I often hear back office staff or juniors talking about the need to support the senior people or others in the team.  They speak like being “supportive” is a good thing by justifying that they are freeing up time for the senior members of the team to go make the decisions and go make the money.  This is very dependent and avoidant behaviour, as it largely says that you go out take risks, earn money, pay my wage, whilst I sit here in my comfort zone doing tasks justifying it is freeing you up.  They view their role just to do tasks and that if they do tasks they are doing their job.  Being “supportive” is being motivated to keep busy (but not too busy), keep safe, and keep your job.

Taking a view that my role is to “strengthen” the team is very different.  When I focus on strengthen rather than supporting I play my role, but I take a leadership mindset focusing on how I can best do my role to strengthen the team.  When I strengthen I set others down the line up for success and make their job more likely to succeed.

Ask yourself do I “support” or do I “strengthen”?