The Hero/Heroine Story

Many managers fix all the problems their staff encounter instead of mentoring them on what to do better.  For example, a bad executive summary is completely edited and re-written before the original author even gets a shot at improving it.  For managers that do this, they are taking a very short-term approach to a long-term problem.  Why?  For one thing, the only person getting better at writing summaries is the manager.  If this sounds like you, stop today and be conscious about where you step in to “help.”  Are you helping or are you making the team members less and less able to help you.  If the person cannot write – why ask them to write it in the first place.  If they can write and wrote a long blithering executive summary the best action is to ask them to do it again and give them some tips on where to start.  Ask yourself this one:  Are your team members more competent, the same, or worse since working with you?  

Ann Banning - Wright