn’t learned to tie her shoes. Let’s pretend she never does; what happens? She always brings you her shoes. Sports are out of the question because you need to lace up cleats, sneakers, or skates. She needs help tying her wrap dress. So she skips shopping with her friends because she can’t try all the clothes they can. Now she’s missing out on opportunities to make and build friendships. Her confidence, skills, social network are all stunted because she lacks a pretty basic skill.
Imagine now that you did teach her. You showed her, talked her through the bunny hole, and then sat on our hands (figuratively or literally) while she learned. That look of pride the moment she gets it, makes the whole ordeal worth it. Now she has a skill that she can use over and over again in a multitude of ways. Her opportunities, talents, friends, and confidence all improve with this one skill.
But does this really apply at work?
Yes, it is no different than saving time by tying shoes. While your instinct may be to protect your team from challenging situations or high-stakes interactions, overprotection is a disservice in the long run. Growth, for the employee and the organization, comes from exposure to complexity, adversity, and responsibility. When leaders shield employees, they unintentionally create a dependency on the manager. This limits the team’s ability to develop critical skills and confidence. In the world of work the opportunities you’re losing aren’t hockey tryouts, dance team, and days at the mall (do those still exist?). Let’s take a look at what you’re risking by shielding employees and how to promote those challenging situations in a supportive way.
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3 Ways to Stop Shielding and Start Building
- Strategic thinking – Strategic thinking comes from understanding the ultimate objective, the basic parameters, and having the latitude to work within that to achieve the goal. That means you need to get clear with yourself and your employees. Rather than outlining every step they need to take in their work, get clear on what success looks like. What is the objective? Knowing where you’re going, without every step detailed, allows you to get more innovative in how you hit the goal. So if you’re lacking creative and innovative thinking, you’re likely missing strategic thinking. If this feels like you, it’s entirely possible you aren’t clear on the goal yourself. This FREE guide will help you think and lead strategically so you can teach your team this skill as well. When you nail this you and your team will be turning heads with how fast you can hit a metric.
- Resilience – When you move away from step-by-step tasks, and move toward innovation and creativity, there will be mistakes. People will remove a step in the name of efficiency that causes the process to break. They will select a vendor that hits the objective, but makes it clear that your parameters weren’t complete. They will even share something in an email that should have never been leaked as they strive for transparency. And you know what, you’ll all be better for it. They will learn from their mistakes and so will you. As you give them progressively bigger projects, bigger stages, and more responsibilities they’ll adapt and grow and make the whole organization stronger in the process. Just like sitting on your hands as she fumbles with the laces, letting them fail is tough to do in the moment. Failure is the only way for them, and you to build resilience though. You have to get knocked down to learn how to get back up.
- Networking – One of the top reasons people give for ‘shielding’ teams is to protect them from people. OK, they don’t really say it that way but that is what it is. Well intentioned leaders shield teams from office politics, negative feedback, and senior leadership hot seats. Those are the very situations that build connections and relationships. You and your work bestie likely bonded over a shared view, excitement or frustration, of a project or initiative. Now, you relate to them and would have their back in anything that comes up. That is office politics in a nutshell. The supervisor on another team doesn’t like our vendor choice, what a great opportunity to understand their feedback and refine those parameters we were talking about before. You want the fastest way to promotion, influence, and a powerful reputation? Nail that senior leader hot seat we’re working hard to fend off.
Shielding isn’t doing what you think it is
The idea of shielding is to protect. However, what feels like protection in that moment is stunting growth in the long term. We might save that little girl from a skinned knee when trips over those untied laces by tying them for her. We’re also protecting her from a strong social circle, the ability to try new things, and considering what she’s capable of without being held back by her limitations.
Managers protect people by controlling the details, the inputs, and the outputs because they are uncertain their team can handle it on their own. Leaders empower their teams with strategic thought to make and test decisions. Leaders support their team as they learn to be resilient when they fail. Exceptional leaders create situations where their teams show what they’re capable of even if the seat is a little warmer than is comfortable. You can be exceptional, leading future leaders with confidence, even as you face questions and obstacles. It all starts with dropping your uncertainty and getting to know what makes you an unstoppable leader. Click here and take this step today.