The Metiss Group's Blog

Most successful leaders we talk to can recall the specific point in their career when one of their bosses took a chance on them.  The leader will typically credit this boss/mentor for having launched their career and greatly appreciated the chance to demonstrate their abilities.

It’s flabbergasting how many of these same leaders today are reluctant to take similar risks with their direct reports.  In all likelihood the boss who took a chance on you had some trepidations but realized you and the organization will be more successful by giving you a chance to grow.  Sure some of these risks don’t payoff, but the learning experience will still pay dividends.

You don’t have to blindly empower your direct reports and hope they deliver.  Establish borders and boundaries for the empowering task.  Be clear about what success looks like and specify the available resources, restrictions, and timeframes.

Remember you might not be where you are today had a leader not taken a risk on you; empower your direct reports, set borders and boundaries, and you’ll both be successful (and someday your direct report will credit you for launching their career).

This entry was posted on March 8, 2012 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Leadership, Performance Acceleration. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.