While Henry Kissinger was serving as Secretary of State, a young staffer brought him a brief of international significance. Dr. Kissinger said, “Leave it on my desk and come back in the morning.” When the staffer returned the next morning, Dr. Kissinger slid the report back across the desk and said, “Is this the best you can do?”
After a nervous pause, the young professional responded, “If I had more time, I would research a few issues in more depth.” Dr. Kissinger instructed her to do so. One week later, she returned with a new and improved report. Once again, Dr. Kissinger said, “Leave it on my desk and come back in the morning.” And once again, the next morning, he asked, “Can’t you do any better than this?” After some obvious anxiety, his staffer said, “There is one more aspect I uncovered that I think needs some more work.” And once again, Dr. Kissinger replied, “Go do it and then bring the report back to me.”
After another week, the report returned back to his desk again for review. The following morning he called his staffer into his office and ask, “Are you sure this is the best you can do?” Exasperated, she replied, “I don’t see how I can do any better!” Dr. Kissinger responded, “Fine…now I will read it.”
How often do we, as managers, cheat our people out of doing their best work because we are too quick to give our advice and “fix” their work? A friend of mine once rhetorically asked me, “Where does good judgment come from?” He answered his own question, “Experience!” And without skipping a beat, he continued, “And where does experience come from?” After a brief pause the answer came: “Bad judgment!” When we protect our people too much, we stunt their growth as leaders.
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