My team staged an intervention about my leadership style.
“We need to talk about how you dump and run.”
They’d finally said it out loud.
I’d been moving so fast—dropping a great idea on them, asking if they had everything they needed before they could even process what I’d said, then racing off to the next thing.
They were left spinning, unsure what I was actually looking for while I was already three projects ahead.
The truth they shared: I move really fast. And while speed felt like my superpower, it was leaving them behind.
That conversation stung. And it needed to.
My “dump and run” style was destroying their effectiveness.
They’d spend hours trying to interpret what I wanted. They’d build something, only to find out they’d misunderstood. They’d redo work because we weren’t aligned from the start.
My speed wasn’t making us faster. It was making us slower.
So I learned to adapt. I actually paused after sharing ideas, even though it pains me. I gave them time to process before asking what they needed. I checked back in after they’d had time to think. I made sure we were aligned before I raced ahead.
The result? They were far more effective. They wasted less time guessing. They delivered better work because they actually understood the target.
And ironically? We moved faster as a team when I slowed down as a leader.
Does adapting my style go against every instinct I have? Absolutely.
But my team had the courage to tell me that my greatest strength was sabotaging their effectiveness.
You can be the fastest hiker in the group. But if the goal is to get everyone to the summit and you leave the rest of the group down the mountain, you’ll never get the fulfillment of reaching the top together.
Being aware of your style—and adapting it to maximize your team’s effectiveness—that’s the real work of leadership.
What’s your natural style that might be undermining your team’s ability to do their best work?
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