A blog post today by Wayne Hastings reminded me of an example from an old friend.
When I lived in OK and worked for Shepherd's Fold, I called regularly on a youth pastor named Mike Lewis. I called on him enough that he became a good friend before he died way too soon.
Mike told me the story about working for a boss/owner who continued to meddle in the day to day affairs of the office. The owner he felt that no one could do the job as well as he could and would continue to insert himself into situations where his presence only made things worse.
Finally, Mike (who was the owner's general manager) called the owner into his office and laid a VHS tape on his desk along with a series of Poloroid snapshots. He then proceeded to teach his boss a simple lesson.
He told the boss that he (the owner) saw the office and the day to day operations like snapshots, moments in time. And if he saw something he didn't like or approve of, he'd jump in to try to fix things.
His point was that because of his context and his perspective, he was in a much better position to effectively lead than was his boss. The lesson took and his boss changed his ways.
Little did I know that I would have to employ the same lesson years later with my own dad who was the founder of Shepherd's Fold. We had the same struggle…and Mike's VHS/Poloroid lesson again came in pretty handy.
As the boss, it's often difficult to keep things at arms distance and allow the staff to do the day to day things they were hired to do and not grab the reins and start making decisions with no context whatsoever. I've seen cases where owners/founders had so hard a time letting go that their managers finally quit to go somewhere they could actually lead and make decisions.
Before inserting yourself and waving the big stick, take some time to understand the context. You're staff will thank you and ultimately they'll be stronger and more capable.
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