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🧑‍💼 Quick Leadership Takeaway

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected." -Steve Jobs

One of the toughest aspects of leadership is that each situation demands a different approach. Few rules are true 100% of the time.

For example, let's take one of the most hated management traits: micromanagement.

It would be easy to say that you should never micromanage an employee. (After all, micromanagement sucks! I hate it when people tell me what to do or get too involved in my business.)

But...

The truth is that sometimes it's necessary to dive into the weeds.

Many new leaders want to avoid micromanagement at all costs, so they swing too far to the other side and don't offer support and guidance to team members who really need it.

When is it appropriate to give more direction to your team?

• When you're working with a new or inexperienced employee who needs more (temporary) hands-on support
• When one of your team members is struggling to perform and you need to understand why
• When your team is working on a highly sensitive or urgent project and you can tell they need help

In all of these situations, you may need to get more involved than you're generally comfortable with.

But in all of these situations, your goal should be to provide the assistance that person needs, teach them what they need to know for next time, then pass them the reins as soon as you can.

No one likes a micromanager, but no one likes to struggle aimlessly either. Find the appropriate level of involvement for the situation.

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One of my favorite scenes from my favorite show of all time ;)

⛽ Articles to Fuel Lifelong Learning

​3 Secrets Every New Manager Needs to Know​ Every new manager struggles with the same things, so if you know those going in, you’ll have a leg up.

​15 Things I Learned in My First Year of Writing​ Here's a throwback post from 2019. It contains 15 helpful tips for anyone who's trying to build a writing habit.

📚 Books That Are Worth Your Time

​The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli​ Dobelli breaks down 99 ways our brains trick us every day. Some are commonly known (like confirmation bias and the sunk cost fallacy), whereas others are deep cuts (like the contrast effect and information bias). It's an interesting, quick dip into psychology for anyone who wants a high-level overview instead of a dense read like Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.

​The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin​ I've heard people rave about Baldwin for years, so I knew I had to check out his work. I picked up this book last month in New Orleans and got a lot out of it. Baldwin expertly channels his passion & indignation into beautiful prose & incisive social commentary about race in America.

🔥 Inspiring Quotes

🤓 A Personal Tidbit

Last month I launched my Substack!

(If you're unfamiliar with Substack, it's a place where you can read great writing from many authors, similar to Medium. They also have a "Notes" tool that's kinda like old-school Twitter.)

Substack's user interface is clean and user-friendly, which makes it a great platform for reading.

As always, I'll continue to post all of my stories on BobbyPowers.com, but you can also now find me at the Substack publication "Leader & Learner" (the same name as this monthly newsletter).

I hope you'll come check it out!

👇 Helpful Resources

Visit me at BobbyPowers.com for more articles and book reviews about leadership, self-improvement, and productivity.

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