When inbox notifications are piling up and projects don’t feel like they’re moving fast enough, it’s tempting for business founders and leaders to jump in and solve every problem themselves.But Dan Scott, IT Nation community director at ConnectWise, suggests a counterintuitive approach: Slow down to fully understand the context. The two-time winner of the GTIA UK & Ireland Community Leadership Spotlight Award says taking a thoughtful pause can empower your teams to move faster.
The Balance of Supporting and Challenging
“Leadership is making people believe they can do more than they think they can do,” said Scott, who advocates for a leadership style that combines high support with high challenge. This balanced approach means creating an environment where team members feel understood and trusted while being pushed to expand their capabilities.
High support, Scott explains, isn’t about always agreeing with team members. Instead, it’s about demonstrating you understand what drives them and showing genuine investment in their success. Meanwhile, high challenge involves pushing team members beyond their comfort zones and expanding their purview with ambitious goals.
Leaders can fall into common traps if not intentionally working to strike this balance. Some abdicate responsibility entirely, essentially “dumping and running.” Others charge in like heroes, pushing employees aside while they fix every problem themselves—a pattern that leads to burnout and disempowered teams.
The Problem with Playing Hero
The hero approach is particularly problematic in growing organizations. “When you charge in with your sword, you depower your people and they just sit back,” Scott said. While a leader’s instincts and knowledge may have built the business, this approach doesn't scale. More importantly, it prevents team members from exercising their own expertise in areas where they might actually outperform their leaders, such as calming stressed clients or closing deals.
The solution, Scott suggests, lies not in immediate action but in asking better questions. The best question? “Why?”
Using open-ended questions helps leaders understand the real problem and tap into the collective expertise of their team. Scott cautions against the “technology temptation.” “There’s always that urge to delve into the platform or the server or the ‘thing’, just because you want to look rather than let your team get to it,” he said. But leaders must learn to back off. Such restraint requires trust in team members’ capabilities and a willingness to let them find their own solutions.
Managing Team Energy and Ideas
Similarly, managing enthusiasm and ideas within the team presents another leadership challenge. But it’s one that can be handled with careful diplomacy. When team members come forward with new projects or initiatives, Scott recommends a thoughtful approach. If what they have in mind can’t or shouldn’t be prioritized, he suggests saying something like, “It’s not that it’s unimportant or urgent, it just isn't the most important urgent thing right now."
Rather than dismissing ideas outright, leaders should create a roadmap to collect and track them, ensuring good suggestions aren’t lost while current priorities get deserved focus. This approach helps maintain team engagement while keeping the organization aligned with its most pressing objectives.
Building a Sustainable Future
The foundation of this leadership style rests on the art of genuine listening and understanding. By taking the time to truly comprehend team members’ perspectives and challenges, leaders can create more sustainable solutions owned by the entire team, not just themselves.
And, when ideas from this context-driven process eventually get implemented, Scott stresses the importance of giving credit where it’s due, acknowledging the team members who contributed to the solution. That recognition builds critical trust and encourages innovation from the team. This approach not only prevents leader burnout but also builds a more capable, confident organization, where everyone feels empowered to contribute their best work.
Connect with Dan Scott and others at the GTIA UK & Ireland Community meeting, March 27 in Dublin.
