Emily stepped into the VP of Finance role ready to implement new financial and billing systems that would change how her company does business.
Yet one year in, she was still telling experienced team members what to do next on routine processes and making decisions that should never reach her, such as approving a $500 invoice credit.
Meanwhile, the new systems she had promised senior leadership had barely moved. She did not have the capacity to be the strategic, forward-looking executive she knew she could be.
I’ve seen this time and time again coaching executives. Companies looking to drive change often turn to outsiders to lead it. Those leaders are then caught off guard when the long-tenured teams they inherit seem to expect to be micromanaged.
The answer is not to step back or take over. Teams rarely want to be micromanaged. More often, they have little incentive to take on greater risk or lack the skills to operate at the level the new leader expects. Your job is to determine what’s driving the dependence, align incentives and resources, and then build autonomy gradually.
1) Diagnose why the work reverts to you
If you find yourself giving step-by-step directions or approving minor details on long-established, repetitive work, get curious about what is driving your team’s reliance on you. It could be conditioning from a prior boss who stayed extremely close to the work; a gap in skill, motivation, or confidence; or your own habit of stepping in.
Map one or two key work streams with the team, asking them to walk you through the critical path, why each approval exists, and what has happened when someone moved forward without one. If there is a step that no one can rationalize, it may no longer be needed.
The process-mapping exercise Emily did with her team revealed that the prior VP had a “his way or the highway” mentality, creating “apprehension in offering up any kind of comments.” Some of the team’s dependence was not about capability at all, but a response to how work had historically been managed.
2) Secure support for working differently
If your team has learned that the risk of taking initiative outweighs the reward, you need to change the system around them before asking them to work differently. Align with your boss on what you believe team members should now own and why it matters, then secure the resources they need. This may also mean updating job expectations, performance goals, or recognition so people are rewarded for taking ownership. Give peers who depend on your team a heads-up on your plans, particularly if lead times will increase.
As Emily explained to her CFO, “Having been here for a year, I’m spending 80% of my time off my core job. The team, operating as it does today, will not get us where we need to go.” She then instituted a weekly meeting with her leader to manage expectations on what could be accomplished as the team transformed, often discussing what would get deprioritized or delayed for now.
While it’s tempting to step in and work more hours to close the gap yourself, this will only keep the team dependent on you.
If you do not have explicit permission and support from leadership, the first complaint may confirm the team’s caution and undo the progress you’ve made. With that support, you’re able to show that the rules really have changed.
3) Sell the change
How you position the change will make or break its success. People want to be heard, so connect the shift directly to the feedback they gave you on the workflow, and explain how working differently would be a win for each of them and the organization. Name your own role in perpetuating the problem, which makes it safer for them to be candid about what isn’t working. People are more likely to support a change when they can see how their own feedback has shaped it and it’s not framed as you vs. them.
As Emily told her team, “I’ve heard that I can be the bottleneck and it’s frustrating. I’d like to align on a process so you don’t have to wait for me.”
Then make the benefit personal. For an ambitious employee, it may be that empowerment is a way to grow their career. For someone who is content at their current level, it may mean fewer delays or more say in how the work gets done. And sometimes there is no natural upside for the individual, so you need to explain what happens if nothing changes, and what the organization stands to gain.
4) Start small and hold the line
Start small and cocreate the day-to-day solutions with your team, rather than handing them answers. Ownership transfers only if the process is built with the team, not delivered to them. Bring a straw man proposal for one discrete, repeatable process, then say something like, “I have an idea of what this could be, but let’s align on it together, so you don’t have to come to me for the next step.”
Inevitably, work will bounce back to you, so resist the urge to catch it “just this once.” Leave the ownership with the team by asking what they’d recommend or offering coaching if needed. That one rescue is the exact dependency you set out to end.
A team that has learned that taking initiative is too risky will keep waiting for permission. Change the math by supporting and rewarding ownership, and it will begin to lead itself.
