How to Balance Support and Growth in Leadership

Find your sweet spot and help your team find theirs. Each person on your team is on their own career journey. As a leader of the team, it’s your responsibility to nurture and support career development AND to keep a pulse of the overall health of the team. Here’s an approach I’ve used in the past that I hope you'll find helpful. The key to high performance is to find the sweet spot where each person on the team is really motivated by their work and also has a high degree of skill to actually do the work well. A great starting point is to have a conversation with each person on your team to get a sense of where they are in their journey. Using this framework can give you a sense of where they are in these four quadrants, and help you prioritize how you spend your time supporting the team. It can also be a useful tool for you to think about where you are personally on this arc. 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐀 (𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠) People usually start here. Eager to learn and seek out opportunities to stretch, but haven’t yet developed a high degree of competence in the work. * Action: connect them to experts to learn from and shadow. Expose them to stretch assignments to learn by doing. 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐁 (𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭) This is someone that’s really motivated by the work and is recognized as an expert. * Action: find out where they want to continue to grow to build upon their expertise. This could be expanding the scope of their role to anchor on areas of strength while exposing them to new opportunities. Find opportunities for them to mentor and coach others. 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐂 (𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐞) Someone that’s been doing the same thing for too long may become less interested in the work over time. It’s a natural progression. This is when people may be at risk of leaving or under performing. If they stay in this headspace for too long, they may become less effective in their role because they’re not motivated to learn new skills as the role evolves.  * Action: these are often people on the team that have been around longer or have more experience in a certain area. Look for opportunities to reboot and spark interest. These are great opportunities to leverage their expertise to apply to other types of adjacent work. For example, an experienced sourcer may be getting burned out from high volume engineering and could be energized by getting exposure to executive or leadership level searches. 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐃 (𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐮𝐭) When someone is here they’re not engaged with the work and don’t have a high degree of competence in the work either. This is a place that isn’t healthy for the team or the individual. * Action: find a role that plays to their strengths either on your team or elsewhere in the company. If there isn’t an opportunity internally, it may be time to help support them in finding something externally so that you can bring on someone that’s more motivated and qualified to do the work.

Invest in your direct reports' growth for their benefit, not your own. A big part of leadership is career development. But not your career development, the career development of the people on your team. This may sound counterintuitive, but the advancement of the people on your team should be one of your highest priorities as a leader. The typical career development pathway in a lot of organizations is not structured this way, though. I challenge you to be better. It's always awesome once you find a star, or train someone to be fantastic at their job. You might think that you have it made because now this person can handle all of that hard stuff you were worried about. And they can handle it until the end of time, right? Wrong. Most people do their best and are motivated to be their best when they feel like they're growing and advancing toward something. Stagnation is the greatest killer of an individual's morale. Every leader should make it a priority to know their direct reports' long term goals and actively work to help fulfill those goals. Maybe a report isn't interested in advancing and loves to do what they do! That's great, but for the ones with a growth mindset, it should be nurtured. Maybe someone wants to learn a new skill, get a certification, or take on a direct report of their own. All of these activities should be encouraged and supported. Even if that means writing a reference letter to facilitate those growth opportunities in another organization. Because, leadership isn't about fealty, getting a kickback, or being repaid for your investment. Leadership is about people, and building the foundational skills in those people to create the next generation of leaders. --- Want my content in your inbox? Visit my website ⬆️

I have been in leadership roles for over a decade now. Over time and through invaluable experiences, I've come to rely on these four fundamental principles: ✨ 1️⃣ Adapt your leadership style:  Seasoned professionals thrive with empowering leadership, offering clarity and direction. Newer team members, on the other hand, require guidance and monitoring to deliver consistently. 2️⃣ Set people up for success:  Give individuals a genuine chance to excel by challenging them and also providing the necessary support and guidance to navigate uncharted waters. Dive in with them, showing them the way when needed. 3️⃣ Provide timely and actionable feedback:  Feedback is a powerful growth tool. Though uncomfortable at times, meaningful feedback helps individuals improve and excel. Embrace the role of both giving and receiving feedback and witness your team flourish. 4️⃣ Celebrate success and learn from failures:  Cultivate a culture that recognizes achievements and supports learning from mistakes. By building a holistic view of someone's potential, you can build a high-performing team. Leadership is an art, not a science. What do you have to add to this list? #getreempowered

Leading top performers? Here's how to keep them performing. I’ve coached 293+ leaders. There’s patterns I keep seeing: → Top performers get leaned on too hard → Everyone gets the same treatment → Support turns into control No one’s trying to mess it up. But even good leadership has blind spots. Here’s how to fix the 3 most common ones: 1. Over-relying on your stars Yes, they deliver. But they’re human too. Don’t overuse them as a safety net. Instead: pair them with developing teammates for short sprints. (MIT found output rises 15% when you sit next to a top performer.) A 15 % lift = 8 extra dev days per sprint. 2. Hovering in the name of “support” Check-ins aren’t evil. But too many feels like doubt. Instead: anchor your team in why and when. “One clear goal. One mid-sprint check-in.” 3. Leading everyone the same It’s efficient, but not effective. Instead: try adaptive leadership. Pick one model and test it out: ↳ Adair ↳ Fiedler ↳ Tuckman ↳ Blake & Mouton ↳ Hersey-Blanchard Great leaders grow with their people. What’s your go-to leadership style? ✨ We don’t waste time over here ✨