“Highly capable, action-orientated, intelligent leaders are fascinating.
They can recognise when something isn’t working. They know they’re too involved in the day-to-day running of their business. They know their team needs to take more responsibility, and they know they can’t continue being the person who sorts everything out.
Yet, the moment something goes wrong, they’re straight back in there, doing the doing!
Why?
Because stepping-in often feels like the most commercially sensible thing to do. And sometimes it is… You can see the answer, anticipate the consequences and fix the problem quickly. So you jump in, get it sorted, everyone stops worrying and gets back to work. Problem solved.
Except there’s a catch = The relief is instant BUT it costs you.
Because while you’ve solved today’s problem, you may have missed another opportunity for somebody else to develop the judgement, confidence and capability to solve tomorrow’s problem.
There are several reasons why intelligent, capable leaders keep doing this, even when they know it’s making their own lives harder. Here are the ones I typically see:
Five reasons leaders keep rescuing
1. CONTROL – “If I do it, I know it will be right.”
You know what good looks like. You’ve probably spent years developing the standards, reputation and relationships your business is built on. You’re probably a perfectionist and need 100% or ‘what’s the point?!’
So, when someone approaches a problem differently, or isn’t progressing as quickly as you’d like, or the results aren’t quite 100%, it’s too tempting to take over, you can’t resist because you know you can do it better every.single.time!
2. PROTECTION – “I can’t let the client, the team or the business suffer.”
You care about your people. You don’t want to overload somebody who’s already stretched, disappoint an important client or allow a problem to become something more serious.
So … you absorb the pressure yourself, you get stuck in and do the doing. It’s a no-brainer.
3. SPEED – “Explaining this will take longer than doing it.”
You’ve got a hundred things to do, and something needs sorting, there are 3 options:
- Do it now – it will only take you ten minutes.
- Explaining it might take half an hour.
- Letting somebody work through it themselves could take even longer.
So, you do it yourself and that makes perfect sense because you’re already under pressure, so can’t faff about.
…Until you realise you’ve been solving the same types of problems for the same people for the past three years!
4. IDENTITY – “I’m known as the person who sorts things out, it makes me valuable.”
This one’s a little more personal.
If you’ve built your career or business on being the person who gets things done, makes decisions and delivers exceptional results, being highly capable can become an important part of how you see yourself.
People come to you because you have the answers and know what to do, they depend on you because you make things happen and get things done.
It’s who you are! Who would you be without it?
As your business grows your value needs to be different and that can be an uncomfortable transition, but one that’s key to growth.
5. AVOIDANCE – “Taking it back is easier than having a difficult conversation about performance.”
Sometimes rescuing has very little to do with being helpful. Perhaps you’ve explained something several times. You’ve delegated responsibility, but it hasn’t happened. You’re frustrated, and you know you need to address it.
But having that conversation takes more effort and time (which you don’t have) . It might create conflict (which you hate). Someone might become upset or defensive (which is annoying). And quite frankly, you’ve got enough on your plate and could do without it!
So you take the work back.
The conflict
Founders are usually action orientated, people who jump in and work fast. And there’s no denying that ‘just getting stuff done’, creates immediate relief and short-term gain. But most founders also want more capability around them, people who can take ownership and get the job done without constantly referring upwards.
That’s where there’s a conflict because there’s a strong need for the Founder to not do the very things that grew the business in the first place.
They want to stop doing it all and getting pulled into everything, but that’s a hard pil to swallow for a dopamine-seeking, action-orientated, high achieving founder who’s build a reputation and successful business on doing-the-doing.
Building someone else’s capability takes much longer and means tolerating uncertainty and allowing for mistakes while they learn. That feels risky.
They logically know it’s needed and they can see the benefits in the longer term but it feels too hard right now. And when pressure rises, they return to the behaviour that’s always made them feel competent and kept the business moving – DOING!
Which of the 5 reasons do you recognise in yourself?
You might recognise yourself in one of these, or perhaps a few of them! So next time you feel yourself jumping in to sort something out, ask yourself:
- Are you stepping in because the outcome genuinely needs to be 100%, or because you’re uncomfortable with somebody doing it differently from you? (Control)
- Am I helping somebody manage the pressure, or removing their responsibility altogether? (Protection)
- How can I create more time now to develop my team, so it saves me time later? (Speed)
- If I’m no longer the person everyone comes to for answers, what does being brilliant at my job look like now? Where does my value lie? (Identity)
- Am I solving the problem, or avoiding the conversation that might actually resolve it? (Avoidance)
Of course, sometimes stepping in is absolutely the right thing to do.
There are genuine commercial risks, important client relationships and situations where your judgement and intervention are absolutely necessary. Sometimes somebody needs clearer expectations, more support or a difficult conversation about their performance.
The shift is learning to distinguish those situations before automatically taking the work back. So before automatically jumping in, ask yourself:
Q: When I step in, am I protecting the business, or relieving my own discomfort?
Recognising something in your own business?
Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to see what’s really happening.
If something you’ve read has made you question what’s happening in your own business, your team or the pressures you’re carrying, I’d be happy to have a conversation.