What are the stories we tell ourselves? It’s a simple question, yet one rich with possibility. In my years of creating leadership development programs, one of the “stories” that continually surfaces with leaders is “I need to do X for my direct reports because they are not yet ready/willing/able to do it for themselves.”

At first blush, this story seems an open-and-shut case. And, for some leaders tasked with leading inexperienced employees, perhaps this story is true. One of the ongoing dilemmas of leadership is determining when to turn over a decision or task to an employee. Questions to consider range from, “Is this person ready to accept responsibility?” to “What happens if this person drops the ball?”

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