When I first became a “boss”, it used to irritate me that people who reported to me did things slower than I would have done them. And, worse than that, they did things differently.
It was one of the first lessons of leadership that I had to
learn. That different people do things differently. And the way they learn to
do stuff quickly is to practice, practice, practice.
So jumping in and “showing them how”, except maybe just the
first time, is generally counter-productive.
I was discussing this syndrome with a client yesterday, who
has a direct report who has never escaped from this trap, always taking over on
the basis that if you want a job done well, you do it yourself.
The deeper problem is: if we don’t learn how to trust and
delegate, to let go, we don’t grow ourselves.
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