Leadership Fail

One discussion topic we had this weekend was "How do you nurture trust as a leader?"

My answer - "Let go."  Empower someone. Delegate. Trust that the person will do something.. though not in accordance to your plan.. but ultimately will achieve the same goal.  Easier said than done.

I had my doubts when I first asked Roy to lead the Vision Sprint exercise. My initial thoughts were, he's actually been to a Start Up Weekend and knows what it takes.  But in our discussion...and then during his execution... I felt the the exercise was missing the target (aka MYtarget).  So I couldn't help but step in.

I tried... I seriously did.  Twice, during the one hour exercise, I pulled him aside to confer.  But I still couldn't stay in my seat and keep my mouth shut.

In the end... I think I achieved my goal of what I had envisioned. But I probably failed at achieving my goal of gaining trust... of delegation... of empowering.  Unlike PAL... who trusted me to do whatever I wanted.

Sigh... I guess I can only point at myself as being that hypocrite.