Train yourself to ask questions
Most technical leaders that step into the leadership role, do it with their “Engineering” hat still on. An engineer defaults to problem-solving and that means they default to offering solutions. You may do this because you find satisfaction in solving problems. Unfortunately, this behaviour is often counter-productive in a leadership role and has been one of my early mistakes when I was a “first-time” engineering manager.
When solving other people’s problems, you rob them of the opportunity to learn and grow. You’ve also started to train others to come to you for the “right answer”, which is definitely not what multipliers should be doing and you may even end up being a bottleneck.
Multipliers need to coach, that’s the only way to grow each team member and to scale the organization, so instead of jumping in with advice, focus on asking questions. Ask questions to find out how someone will approach the problem. This way not only you can assess their knowledge but even their Task Relevant Maturity. Ask questions to find out what assumptions lead to that idea and what alternatives did they seek and what trade-offs did they make. That will give you an idea on where do they need to improve and you can work with them on the improvement plan.
Asking questions also forces you to practice listening. Good questions do not follow a pre-planned list, good questions take into account what details or assumptions you hear, which means you have to really listen in order to ask the right questions instead of waiting for a pause to say something which isn’t the same as listening. Ask questions and truly listen instead of providing answers and you’ll find you level up your leadership game.
