You Don't Need To Have All The Answers
22 May 2025
You don’t need to have all the answers.
You just need to create a space where people feel free enough to think.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that, as a manager, you’re expected to have the answer to everything.
That you need to step in when things get tough.
That the best way to move things forward is to just tell people what to do.
But here’s the truth:
Your role isn’t to do the work — it’s to help your team learn how to do it themselves.
When you’re always swooping in with answers, you’re robbing them of the chance to grow, to stretch, and to develop their own problem-solving abilities.
A while back I worked with a manager who couldn’t understand why her team seemed a bit lifeless.
They waited for Ellen (not her real name) to tell them what to do, rarely contributed ideas, and were mostly dependent on her for direction.
She’d spend her whole day spoon-feeding them, and when that didn’t work, frustration would boil over, and she’d shout. But the change she wanted did not come.
It was during one of our coaching sessions that the penny dropped with Ellen.
She realised that, by believing she had to have all the answers, she was disempowering her team.
They were conditioned to wait for her to tell them what to do because that’s exactly what she was "teaching" them.
She wasn’t creating space for them to think, contribute, or problem-solve on their own.
This change in thinking was crucial:
She had to move from telling to listening.
From controlling to coaching.
From doing the work to supporting the work.
It took some time for Ellen to renew her thinking and let the new thinking become habit - but she persisted - and the change came. Not only for her team, but for her - she felt like a huge weight had rolled off her shoulders.
Leadership isn’t about having all the answers - it’s about creating an environment where your team feels safe enough to think, to make decisions, and even to fail, knowing you have their backs.
When you stop feeling the pressure to know it all, you allow your people to step up, take ownership, and develop their skills in ways you can’t do for them.
If you’re always stepping in to fix things, you’re not helping your team grow - you’re holding them back.
Written by Mark Deavall
If you would like to talk to me, please call me on +2782 465 5481 or email me on markd@markdeavall.com
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