In his podcast Herding Tigers, Todd Henry says:
Many leaders prefer to control their team because it eliminates uncomfortable conversations about the potential for short term failure. It is easier to dictate the terms and get exactly what you want here and now. However, you are also unknowingly robbing future value in order to claim a little present value. Your team will not grow and you won’t attract great people.
I love this idea of being more ok with “short term failure”. In software development, it is incredibly challenging to get a feature perfect the first time. I might try to tell to the team exactly how it should work as a way to reduce the risk of failure. Or, I can let them create something that might not be perfect but is good enough to ship. Then I can clarify the vision, articulate new goals, and allow them to improve the feature. This way they will learn more about the criteria I use to make something great and I can start to depend on my team to make great software.
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