I’m a team guy. I grew up playing team sports and I do believe that you are only as strong as your weakest link. When I moved into coaching I worked hard to instill confidence into each member of the team, and tried to help them realize their potential. Through sports I have been socialized to try and get people to work together, to enable those who lack experience or confidence and in the end, to simply get the best out of the group of people I have to work with or am responsible for. But I’ve learned that it is possible to ‘over coach’ someone. And it doesn’t do that kid, or athlete, any favors. They become the kid who looks to the bench after they make a mistake instead of keeping their head in the game. Once a kid is programmed that way it’s hard to undo. I’m learning that the same thing applies to business.
On occasion I have ‘over mentored’ someone. I think. It could be they were never going to be as good as I had thought they would be or I had put them into a position that they never should have held. But it’s still something that I guard against. Otherwise I create a kid who is unable to ride a bike without the training wheels, or without me running behind holding the seat. It’s a fine balance, enabling without becoming a crutch. You can’t bring someone in and leave them to sink or swim as you run the risk of ruining a good person and damaging your company. But at the same time you can’t take them to the point where they don’t move without asking your permission either as it limits what you are able to accomplish on a daily basis (the point of hiring people is to free me up!).
You know what the problem is? I don’t always hire the right person for a job. In small business you don’t always have a huge number of job applicants, or the budget to hire the ‘right person’. So I hire good people, and then I help them to do a job that the likely wouldn’t do as well if left alone. In the long term that’s bad for me, the business and the employee. My grandfather once said to me ‘you’re only stupid if you do it twice’. I’m not sure what he’d say to me about this:). But acknowledgment is the first step to recovery…or something like that.
