CAUGHT IN THE SOLE PROVIDER TRAP? LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES TO BREAK FREE

Abstract The author is a coach and adviser who previously served 14 years as a manager and leader at Microsoft. She discusses her early years at the company, where she first discovered what she terms the “Sole Provider Trap,” exhibited by her and others. It involves trying to do too much and be responsible for too much, and thus putting unneeded pressure on yourself. She continued to learn from this trap after leaving Microsoft 20 years ago to start her own executive coaching practice. After 1,000 interviews and 12,000 pages of data, she has “concluded that there are no purely good or purely bad bosses, just bad behaviors forged under pressure.” She provides case studies, including the use of “time portfolios.” She notes that we “have portfolios of other valuable assets, and no asset is more valuable than our time.” For escaping the trap, she recommends we first diagnose, by asking a series of tough questions; then discerning whether a task needs to be done by you or others by discerning their abilities on a particular task; the next step is delegate, but “the single biggest mistake managers make when delegating is treating it like an on/off switch.” Finally, “stay dialed in no matter which notch of the Delegation Dial you use.”