To be a good manager, you need to do two seemingly contradictory things:
1. Hand-hold people, guide them, and occasionally, even show them how to do their job.
2. Give people the freedom to do their job, without unnecessarily meddling or imposing your own ideas about how to perform the task.
The above two ideas seem to be contradictory, but they are not.
When a kid is just learning to walk, parents have to hold the child’s hand. But as the kid gains confidence, they have to let go (or the kid will get really irritated 😁).
A manager’s job is similar. Handholding and letting go are both needed at different stages of an employee’s journey.
You can’t throw a person into deep waters without any training — they will drown. But if you don’t give them freedom even after they have learned the craft, you will become a micromanager.
When you figure out which one to do, and when, you will become the boss everyone craves for.
– Rajan