As I drove down the road today, I was conscious of all the signs, traffic signals, lines on the road, etc. that allowed hundreds of vehicles to travel without incident. A traffic engineer took all those things into consideration, coupled with the Rules of the Road, and together they outline the expectations for all the drivers. Sure, there are a few notable incidents, but for the vast majority of the time, it works.
Supervisors need to replicate this system in their organization. They don’t need to pave the streets or hang the signs, but they must provide the overall parameters that allow their staff to travel without their direct intervention: outlining clear expectations, ticketing those that deviate too far, and providing frequent guardrails to keep everyone aligned.
Spend your time building the infrastructure that allows people to make progress without your direct involvement in every mile forward.
