tl:dr : Parenting and leadership is similar. Teach a man to fish, etc.
I spent a couple of years managing a team, and I entered that role – like many – without knowing anything about how to do it. I tried to figure out how to be a good manager, and doing so I ended up reading a lot about servant leadership. It never quite sat right with me, though. Servant leadership seems to me a lot like curling parenting: the leader/parent anticipate problems and sweep the way for their direct reports/children.
To be clear, this probably feels very good (initially, anyway) for the direct reports/children. But the servant leader/curling parent quickly becomes an overworked single point of failure, and once they leave there is nobody else who knows how to handle the obstacles the leader moved out of the way for everyone. In the worst cases, they leave behind a group of people who have been completely isolated from the rest of the organisation, and has no idea what their purpose is and how to fit in with the rest of the world.
I would like to invent my own buzzword: transparent leadership. In my book, a good leader
coaches people,
connects people,
teaches people methodical problem solving,
explains values and principles embraced by the organisation to aid them in making aligned decisions on their own,
creates direct links between supply and demand (instead of deliberately making themselves a middle man),
allows their direct reports career growth by gradually taking over leadership responsibilities,
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