Escaping The Bottleneck
If everything comes through you, then you're the problem.
You’ve been there before, in the team meeting or at stand up, the team is hitting you with requests, problems and questions one after another. By the end, you’re exhausted and ready for another cup of coffee. They need help, and you don’t want them to struggle or remain blocked.
But you’re creating a bigger problem. They’re dependent on you. Because of that dependency, the team is slowing down. You’ve become the bottleneck.
Leadership is not about being the most involved person.
It’s about creating a system that works without you at the centre.
Your intentions are honourable. You need to be responsive, maintain the project’s momentum, and reduce risk. But the dependency you’re creating is also a risk to the project; the momentum breaks when you’re away.
Decisions queue up behind you. Each one is waiting for you to get across the problems, context, nuances and then decide. You then move to the next one and the next.
The team stops thinking independently; they don’t figure things out; they lack confidence because they want to run it past you first. Ownership of tasks and outcomes weakens. And you get exhausted. This is one way that leadership debt accumulates.
Leadership emerges within a system - not from a single individual at the top. Stanley McChrystal.
Ask yourself this - if you go away for a week, what stops? What decisions get delayed? What escalates unnecessarily? If the answer is a lot, then you are the bottleneck.
You need to create a system that functions without you.
This happens due to high responsibility and low authority. You have a lot of pressure to deliver the project within scope, budget, and time, and you face challenges influencing the outcome with teams and stakeholders outside your project. Unclear ownership of outcomes, tasks and activities also makes delivery challenging. You also face pressure from stakeholders to deliver and to meet certain requirements and outcomes.
You’ve adapted to the system you did not create.
You will need to shift from Doer to Designer.
The old model is about solving problems, making decisions, following up on actions, following up with people, escalating issues and trying to get control of things. These are all helping the project move forward, but the system depends on individuals to work.
The new model requires a system that removes the friction of work moving through the process, shapes the team’s behaviour to empower them and allow them to take ownership, clarifies roles and responsibilities, and outlines what needs to be done. It enables the team to perform at their best.
This won’t happen all at once, and it will take time because you and your team need to unlearn some behaviours and habits and adopt new ones.
Shift 1 - Stop answering every question
You don’t want to be rude; you want to help the team. But by answering every question, you are not helping them in the long run. You create timidity and reliance on you.
You need to throw the question back at them - “What do you think we should do?”
But doing it without explanation or coaching is just going to create confusion, frustration and resentment.
Shift 2 - Push Decisions Down
You need to decentralise your decision-making authority. The idea is to push it as far down as you can without compromising the team, the project and the outcomes. This isn’t done as a directive from you. Explain the reason, the parameters - what they can and can’t decide on. The concept that leaders use is that of Commander’s intent - this is the goal and outcome that you want to achieve, including the parameters to work in. Within the scope of the intent, the team can take the initiative to make decisions, plan, and execute the work.
Spend time with your team to help them adjust, coach and mentor them. Be available to them when they start making the decisions. Talk them through the thought process, why they decided that, and what they consider. This will help recalibrate your decisions and build confidence in your team members’ decision-making skills.
Provide them with the skill and confidence to make decisions.
Shift 3 - Make Ownership Visible
This is a harder shift because you need to switch your thinking. Collaboration does not mean ownership. If your team needs to collaborate with others, it does not mean that everyone involved owns it. One person on the team owns it. It may be your technical lead, your tester or your business analyst. Then it’s up to them to collaborate with others to get it done.
Work through the RASCI matrix with them and coach them to be collaborative and take ownership. Delegate work to them that is related to that piece of ownership. Most importantly, support them publicly in taking ownership of the task or deliverable.
Creating a System
Create a system where you are not the bottleneck but the conductor, the linchpin. You’re not trying to be indispensable. You’re trying to build a team where every move depends on you.
Start with an idea of where you want the system to go. Communicate your ideas and coach your team. Be realistic: there will be times when you or the team revert to the old ways, but be mindful and nudge it back on track. There may be resistance in the team; be gentle with them. Understand them and help them to realign with the system.
It will be difficult, especially in the middle of the delivery, but it will be worthwhile.