Episode 41
Leadership and Letting Go with David Veech
August 13, 2020
As a leader, your primary responsibility is developing and equipping your people to do their jobs, anticipate problems, and create a better future. Learning how to let go of day-to-day control over workload is a significant, challenging process for many leaders. David Veech shares insights to help leaders empower their teams, stay connected, and pursue sustainable growth.
You can connect with David on LinkedIn.
Leadership and Letting Go: Key takeaways from Episode 41
As a leader, you can’t control everything. In fact, it’s your job to empower your team to do things at the level of quality you could deliver if you did it yourself. This is an area that many leaders struggle to navigate, particularly when they’ve moved from a doing role into leading.
While letting go as a leader can feel like an individual issue, it requires systemic support in order to succeed. If you’re in the position of leading leaders, it becomes your responsibility to ensure the leaders below you aren’t getting mired in the weeds.
The ability to sense problems and come up with creative solutions is what leaders throughout the organization need to be developing in their subordinates. Doing so moves beyond getting the work done to ensure that both the individuals and the company have a bright future.
David’s 3 keys to a thriving workplace: Love, Learn, and Let Go.
Love the people you’re working with and the work you’re doing in such a way that you place the needs of your people above your own
Learn about who your people are and the work they’re doing in order to provide the right kind of support
Let go and let people get their work done their way
There’s a fine line between supporting people, staying connected, and micromanaging. When you give too much guidance on how to do something, you’re crossing it. You have to let people find their own way to solve problems, and also help them learn from their mistakes. When they mess up, give them a chance to try again.
People generally respond positively to being held accountable when targets are clear. Setting challenges for your team to work through and overcome helps to continuously develop their skills. When they hit the target, celebrate the win and move to the next challenge.
Short-interval leadership is where you check in to make sure people have what they need to succeed. It’s not about making sure they’re on task, but instead that they’re supported. If you’re not working in the office, you can do it virtually. The important thing is to stay on a regular cadence with all of the people you’re responsible for leading. Your job becomes continually checking on the system to make sure it’s still working.
When interacting with people one-on-one, focus on asking good questions and letting the person you’re coaching do the majority of the talking. It’s less about providing feedback that they’re already getting from the system, and more about making sure they’re being developed for the future.
Eventually, you get to the point where the number of people you’re leading grows, and you need to communicate on a broader scale. You can’t hit everybody every time, but you can make a plan that focuses on individual contacts and small groups of people. You can observe their team meetings. When you hold a town hall, put the attention on the folks doing the work and give them credit where it’s due. As you lift them, they’ll lift you too. If you’re sending out a video message, make it less about you and more about the people you’re connecting with.
Additional Resources
The C4 Process: 4 Vital Steps to Better Work - Download David’s free ebook
Leadersights: Creating Great Leaders Who Create Great Workplaces - Get a more in depth look at how David teaches leaders to love, learn, and let go.
