GIVING MY TEAM PERMISSION TO FAIL

[Jason Malabute]

One thing I need to be conscious about is not being my team members control on how they do their work. I am really making a conscious effort to avoid giving my team instructions. The reason for this is when you give instructions you stop people's potential to grow because they don't exercise the muscle needed for people to think for themselves .

One of the most difficult things to do as a leader is is to stop yourself from giving solutions whenever your team has a question or problem. If you supply people with solutions every time they have a problem they will come to you the next time they have a problem. It is sometimes better to let people fail upfront so that they can learn and document procedures in the future so the issue is not repeated again.

For example, earlier today my team was writing our email blasts to send to apartment owners in our market. My team came up with a email subject line I was not a fan of. It took every bone in my body to stop myself from suggesting a subject line that I came up with. I told them we will go with the subject lkine they came up with and we will make adjustments based on the responses we get.

As a result of the freedom I give my team they come up with ideas and suggestions in our business that even I dont  think of sometimes!