Letting them Fail

I am Grey’s Anatomy Junkie! I mean literally I have watched every episode at least 4x.  One episode in general is one of my favorites, not because it is particularly jarring, or has alot of stuff happen but because it’s the one where the Senior Docs make the Residents perform the surgeries on their own and in doing so a few of them fail!

I am a bit fan of letting our kids fail, and not rescuing them, however as leaders we don’t let our teams fail!  We jump in and save them, and sometimes this is a good thing but when it becomes their go to and they aren’t figuring it our for themselves or using their resources then we are doing everyone a disservice.

In one scene the doctors are doing an appendectomy and the doc forgets how to perform this very simple procedure.  The nurse offers advice on what to do next.  By allowing our team to work together and get information from each other we are making sure that they are best team ever.

This week (and after) take a moment when you get a question and see if the person can get that information on their own.  Is there someone else on the team who can help.  I will warn you this is going to frustrate some of your team members, it’s OK!  Let them feel the pain because then there maybe growth!!