Are You a Bubble-Wrap Leader?

As part of a leadership growth programme, I set up an interactive learning session with the leader and her team.

I’d set the session up as an opportunity to build awareness of their individual and collective leadership – given they each led extensive teams across India.

I noticed she immediately jumped in to provide an answer or share comments before the team had warmed up and gained the comfort to speak – even though only a few seconds had passed between me posing a question and her response.

I shared this observation with her – in the context of a non-threatening, non-business critical situation wondering how this translated to her behaviour generally as a leader, she nodded with awareness, ‘I can be overly protective of my team.’

I call this the bubble-wrap leader.

Protecting team members with bubble-wrap – with you acting as the bubble-wrap that shields them from perceived failures.

It’s not the first time I’ve observed this behaviour in people leaders and I very much doubt it will be the last.

When I ask the reasons that prompt leaders to jump in and ‘save’ their team or a team member in non-business-critical situations, the typical responses are variations on two themes:

• I don’t want them to fail
• I’m ultimately accountable (and I don’t want to fail)

What do these comments really translate to and what can you do about this?

I don’t want them to fail

If you had to reframe that phrase to be more uplifting, empowering and growth-oriented, what would you say?

I want them to grow.

If you want them to grow, what’s your plan for their growth?

How far have you progressed in mapping out a stepped approach to elevating their exposure to increasingly stretch challenges?

What is your role in enabling the team members’ growth?

Are you committed to agreeing the expectations and putting in the – not inconsiderable – effort to provide ongoing constructive feedback?

As one leader I coach recently admitted, ‘It has been exhausting to develop the team.’

But how satisfying is it when you can give ongoing insight into how they are progressing with clear example of what they did well and where precisely the gaps remain.

And it the case where you need to part ways with a team member – how reassuring is it to know you set achievable objectives, provided the support, but the role was outside the scope of that person at that stage of their development.

And let’s not forget one nagging fear..

The failure factor

To what degree are you and your organization open to the fact that failure is inevitably a part of any growth story?

For perspective; Did you progress from sitting on a bicycle to completing a year cycling across different terrains without ever falling off?

Typically, organizations with a ‘fail fast’ approach tolerate failures that happen once within the team. The expectation is to learn and not repeat.

And if focused on a project, they clearly define the parameters beyond which the experiment or trial will be considered, if not an outright failure, then not meeting expectations.

A word of caution, there can be a temptation to publicly profess a ‘fail fast’ approach but lack the internal mechanisms to support this – the KPIs that seek evidence of a idea that failed, or a forum to share learnings from unsuccessful projects.

And a request: Be wary of expressing your adoption of a fail fast culture if you don’t have the mechanisms to support this, or the pervasive culture within the organization indicates this isn’t the case, or for this specific project, there is no room for failure.

What is your full-brain telling you?

‘I don’t want them to fail’ is a thought.

What are the feelings that accompany that thought?

There is a supply of rich data in the emotions that emerge when thinking that thought.

Perhaps slight distress and anxiety because the team will feel disappointed, demotivated, embarrassed, annoyed…

Maybe that’s you projecting your feelings onto the team?

Clearly, your action is to jump in and prevent the ‘failure’ from occurring or save the team from further failure. Even though we are talking about non-business-critical situations here.

What alternative courses of action are available?

Maybe agree your role more clearly – whilst you’ll have regular check-ins and they can reach out to discuss and brainstorm, you won’t direct them or support them.

When they are presenting to stakeholders, you won’t intervene to clarify meaning or takeover the discussion.

How about the second scenario.

I’m ultimately accountable (and I don’t want to fail)

 Yes, you are ultimately accountable, because the people are in your team – and they are accountable for delivering on their objectives - presenting their progress, handling push-back and building stakeholder engagement and buy-in.

Reframing the statement to a more team-oriented perspective could look something like:

The team is accountable for delivering objectives and they are in the spotlight for this. I take accountability for overall team performance across all projects – where some will meet expectations, and some won’t.

Separating a project failure or a presentation flop from the long-term ownership of overall performance can be a difficult concept to accept – both emotionally and rationally.

It might seem like any ‘fail’ - an embarrassing oversight in a presentation to the CXO or an inability to answer a question that could have been anticipated – is a failure that reflects badly on you.

How can you separate your accountabilities from those of your team members – for yourself, your team and for all your key stakeholders?

You can agree roles and accountabilities up front with your team member for their project.

You can prep your stakeholders in advance - explaining that whilst you take accountability for the team’s performance for the project in the long-term context, you won’t be stepping in to support them in specific situations. And that’s in the interests of their growth.

Will the tricky part be sticking to that agreement when – in spite of your guidance and feedback – you see the team member ‘failing’?

Can you divorce their slip ups along their growth journey from this being a direct reflection on you?

The Bubble Wrap Leader

Just as bubble-wrap is protective, it’s also suffocating.

And the suffocation comes in the form of:

• Lack of exposure, preventing team members from gaining learning through taking complete accountability and possibly publicly failing.
• Lack of confidence-building exposure to challenges.
• A belief that their boss doesn't have confidence in their ability to perform.

And ultimately, being a bubble-wrap leader culminates in a lack of growth for you

If you continue to overly support and protect team members from tough questions and challenging stakeholders – you miss out on investing your time in an activity with higher returns for both your, your team and your wider stakeholders.

Andrea Stone is an Executive Coach and Educator working with leaders in dynamic, tech-driven multi-cultural organizations to enable greater success and growth.

© Andrea Stone, Stone Leadership