Engineering Leadership Weekly

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Manager Weekly Tip #1 — Don’t solve the problem first

This week, when someone on your team brings you a problem, don’t jump straight to a solution. Instead, ask one question:

“What do you suggest?”

As a technically experienced manager, you can probably find a solution quickly. But if you regularly answer first, your team can learn to escalate problems instead of making decisions. You become the bottleneck, and people delegate responsibility back to you.

Your job is to help more people make good decisions without needing your answer first.

This week’s experiment: for the next three problems someone brings you, ask “What do you suggest, and why?” before sharing your opinion. Then add your perspective.

At the end of the week, check: was at least one decision made without you supplying the solution? If so, you’ve taken a small step towards helping your team make decisions independently.