Leaders’ words have power. What you say matters. What you don’t say matters. Your team will use your words to create a lens to look at issues through. The absence of words creates a different lens that they will look at issues through. As you move higher up in the organization, the power of your words gets stronger. You may not be able to see it (because it’s just the same old you), but as you promote up the ranks, things change. An off-hand comment made by a CEO takes a different meaning than the same comment made by a team leader. From someone who has heard enough leader BS over the years to choke a goat: Use your words carefully. We are listening.
With your teams, don’t get out of the way, do this instead
"Get out of the way!" I often hear some version of this sentiment when talking about building a culture to incentivize high performance teams. "You have to find the right people, equip them, and then get out of the way." People who talk about getting out of the way...