1 Big Mistake I Made When I Was Getting Started in My First Leadership Position
Like most beginners, I made countless mistakes in my first leadership role as a production manager.
But this was the biggest one, by far:
I thought I had to have all the answers
Here’s what happened:
When I started out, my mental image of a leader was to be the infallible know-it-all: I thought I had to have the answer to every question right away.
This — of course — put a lot of pressure on me.
But much worse: it prevented me from asking and collecting the knowledge and opinions of my team and business partners.
I limited the intelligence of my organization to the degree of my knowledge (which wasn’t much at that time — new industry, new role, …).
Fortunately, one day, my senior production planner came into my office with a question I absolutely had no clue on.
I knew he was experienced (working more than 40 years in the company), so I just asked him what his thoughts were.
To my surprise, he was able to answer his own question better than I could have ever answered.
And what almost shocked me: he was happy with the solution.
No signs of disappointment or damaged trust that I didn’t have the answer on his side.
After reflecting what had just happened, I thought:
“Maybe I don’t need to have the answers, but ask the right questions?”
From there on, I tried asking questions more frequently rather than giving answers.
And guess what happened?
- People started trusting me MORE, than when I was giving all the answers (weird, huh?)
- The quality of our problem-solving improved due to more opinions getting on the table
- The pressure I put on myself vanished
This is why I encourage every Leader to start getting into the habit of asking questions.
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