THE GUT CHECK SERIES · Success · No. 5
One leadership question, examined. A new one every Tuesday.
Do you need to do this (or is it a chance for someone junior to grow)?
We were in the back of the high school parking lot, way in the back, far away from anybody else. We spoke briefly, prayed, and then I said, “Let’s change seats.”
My son is learning to drive.
It started slow, and there have been a couple of “curb checks” and a “sorry, sorry, sorry” or two. But if he never starts, he’ll never finish.
Every experienced driver is better than a new one. Being better doesn’t mean we keep the keys.
At work, the keys look like the brief you could write in your sleep. You keep them because you’re faster and the deadline is close. Faster is not the same as necessary.
Notice how the exchange started. Nobody hands a new driver the wheel on the interstate at rush hour in the rain. The back of the parking lot is a choice: a place where a mistake costs a curb check, not a life. Leaders who keep the keys often say there is no safe place to practice, because the mission is too important to fail. Then plan ahead and build one. Pick the task where a miss costs a lesson and a redo, and hand it over early enough that a slow start still fits inside your deadline.
The passenger seat is the harder position, for sure. You’ve got a front-row seat to whatever mistake you can see coming, and no wheel or pedals to avoid the bump. All you have is a calm voice and a cool demeanor after the crunch, when you ask, “So how could we have avoided that?”
At work, the curb check is the draft that comes back rougher than yours would have been, with a fix that would take you ten minutes. Take the wheel back then, and you teach one lesson: the work was never really theirs. Ask the same calm question, hand it back, and stay in your seat.
Gut check: what are you still driving because you drive it better? Pick the parking lot, then change seats.
Row Well and Live.
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Next in the series: Push the Credit Down, arriving next Tuesday. The Gut Check series runs every Tuesday. See every question so far, or start at the beginning with Nobody Meets a Standard They Can’t See.
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