Daniel Debow’s Helpful Hierarchy | by Sean Conner | Unexpected Leadership | Medium
I’m a firm believer that everyone enters an organization with the best intentions. They generally want to do good work. They want to grow. And they want to be helpful. But many employees, especially those early in their career, don’t know what being helpful looks like. Let’s imagine it’s 4:30. You’ve had a long day, several meetings, and you’re hoping to wrap up one last outstanding to-do before heading home. Suddenly, a report comes up to you (or more likely, emails or chats you) to discuss a major issue with a customer account: “The sky is falling, just thought you should know!” You’ve probably had members of your team do something similar and can relate to how immensely unhelpful this is. Suddenly, you have a problem on your plate. But let’s pause for a second — from your report’s perspective, they were being helpful. They were keeping you in the know. Until told otherwise, your team will most likely assume that you have the answers, and they will default decision making to you. Thu