We All Run Better If We Run Together

Most leaders assume a team member who will not ask for help, will not own a mistake, or keeps missing the same expectation is a discipline problem. Almost every time, it is something else entirely.

We ask a lot from our teams. Better accountability. Better communication. Asking for help instead of hiding a problem. When someone struggles with those things, it is almost never because they do not care about the company or the project. Most of the time they are carrying baggage from a past job, their childhood, or their culture, and nobody ever taught them how to put it down.

I carry my own version of this. Growing up, underperforming wasn't an option. So as a consultant I decided to superhuman everything, learn to code myself, learn project management myself, mostly self-taught. Great for building yourself. Not great for building a team. There's only so far you get alone.

It took me years to get comfortable asking for help, or saying I messed up instead of hiding it.

If you are managing people for the first time, here is the one piece of advice I would actually stand behind.

Sit down with each person one on one. Every person is carrying something different, so find out what makes them anxious, what makes them comfortable, and what actually drives them.

Every single one of us is a different snowflake. But we all run better if we run together.