It wasn’t a strategy. It was exhaustion. And it worked.
I didn’t come up with this on purpose.
I was running an residential HVAC company, worn down, and honestly fed up with fighting my team on everything. My “do what I say” style wasn’t producing results. It was producing resistance. And it was because of me. One day I just gave up trying to have the answer.
So when someone came to me with a problem, I said – mostly out of sarcasm – “I don’t know. What do you think?“
And then something happened that I didn’t expect. They answered. A real answer. A good one. And they owned it and moved forward with it. And it was amazing to witness.
That moment took me straight back to a mentor of mine from 2001, named Jim, who had tried to teach me this years earlier. I wasn’t ready then. I was only 22 and I needed to get tired enough first.
Why “I Don’t Know” Is Actually a Leadership Move
When you always have the answer, you train your team to stop thinking. They bring you problems because you solve problems. And then you wonder why nothing moves without you.
The question “What do you think?” does three things at once. It signals respect and allows them to see that their thinking matters. It creates ownership and when the idea is theirs, the execution follows. Finally, it develops people. You can’t grow a team by being the smartest person in every room.
The Shift Is Uncomfortable at First
If you’ve been running a command-and-control operation, this will feel wrong. Your team won’t trust it immediately. They’ll look at you sideways and wonder what changed.
Push through that. The discomfort is the transition, not the failure.
The Question to Start With Today
Next time someone brings you a problem, before you offer a solution, try this: “What have you already considered?”
Then be quiet and actually listen.
The best leaders I’ve watched aren’t the ones with all the answers. They’re the ones who know how to draw answers out of the people around them. That’s the whole game.
This idea…that the best leadership move is often getting out of the way…is something I write about at length in my book.
Grab the free Lead Like Jim Checklist at the link below. Four leadership habits you can start this week.
Or pick up the full book at lucasmcalpin.com/leadership-fable/
Want more like this? Start with Chapter One of my book.
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