Competence can be a blessing and, if not exactly a curse, a hole we, as leaders, can easily fall into.
How lucky we may count ourselves if all our team are highly competent. People who need little guidance to do their thing with excellence. We may feel it frees us to contribute at a higher level. And it does.
Yet here’s the danger…others’ competence can create a sense that all is well. It can become a blind spot. Maybe, as leaders, we pay less attention to team culture and health. We might get drawn into an ‘if it ain’t broke…’ mind-set.
We give less time to team meetings and 1-1s. They become increasingly easy to move until they have perhaps disappeared from the calendar altogether. Development conversations dry up. The stretch and challenge that keeps our highly competent colleagues interested, motivated and growing is lost.
Time for nurturing the heart of team, the conversations where our interest in and care for our fellow humans shines, is squeezed to the point we may become, or at least be experienced, as care-less.
However good the people we lead are, however little they seem to need us because of their capability, we need to make a choice. To be present, alongside, supporting. Enabling their growth and development through the opportunities we create for them to step-up, test and stretch themselves. Making explicit the value we place on them, appreciating their contributions, reinforcing their sense of belonging and ensuring they know their presence matters.