202106241548 Leaders work to remove obstacles

One of the most important thing that a leader can do for their team is to remove obstacles to their success. Anything that gets in the way of the members' abilities to perform at the peak of their potential is a damper on the output and creativity of the team. Since 202104291947 Our purpose as leaders is to serve others, we can do many things to remove obstacles for the team.

Common obstacles we can remove:

• Not knowing what the end goal is or how we'll know if we achieved it. 202106221151 Define done and 202106221152 Define success to avoid this.
• Being unsure, afraid, or hesitant to make decisions and take action. We can take responsibility and hold on to the accountability for decisions and actions of the team (202104291526 Make the hard decisions). This frees members to be their best and perform creative work from a place of safety (202107291132 Trust is a requirement for higher-level cognitive functions).
• Requiring all work to pass through the leader. It's a common pitfall for leaders to either not trust their team's work or try to be an expert at everything the team does. Because of that, the team is slowed, blocked, and ultimately shown that the leader doesn't trust them. We avoid this by acknowledging and embodying the core tenet that 202104291525 It's not a leader's job to be the best at everything.