Leadership is not having all the answers

If you don't have the answers to give your team. You're not ready to lead.

That's what I believed for a long time.

Whenever someone came with a problem, I tried to solve it.

When someone had a doubt, I explained what to do.

If something wasn't working, I searched tirelessly for the solution.

And that made me feel useful, and capable of leading.

But this month I understood something that changed the way I understand leadership:

Sometimes, helping is not giving an answer. It's asking the right question.

Because behind a work problem there's often something more.

A person who doesn't know how to approach a situation.

Someone going through a difficult time.

A decision that creates insecurity.

Or simply someone who needs to feel heard before finding a solution.

And that doesn't always show up in a meeting, let alone in a KPI.

So I started paying more attention to things I could have overlooked before:

What does this person really need?

Is there something they're not telling me?

What can I do so they can solve it themselves?

And over time, I understood that being of service to the team doesn't mean solving everything for people.

It means being able to give them the tools so they can grow, decide, and face the challenges ahead.

And that requires some things I try to practice every day and that I want to share with you:

Listen before you intervene.

→ The person who comes to you doesn't always need a solution. Sometimes they need space to think it through. A good question can help someone find their own solution.

Know people beyond their role.

→ Before asking yourself what's happening with their work, ask yourself what might be happening with the person. We all come to work with a story, a context, and a personal moment that also influence how we think, decide, and work.

Build trust before demanding autonomy.

→ People give their best when they feel they can make mistakes, learn, and ask for help without fear.

Because in the end, we're all human, trying to learn and give our best.

We make mistakes.

We have bad days.

We learn at different paces.

And I believe that a leader's job is not to make sure people never fail. It's to build an environment where they can learn from those mistakes and keep growing.

For me, leading is not being above people.

It's being of service to them.

And when you truly understand that, the way you lead changes completely.