New | Good managers know when to let their staff fail to ensure they succeed in long run

One of our global financial services managing directors was in Hong Kong recently to meet clients, discuss business plans and connect with our senior managers to get a pulse on their aspirations and experiences.

At a dim sum lunch, he retold a story from his own entry-level days back in the 1980s, which reminded me of my entry-level days in the 1990s, and still holds true today because it is a timeless management lesson.

He said that as an analyst he once spent three weeks, including weekends, working on a proposal. Every few days he would hand deliver a revised draft to his fiery boss who would cross out portions and scribble notes in the margins such as: "Does that really spell it out clearly?" or "What about X, Y and Z?"

After three weeks, once his proposal was finally accepted, he realised his boss could easily have churned out the same document in under an hour, rather than endure endless revisions. It was a painful, but memorable lesson. He had learned how to write a proposal. The next one took him half the time and now he too can do it in under an hour.

All too often it will seem easier and quicker to do things yourself. But it is important to let your staff try things for themselves, and sometimes fail. It is through failure that we all learn.

The real challenge is figuring out when to step in because you cannot let employees fail too much. A poor manager delegates, but then doesn't oversee the process, not noticing when staff are falling behind and need support. A successful manager will give his staff room to grow and with that, room to fail.