Stop Explaining. Try this instead.
Many leaders start the week doing something that feels helpful…
but actually keeps their team dependent on them.
They explain.
If I had to pick one leadership move that could change your entire week, it wouldn’t be a decision. It would be a question.
Not the polite kind we ask out of habit:
“How’s it going?”
“Does that make sense?”
“Do you need anything?”
Those questions keep things friendly. They rarely change how someone thinks.
The questions that move the dance forward do something different. They help someone see what success looks like before the work is done. They help someone notice where things might go off track.
In other words, they help someone think.
This is where leaders often get stuck. They either explain exactly how to do the work, or they step back and hope the person figures it out.
Neither builds real ownership.
The real leadership move sits in the middle: helping someone understand how you think about the work so they can eventually do that thinking themselves.
It’s less about having a list of good questions and more about learning how to ask the kinds of questions that spark ownership instead of dependency.
After all, adults are basically just big middle schoolers.
And middle school teachers learn something quickly: if you tell students exactly what to do, they wait for you. If you teach them how to think about the work, they start doing it themselves.
So as you head into the week, notice the moment when you’re about to explain something.
That might be your cue to pause…
and try a question instead.
Your Coach,
Stacey
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