Authority Doesn’t Mean Expertise

Recently, a fire alarm went off. It was very loud and very disorientating.

Someone who knew a little about how smoke detectors worked, went over to one of the smoke detectors and started waving a towel over it to clear the smoke.

The person with the most authority in the place grabbed a towel and started waving it in the air near nothing. They just saw what someone else was doing and thought they had a clue what was going on.

This is not a knock on that person, just a demonstration that with all their authority, they didn’t know how to solve the problem.

Instead of acknowledging this and using that authority to help the situation they got in the way and caused more issues.

How could have they helped the situation you ask? By doing that, by just saying…

How Can I help?

These are powerful words.

Some of the most powerful words you can say as a leader. It says that you want to be part of the team to create success, not the person who feels the need to be in control.

I have written about Flight Director Gene Kranz who gave up control of a crucial project on the Apollo 13 rescue mission to a young NASA Engineer called John Aaron.

Kranz was in charge but Aaron had a better idea. Kranz didn’t want to feel like he was in charge, he knew he was, and his charge was to bring those men back home safely.

To do that, he had to ask How Can I Help?

Yes, You Are In Charge And It Is Very Impressive

Authority means you get the final say, it doesn’t mean you have the best ideas.

Authority doesn’t instantly bestow upon you skills and knowledge that far exceed those in your team. It just means you get to decide on what course of action you take.

Your Team is Good, and that is okay too

If you are better at everything than everyone in your team then you haven’t hired very well or you haven’t trained them at all.

You don’t need to know how to do everything, but you need to guide the direction of where your team is going.

One of the first things you can start with is saying “How can I help?”