By making yourself too available, you might be unintentionally enabling your employees or coworkers. If we want our employees and coworkers to be resourceful and solve their own problems, we need to realize what role we are playing in promoting their empowerment (or holding them back). 

 

I wish I could give you a magic formula for this, but there isn’t one. It depends on the individual and it is a balancing act. Sometimes, you may have to show some “tough love,” make yourself purposefully unavailable, or slow down your response time to emails/calls/messages. 

 

A personal story for this one: my last full-time gig in the corporate world was in a financial services firm. To paint you a picture, there was no remote option so we were going into the office 5 days per week. My desk was part of an open office section and there were 4 of us who sat out in the open (no dividers, nothing). My boss sat behind me in complete view of my computer monitors; as if an open office environment isn’t enough, I felt monitored all the time (not ideal). While the open office environment was helpful for some of my training & onboarding, it was also difficult because my seatmates were like helicopter parents. 

 

I never had the space to problem solve on my own. They would listen to my phone calls and during phone calls, they would try to talk to me to clarify or give me pointers. I appreciate that they were well-intentioned, but this was painful for me. When the pandemic hit and I started working from home, it felt like FREEDOM. I had a total sense of empowerment to use my own judgment, to be able to comfortably & independently problem solve and to be resourceful as I saw fit. Not having my helicopter coworkers around enabled me to feel independent. I could reach out to them if/when I had questions, but I could do this on my own terms at my discretion while using my own judgment. I realize this is an extreme example and hopefully it illustrates how too much support can be a hindrance to someone’s learning, growth, & development. 

 

Bottom line: be thoughtful about trying to provide a balanced level of support. Encourage resourcefulness; empower those around you; and try not to be a helicopter coworker! Sometimes the best thing you can do is give some space. Sometimes, employees or coworkers will be the ones to overly act co-dependent. This happens a lot when prior leadership didn’t empower them. It’s up to you to re-shape their behavior and set them up for success (not an easy task!). Enabling someone is not only a disservice to them, but it’s a disservice to you.