Hey there, it’s Jimmy Burroughes here, back on The Leadership Amplifier. Today, I wanna start with a scenario I think most of us have come across—a story about, let's call her Sarah. Maybe you’ll recognize some bits of yourself, or your team, in this. So, Sarah is an absolute star. You promote her because, honestly, she’s brilliant at her job—solves every problem, meets every deadline, and handles stuff you didn't even know needed handling. Fast forward six months and...her team's stuck. Work grinds to a halt when Sarah's not around—she goes on holiday, suddenly nothing gets done, and her inbox just piles up with questions her team really should be able to answer. And you think, hang on, what happened here? Here’s the thing—Sarah's not a bad manager, she's what I call a “Village Fisherman.” Let me unpack that for a minute: picture a little fishing village where one amazing fisherman goes out every single day and catches all the fish. The whole village eats well—life seems great. But what if that fisherman gets sick, or storms hit, or, I dunno, just up and leaves? The village starves because no one else learned how to fish. And that is the trap—when leaders do all the “fishing,” their teams never learn to cast a line themselves. And it’s not just a fish tale, right? This stuff happens in every organization. Just last year, I worked with a team where... actually, let me use a mountain analogy since you know I can’t resist an outdoor adventure reference—imagine you’re always leading the climb up a mountain. If you’re the only one reading the map and finding the route, what happens if you twist your ankle? No one else knows the way, and you’re all stuck at the base camp wondering what to do next. I mean, I see this over and over: technical brilliance gets rewarded, but teams get stuck waiting, depending on the one person who knows the answer. And, let's be honest, that’s a bottleneck waiting to happen—and burnout, too, on top of it all. Now, let’s talk about a better way—the “Icebreaker Leader.” I love this metaphor because, well, I spent a fair bit of time in the Army, so ships and navigation analogies just feel right. An icebreaker doesn’t drag the ship along; it clears the path so you and your team—your ship—can move forward on your own. So what does this look like, practically? Well, instead of solving every single problem personally and jumping in with “Let me handle that,” the Icebreaker Leader takes a step back. They make psychological safety the first priority—people know they can ask questions, flop now and then, suggest a mad idea, and challenge the status quo without getting their heads bitten off. It's not just being nice—it's about genuinely wanting folks to think, not just follow. And instead of being the ever-reliable fixer, the Icebreaker’s all about clearing the obstacles: clarifying priorities, securing resources, dealing with politics—so the team themselves can get on with the work. I mean, I remember this kayaking trip I did—there was a stretch through some tricky rocks, and my instinct was to shout out every instruction, but instead, I passed the map to one of the less-experienced paddlers and said, “You plot the course.” It was a mess at first, honestly, but by the end, that person was spotting hazards I missed. Total shift in their confidence, total shift in team dynamics, too. So the real difference, and it’s subtle in day-to-day stuff, is in the words and the mindset. Village Fisherman says, “Here’s what you should do.” Icebreaker says, “What do you suggest?” One’s about staying in control; the other’s about giving up just enough control so your team learns by doing—without letting standards slip. That balance is tricky, I know. There’s always that fear—will quality drop if I stop catching all the fish myself? But if we never take our hands off the rudder, no one else learns to steer, do they? So, if you wanna see whether you’re more village fisherman or budding icebreaker, I've got a practical experiment—the “What do you suggest?” challenge. Give it a go for just one week. Here’s the rule: whenever someone on your team comes to you with a question, you’re not allowed to answer it outright. Instead, you turn it back and ask, “What do you suggest?” Now, fair warning—those first couple of days, expect resistance. You’ll get blank stares, maybe a bit of “Come on, Jimmy, just tell me what to do!” But stick with it. Just like learning to navigate those rapids, there’s a bit of chaos before it clicks. By days three and four, you’ll start to notice something—the questions coming at you have a suggestion built in, or at least a tentative plan. Suddenly, people are thinking for themselves. And by the end of the week? Well, three things start to happen: first, people get properly confident—they realize they’re smarter than they gave themselves credit for. Second, you as a leader get some of your time back—honestly, questions drop by a third, sometimes more, because people actually try sorting things out first. And the third big one: you finally get a clear picture of who has real skill gaps and who just needed permission to try. I had a client team—this is only last month—where within a week of the “What do you suggest?” challenge, the number of basic, “Help!” style questions literally halved. And suddenly, we had folks putting forward solutions I’d never have considered. That’s when you see the real hidden strengths—and also the places where some skill building’s still needed, which is a gift for both the leader and the team. So to leave you with something concrete, try that one-week challenge. Use the coaching techniques—if a suggestion’s solid, encourage it; if it's nearly there, ask, “What else?”; if someone’s lost, walk them through your thinking, then let them have another go. That’s how you move from being the bottleneck to being the liberator. Teams don’t just want someone to catch the fish—they want someone to teach them the currents and the tides. And isn’t that the kind of leader we all want to be? Thanks for tuning in—if you want some tools and practical guides for this, check out the Icebreaker Leadership Toolkit, link’s in the bio. See you next time on The Leadership Amplifier.
Audio Coursesby Jellypod