Our reader poll today asks: When someone on your team is over-eager about a project, how do you react?
I get out of their way and let their enthusiasm drive 65.48%I try to temper their enthusiasm a bit so they don’t upset others 29.76%I pull them back and tell them to slow down 4.76%
Unbridled enthusiasm. Two thirds of you report you let someone on your team take a project and run with it if they’re eager to do so. While taking advantage of this enthusiasm can make the project move more quickly and have big impacts, if the person isn’t fully prepared or supported in their efforts, it may lead to a glorious failure. If you’re planning on letting them drive, be sure you’re checking in at appropriate intervals to make sure their enthusiasm isn’t causing issues with colleagues or introducing unnecessary risks into the project. That’s always the tradeoff you’re managing – speed versus risk versus quality of results. Once you’re confident in their ability to drive the project to completion with minimal issues, it’s appropriate to step out of their way. But until you have that confidence, be wary of just turning over the controls without monitoring their performance.
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
