Is your workplace a “teaching hospital”?

I don’t mean literally. I mean do you lead your team the way Dr. Webber leads at Grey Sloan Memorial on Grey’s Anatomy? 

Many people rise through the ranks because they’re great at their job. They produce more, sell more, solve faster, and have the best answers. Naturally, that performance gets rewarded.

(And yes — some people rise for other reasons: politics, overconfidence, or sheer luck. That’s a different conversation. See HBR for plenty on incompetent leadership.)

But here’s the trap: once you’re in a leadership role, you may think the way forward is to keep being the best and doing the most. And you push your team to do the same.

Yet, if you’re stuck in middle management — working harder, looking up, wondering why you’re not moving forward — the problem may not be effort. It may be focus.

What if your real job isn’t to keep proving you’re the best, but to make your people the best? To prepare them to take over your role, and in doing so, make it inevitable that you’re pushed upward?

That’s where the Teaching Hospital mindset comes in.

Yes, you probably know what needs to be done, how to do it, and why. But instead of just handing down instructions, your job is to help your team understand your thinking:

• How the pieces fit together

• What’s been tried before and why it worked (or didn’t)

• How to approach a problem, not just solve it once
  

You might say: “I don’t have time for that.”
I’d say: “You don’t have time not to.”

Put out today’s fire, sure. But then circle back and explain why you grabbed the hose. If you are solving a problem or making a decision, bring someone along with you so they can learn from the experience. Work on keeping a teaching mindset and creating a learning organization.

Investing in teaching your team how to think, evaluate, and innovate pays off in spades: a high-functioning team that’s more effective, engaged, and capable — and one that makes it possible for you to take a real vacation once in a while.

It also marks the difference between being seen as a manager versus a leader. And people notice good leaders. They talk about them. They want them to have more influence.

If this is where you’re stuck and you’d like support in shifting from “doer” to “leader,” I’d love to help. You can set up a call here: julieharrisoliver.com/coaching.