LibraryPatternsLeadershipI absorb difficult things from above — pressure, crit…
Problem
Toward Craftsmanship

I absorb difficult things from above — pressure, criticism, ambiguity — and deliver a buffered version to my team. The team is protected and underprepared for the reality of the environment they are working in.

Part of the pattern: Leadership
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The path forward
  1. 1Name what you're shielding them from
  2. 2Share appropriate reality with them
  3. 3Prepare them, don't just protect them
One thing to try this week
Share one piece of difficult reality with your team this week — appropriately framed but real. The team needs honest information to make good decisions. Your buffering is a kindness that creates fragility.
Related problems
As a supervisor I'm supposed to hold my team through secondary trauma while carrying my own, and there's no one holding me.I am excellent at managing my relationship with senior leadership. I am much worse at the actual management of my team. I have been rewarded for the wrong skill.I avoid committing to a clear vision or direction because, once stated, it could turn out wrong. So I keep things open and reactive, and my team feels the absence — they are working hard with no sense of where any of it is going.I avoid giving my people stretching assignments because if they fail, it reflects on me and I would have to manage the fallout. So I keep them safe and small, and I am quietly capping the growth of the very people I am meant to develop.I avoid making decisions unilaterally by pulling everyone in and waiting for consensus that never comes.I bear the solitude of command with equanimity, at peace being the one the decision finally rests on.

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