Don't be a First Responder (Tech & Leadership vol X)
Unless you're actually a real life first responder, of course
Some years ago I had a boss who would always be first to answer an email or a work chat/group post. By always first, I should make it clear - his average response time was in the seconds, and over months and months I’ve never known it to exceed 10 minutes.
Every day there would be many threads going on, as usually there are in a busy workplace. Someone on the partnerships team would start a thread asking for help qualifying a new partner for a complex product. One of the engineers on one of the teams would suggest an idea for the next roadmap iteration. An executive from another division would start a thread about an experience a friend of hers had with the product. and so on and so forth.
Every single question. every single request. First responder boss would chime in, and not with a referral to someone on the team to handle. 90% of the time he would chime in with a definitive resolution of what we will do.
To his credit, first responder boss was incredibly knowledgeable and hands-on. He was right on the issue many times. He had hired the team of us do scale work portfolios that he had previously handled himself. So he had a lot of background and context, in some cases more than we did. Also to his credit, he was a really great guy, with zero malice. He just knew the right answer and wanted to give it, really really quickly!
But that behavior was not so great for those of us who reported into him. We felt like we had to either beat him to the answer (no matter what time of day or night it was), or risk being seen as bumbling gophers. I don’t know if it will surprise you readers, but of a team of 5 or 6 of us, 3 left within a space of a few months.
A few years later someone at Intuit gave me a really great book called Multipliers, which you should all read. The research in the book shows how some leaders act as positive multipliers, making everyone on the team better just because they are there. Others are diminishers, in most cases unintended diminishers, who do the opposite unfortunately. Magic Johnson was a quintessential multiplier. Everyone around him was better because he played with them.
The most fun part of the book is when author Liz Wiseman catalogues the kinds of diminishers most commonly found in her research. As I was reading the book, I ran into the following passage, discussing one such type of diminisher:
The Rapid Responder
What about a leader who is quick to take action? This is the leader who prizes agility and fast turnaround. He takes responsibility and is “on it”— he is quick to reason, troubleshoot problems, and make fast microdecisions. Most of us work with some sort of rapid responder. He sees a problem; he solves it. He sees a bear, he shoots it. Email don’t last long in his in-box. He opens, reads, and resolves them immediately. His intent is noble, of course. He wants an agile organization that pounces on problems and responds rapidly stakeholders.
I was reading this and be like: Liz, I didn’t know you knew my former boss! It’s like you were there. Reading the book was the first time it occurred to me that this is a behavior that should be called out as bad. I mean at the company where I used to work for this boss, he was explicitly praised for it, and it was put forward as an example by one of the very senior leaders in the whole organization. The rapid response was highlighted explicitly as something that all PMs should emulate. So I always thought I was the broken one for not liking it.
Turns out maybe I wasn’t! Let’s hear more from Liz:
But instead of agility, the Rapid Responder tends to generate low-grade apathy. Even the best employees are slow to respond when they know that someone else is already “on it”. Consider what happens when an urgent email hits an employee’s in-box. She opens the email and recognizes its importance. She sees that her boss is copied on it but the issue falls in her area of responsibility, so she jumps on it. she rereads it carefully and thoughtfully contemplates the options. She realizes that she needs more information and consults a colleague. When the employee returns to draft her reply, she notices she has a new mail and gets that sinking feeling that her boss may have already responded in the interim. And of course he has. Not wanting to get out of synch, she just lets it go. When this happens frequently enough, employees learn to just let the boss deal with the issue-even when the issue at hand was actually their to handle. Not only is the Rapid Responder the first one and the only one to respond, this boss is the only one growing.
That sinking feeling (emphasis mine)! I underlined that on kindle. I knew exactly what that felt like. It happened to me! twice a week on average at least. for months.
There is a cult of speed that prevails in Tech. Move fast and break things! Speed matters in business! etc. etc. I’ve written about and against it in the past. Companies that opt to have a significant bias for action, and speedy action at that, should realize that there is a price to pay for it. Speedy action by a rapid responder means discouragement of everyone else on a team. Over the long run, it’s just better to wait and let people figure it out. Especially if you want them to grow. Maybe we should all consider letting questions and issues sit for a bit. just a bit, mind you, before we go solution-ing.
Oh and by the way, if anyone working for me is reading this - if I ever, and I mean ever, do this ,please whack me over the head with a 5-iron. I mean it!
Don't be a First Responder (Tech & Leadership vol X)
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