Writing for the Harvard Business Review, communication and presentation skills coach Deborah Grayson Riegel explains how leaders can help their direct reports meet their goals "in a way that doesn't rob them of their autonomy and ownership (micromanaging) or leave them wondering what they're supposed to do next (under-leading)."

Finding the best way to help a direct report

According to Riegel, "there is a difference between being inclined to help someone and knowing what kind of help that person wants or needs." To help employees meet their goals, leaders must determine the most effective way to provide support.

While outlining specific steps to take may make sense when a direct report is starting a new role or project, or if there is only one correct way to accomplish a goal, a leader's role is to help their direct reports assess and plan those next steps for themselves. Typically, employees are more likely to commit to a plan they created, Riegel notes.

According to Riegel, micromanaging a plan might sound like:

Direct report: "I need to be more consistent at logging my sales calls, so that I have better data for customer follow-up. Can you help me?"

Leader: "That sounds like a smart idea. I'm happy to help. Here's what you should do… [insert your own plan here]. You might want to take some notes."

With this approach, leaders do not give direct reports "space for their own resourcefulness, creativity, or ownership," Riegel writes.

Meanwhile, under-leading might sound like this:

Direct report: "I need to be more consistent at logging my sales calls, so that I have better data for customer follow-up. Can you help me?"

Leader: "That sounds like a smart idea. I'm happy to help. My door is always open."

While this approach implements an open-door policy with the goal of avoiding over-leading, it does not help direct reports transition from goal to action.

Instead, leaders should consider following this approach:

Direct report: "I need to be more consistent at logging my sales calls, so that I have better data for follow-up. Can you help me?"

Leader: "That sounds like a smart idea. I'm happy to help. What do you think could help you be more consistent?"

In this scenario, "[n]otice that you're not offering your action plan; instead, you're creating the space for them to consider what they need, and what would go into their action plan," Riegel writes.

In their Harvard Business Review article, "The Power of Options," Carol Kauffman, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the Institute of Coaching, and David Noble, coauthor of Real-Time Leadership, suggest that leaders may want to "lean with" their colleagues. This approach includes empathizing, encouraging, and coaching them to provide space to think and be independent.

"That doesn't mean you can't provide insights, help them access resources, or troubleshoot when they hit a roadblock," Riegel writes. "You may need to 'lean in' if your colleague is stuck and would benefit from help deciding, or from some direction, or even from a challenge."

However, if a leader does this because they are impatient, uncertain, risk-averse, or craving control, Riegel warns that they are likely to undermine their direct report's engagement in service of their own needs.

According to Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Advice Trap, managers should reflect on what is more important: "You being right, having the best idea, or giving the person you are leading the opportunity to come up with their own idea, do their own thinking, and claim ownership of their own insight?"

10 questions to help direct reports formulate a plan

For direct reports to truly own their plan, they need to determine their next steps themselves — with support from leadership.

In their book, Go to Help: 31 Ways to Offer, Ask for, and Accept Help, Riegel and her daughter Sophie share ten questions that help others create their own plan:

1. Get specific: "What are you planning to do next?"

2. Get positive: "What's already working for you in this process?"

3. Get buy-in: "What's the opportunity here?"

4. Get resourceful: "What else do you need to move forward?"

5. Get realistic: "What do you need to stop doing to move forward with this?"

6. Get collaborative: "Who else do you need to talk with/work with/align with?"

7. Get mental: "What's your current mindset?"

8. Get tracking: "How will you measure progress?"

9. Get prioritizing: "What step, if done first, will make other steps easier?"

10. Get on board: "How else can I help?"

Ultimately, these questions may be difficult for your direct reports to answer – they made need some time to think through their responses. "And, if you get the sense that they need more of a directive approach — especially if certainty is more important right now than commitment or creativity — you can help by answering these questions with them or for them," Riegel writes.

For instance, instead of asking someone who is new to a task, "What else do you need to move forward?" — a question they likely cannot answer yet – an effective strategy might be telling them, "Here's what else you'll need to move forward…"

"By helping others reflect on their action plan, and then supporting them as they move forward with that plan, they’ll have a clearer, more committed path to getting their goals accomplished," Riegel writes. (Riegel, Harvard Business Review, 2/21)