The Rescue Mission

A leader spent every Friday afternoon sitting down with her underperformers, going through their work, getting it on track before the end of the week. Hours. Every Friday.

I told her: you’re training them that less effort is okay. They do the minimum, you fix it, and next week it happens again.

The word I used was codependency. That hit different than “delegation problem.” Codependency is a relationship pattern serving both parties. For her, the rescue gave her purpose. For them, it removed accountability.

Every time you dive in, your team gets two messages: I don’t trust you to handle this. And if it’s really important, I’ll do it myself.

Those messages accumulate. Over months and years, they create learned helplessness.

What are you rescuing that your team should be owning?