'My team are too needy.'

Why so many leaders end up overcompensating, why it doesn't work and how to break the cycle.

Birds in nest calling for mother - Louise Brown Coaching

Do your team ever ask you to step in and fix an issue that would have been ENTIRELY preventable if it had been flagged earlier?

Do you feel stressed thinking about what tomorrow's crisis will be?

Or resentful you have to spend time fixing things when they shouldn’t even be issues?

I hear this all the time from leaders.

They say things like:

Why am I only hearing about this now?
Why didn’t they come to me before?
How can they let it get to this point?

If you want to feel CONFIDENT that your team will come to you when they need to, RELAXED knowing that your team will talk to you about it at the right time, and FREE to focus on your growth rather than fixing things that shouldn’t have gone wrong in the first place…

You might need to change the way you’re working.

'I've tried everything!'

Monkey with head in hands - Louise Brown Coaching

Maybe you've tried some stuff already.

Maybe you’ve told your team to speak to you when things aren’t going to plan, that they can call you whenever they need to.

Maybe you’ve tried to help them identify problems in advance by sharing your experience.

Maybe you’ve asked them for status updates, risk reports or to add more detail into your board pack so you know what's coming even if they don't.

You may have done all of this in an attempt to help get visibility on preventable problems BEFORE you spend precious time undoing what should never have been done.

And maybe that STILL hasn’t worked.

If this is what you’re experiencing, you’re probably exhausted and frustrated.

When we run out of options we adapt, but not all adaptations are in service of our best work.

Chameleon blending into the background - Louise Brown Coaching

You might have adapted to accommodate it.

You've probably created workarounds.

You might find it hard to believe it will ever be different now.

Many talented and capable leaders find themselves in this pattern. We quickly adapt and take on things ourselves that are not our responsiblity. Anything to relieve the pain. Because dealing with this situation is frustrating and energy-sapping, and we're hard-wired to do what we can to conserve energy. But this doesn't help us in the long-run.

Stop wasting energy by continuing to do what isn’t working.

Albert Einstein said, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result’.

Most exceptionally busy, time-poor leaders find it hard to take the time to work out how to manage this problem once and for all. We often look for easy, out-of-the-box interventions that only deal with the surface level issues. More training. Clearer roles and responsibilites. Adjusted targets and incentives. There is a place for this type of support, but it won’t create lasting change because it doesn't tackle the root cause of your problem.

The 'ostrich technique' is expensive

Sometimes when we know something isn't working we bury our heads in the sand plough on anyway.

'I have a high tolerance for stress'.

'I'm the CEO, this is what I'm paid for!'. 'I've tried to solve this, there are bigger priorities that need my attention'.

But reinforcing the current pattern sets a dangerous precedent and has a higher cost than you might think.

Here's why:

1. The more you accept ‘avoidable’ mistakes as a team, the lower the standard of work will be over time.

2. As the quality of work dips, so does team bandwidth and motivation, leaving you even more stretched, frustrated and depleted of energy – something that's critical to great leadership.

3. By carrying on, you’re modelling unhelpful behaviours to your wider teams, and wider performance will start to suffer. Not long after this you’ll find you start to struggle to attract good talent.

4. Whether it’s penalties due to delays, a lower-perception of the quality of your service, or damage to client and stakeholder relationships – avoidable mistakes cost money – and the more late-fixes you do, the more it will erode value in your business.

It doesn't have to be like this.

Rest-assured: just because you’ve already tried to fix this and it hasn’t worked, it doesn’t mean it’s not fixable.

You CAN feel confident your team will come to you when they need to, sleep better at night and get back that time to plan for your future growth.

If you have very little time, don’t waste it. Make sure that any time you take out of the business will really make a difference and pay back dividends. How I hear you say?

It starts with switching your focus away from what's not getting done, to where you can really make a difference: the conditions your team needs to do their best work.

This is the most important change you can make as a leader, and you don't have to do it on your own. As an ex KPMG Director and qualified executive coach I know what it’s like to lead a large, multi-geographical team in a high-performance culture. Through my first hand experience of leading and hundreds of hours working with leaders in corporates and family businesses, I’ve identified key blockers that prevent leaders from getting the best from their teams.

My carefully designed programme bypasses distractions, working at root level to create powerful and lasting change. With a combination of 1:1 and team coaching workshops, I help you get to where you want to be, starting with a simple clarity call to understand more about what you need.

Get in touch