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Why are You Saving People from Themselves?

April 19, 2021

Excel­lence in lead­er­ship and par­ent­ing are both very hard.

Our deep desire to sup­port and help peo­ple, and to do what we can to pre­vent them expe­ri­enc­ing mas­sive pain or injury is hard­wired into who we are.

At the same time, the School of Hard Knocks can be one of the best sources of accel­er­at­ed education.

Whether a tod­dler, a teenag­er or a junior man­ag­er, some­times we can actu­al­ly speed up people’s learn­ing and growth by step­ping back and let­ting them fall. That’s bet­ter than being a heli­copter leader who swoops in too ear­ly, and too often, sav­ing peo­ple from them­selves. And some­times you can’t pre­vent it, anyway.

Now, some of us are pret­ty good at falling and get­ting mud on our faces. I’m one of those. In fact, have a guide­line that I need to make a cou­ple of big mis­takes every month; oth­er­wise, I’m hold­ing back too much.

That said, I still notice I some­times want to hold peo­ple back from learn­ing some of their own lessons. As a coach and a leader, there are things that I know and see that that are valu­able dis­cus­sions to have with peo­ple when they’re head­ing down a wrong road.

And some­times, peo­ple are deter­mined to try some­thing that may seem illog­i­cal to us. So, we need to accept their need to test the idea, and to learn their lessons, firsthand.

And some­times things we don’t believe can work can actu­al­ly work out amaz­ing­ly well.

Fail­ure is not when you make a mis­take. That’s falling. Fail­ure is when some­thing doesn’t go right, and you give up forever.”

Sav­ing Peo­ple from Them­selves is Bad for Growth

Not learn­ing to fail, I think, can be bad for the soul and bad for growth. When peo­ple are afraid to take a risk – to fall or fail (tem­porar­i­ly) and to make mistakes:

  • They are less like­ly to have account­abil­i­ty for their own actions
  • They won’t have con­fi­dence that they can bounce back
  • They always look for some­one to save them or bail them out.

From all the CEOs and exec­u­tives that I’ve worked with, over the years, I learned that they learn a lit­tle from suc­ceed­ing and a lot from failing.

They learned more from work­ing their way out of real­ly chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions, and then reflect­ing on why some­thing didn’t work. This helps them to do bet­ter next time.

The Chal­lenge

  • Are you a heli­copter leader sav­ing peo­ple from them­selves or are you a leader who is more like­ly to let peo­ple fall?
  • What can you do to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment where peo­ple learn account­abil­i­ty for their own deci­sions – where they con­tin­u­al­ly build more con­fi­dence, com­pe­tence and grow as an indi­vid­ual or leader?

About Kevin:

CEOs typ­i­cal­ly place their first call to Coach Kevin with a cri­sis to solve. They stay because of his busi­ness acu­men and no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-is style.

Kevin’s career spans 20 years, over a dozen coun­tries and four con­ti­nents. He’s worked with hun­dreds of CEOs and exec­u­tives, help­ing them to break through busi­ness chal­lenges, grow their com­pa­nies and find per­son­al suc­cess along the way.

These expe­ri­ences inspired Kevin’s book, Your Oxy­gen Mask First, in which he reveals the 17 habits every leader must know to tran­scend the per­ils of suc­cess, and achieve even more.

About Lawrence & Co:

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.


Lawrence & Co’s work focuses on sustainable and enhanced growth for you and your business. Our diverse and experienced group of advisors can help your leaders and executive teams stay competitive through the use of various learning tools including workshops, webinars, executive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achieving leaders to have it all – a great business and a rewarding life. Contact us for simple and impactful advice. No BS. No fluff.