One of the hardest things about becoming an experienced creative leader is that, more often than not, you do have an answer.
You've seen versions of the problem before. You can usually see where something is going. Sometimes you can solve it before the person explaining it has even finished talking.
And that's exactly why I've learned to be careful about answering too quickly.
Because the moment I give my solution, I've changed the conversation. Instead of exploring what could happen, the team starts reacting to what I think should happen.
Sometimes that's necessary. Leadership requires direction. Experience exists for a reason.
But sometimes the better response is simply:
"What do you think?"
Or, "What haven't we considered?"
Or even, "What problem are we actually trying to solve?"
Those questions create space.
They let someone else make the connection, challenge an assumption or take the idea somewhere I wouldn't have taken it myself.
And that's important because I don't want to build a team that gets really good at figuring out what I would do.
I want to build a team of people who trust their own judgment enough to show me something I didn't see.
Maybe that's one of the strange transitions of leadership: early in our careers, we're rewarded for having good answers. Later, part of our job is learning when not to give them.
Sometimes the most valuable thing a leader brings to the room isn't the best answer.
It's the question that helps someone else find a better one.
About Leadership Notes
Leadership Notes is a collection of short reflections on creativity, leadership and how we think when the conditions around us change. Drawn from my experiences leading creative teams, raising a curious human and occasionally questioning my own assumptions, these aren't intended as instructions for how to lead. They're observations about the things I'm still thinking about, learning from and figuring out along the way.