As a leader, how much do you direct and how much do you empower?
A powerful lesson today from an esteemed sports coach, Baroness Sue Campbell. Many thanks to my friend Ian Armiger, “the coaches’ coach” (see Ian in conversation with me on WhatComesNextLive here) for sharing this short video called “Should I Direct of Empower”, from Sporting Edge. In the video, Sue Campbell first talks about the importance of a coach creating the environment for the athlete to succeed, then reminds us that the only person who can succeed is the athlete themself, not the coach, so the role of the coach is to be an enabler and to help the athlete think through what they need in order to succeed. She then talks about how, earlier in her career, she thought she was a great coach, firing out instructions, very didactic, a machine gun of telling her players what to do. She tells a story of another coach, Jim Greenwood, who she initially thought was not a good coach as he only seemed to ask questions, so she asked Jim about this and he asked her a great question.
Jim: Where do you sit when the game starts?
Sue: On the bench.
Jim: So who makes all the decisions when the game starts?
Sue: The players
Jim: Hmm, and when do they get a chance to practice that?
As a leader, please ask yourself honestly, do you give your people enough opportunity to practice making decisions, or do you tell them what to do a little too much?
Please also watch the short video for yourself (I suggest watching it several times as I have) to fully take in the simple message.