A friend, who used to be a partner at McKinsey, occasionally conducts a training exercise for team effectiveness in which one person has to perform a complicated physical task blindfolded.
Everybody else on the team is given some role (e.g., advising the “doer”).
And now, the funny thing — one person on the team is designated as the doer’s direct boss but is not given any responsibility. Ideally, they should just sit and watch.
But you know what this “boss” does?
In simulation after simulation, almost every single time, this “boss” starts unnecessarily bossing the doer. And invariably, they make the doer’s job harder.
This may just be a simulation, but it brings out a critical point. If you are the boss and have nothing to contribute, your job is to stay out of the way.
It is not easy — it takes grace, wisdom, and humility to keep one’s ego in check. But that’s what it takes.
As a manager or a leader, our real job is to serve the team, not our ego. The day we internalize that, we become real leaders.
– Rajan