“You’re trying to focus on a project when one of your direct reports messages you, asking where to find a piece of information they need to do their job. You respond by sending them a resource and then try to turn back to your own project. A few minutes later, another one of your team members messages you and asks for your help making a small decision about the task they’re working on. Before you know it, the morning has gone by, and it feels like all you’ve done is answer questions and share resources.

If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In fact, according to an article from Women of HR, a lack of employee independence is an all-too-common issue. “Every day, we hear stories from managers complaining about how over-reliant their employees have become on their managers to solve the tiniest of problems.”

And over-reliant employees don’t just cause frustration. They also lead to a reduction in productivity. Their need to talk over every issue with you slows down decision-making and reduces the amount of time you have to focus on other important tasks.”

In How to encourage your team to be more self-sufficient (Bloomfire, 20 November 2018), Madeline Jacobson offer some steps you can take to encourage greater employee independence.

QUESTION:
How self-sufficient are you at work? How can you become more self-sufficient? How you help managers to encourage their own people to become more self-sufficient and more autonomous in their work and learning? What can you do to help them?

SHARE your thoughts with your team.
How could you start to work on this area of supporting the business to increase productivity?

FIND OUT how more how to inspire modern managers to encourage self-sufficiency in the MWL 2020 resource. [Note: to view this content, you will need to purchase access to MWL 2020]
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