Stop feeding staff, coach them

Are you feeding the wolves more steaks?

It started as a leisurely stroll – your bag of meat swinging over your shoulder, as you walked back through the forest to your Sunday barbecue. Why you decided to go to the butcher on the other side of Wolf Woods is beyond you – but you did.

Out of nowhere, a pack of hungry wolves turns the corner, instantly taking a full whiff of that fresh meat. The lure of this prize sucks the pack towards you. Just like Bart Simpson, you squeeze out an ‘eek!’ and you bolt from the hungry pack. They gain on you fast, their white teeth glistening in the moonlight. Their warm breath urges you to keep up the pace. Their cold grey eyes narrow their focus as they move within inches of your heels.

There is only one choice, isn’t there? Give them one of the steaks! Let them chew on that for a while, that will slow them down, won’t it? Won’t it??

Of course not. They now have a taste for it. The eye fillet you left for them is devoured in seconds and like a burst of air propels them to chase you even harder. You figure if you maybe let them have another steak that will slow them. You throw a T-bone their way. Then a rib eye. You keep giving them more and more steaks until you find yourself waking up at your desk at 3am, still in the office when all of the wolves have long gone home. Huh? What just happened?

Let’s bring this one back to your world. If you haven’t worked it out, the wolves are your staff and you are the one with the steaks. What do the steaks represent? The answers. The information. The instructions. They represent the inability of your staff to think for themselves and the steaks represent your lack of discipline in not giving them the answer.

Taking a side step, why does this happen?

First of all, it’s plain easier. Give them the answer, fix the problem yourself, tell them exactly what to do: it gets a result. The other thing it does is it validates your view of the world that the company would cave in if you weren’t there.

 

If people are asking such stupid questions, imagine what they would do to my company if I weren’t here? It feels good to be needed, doesn’t it?

 

The trouble is that it doesn’t feel so good when your business stagnates; when your staff are ineffective and inefficient, and you are working until 3am while they leave at 5.30pm. No one cares as much as I do! you tell the photocopier.

So how do I break out of this cycle? I hear you say (and if you didn’t say that, you probably stopped reading a while ago so I can assume you did say that at this point…).

Stop feeding the wolves steaks. They like it and will come back for more. Instead, coach them on how to be better. They will enjoy it much more as they will begin to learn. If all else fails, ask a question rather than making a statement. Starting off with a simple ‘What have you tried so far?’ is a good start.

But it of course depends on what they are going through. It may be just that you need to help them learn how to find information, rather than giving them the information.

Whatever the case, if you don’t change your approach, you will always be feeding the wolves. If you do that, there will be no Squire’s Loft, no Rare Steakhouse, no Vlado’s or any other steak dinners for you. Just the stale Cheezels from the vending machine that stain your fingers and get all over the pile of paperwork you are doing on behalf of your team.

Which would you prefer?

Tommy Sim, Director,

www.inject.com.au