Someone brings you work that is stuck. You have a choice to make in the next ten seconds, and most leaders make the same choice every time. Some always give the answer. Some always ask a question. Both feel like helping. Both are wrong about half the time.
The most common error is reaching for the wrong frame. Coaching someone who doesn't know how is a guessing game dressed up as development. Mentoring someone who already knows how is condescension.
Why leaders take the work back
Say a team lead asks an analyst for a recommendation by Wednesday. On Wednesday there's a half-finished draft and an apology. The lead sighs, rewrites it that evening and sends it on. Next week, the same thing happens.
It looks like the analyst isn't stepping up. The lead never checked why. Maybe the analyst knows exactly how to do it but is going back and forth between two good options. Maybe they've never written a recommendation and don't know what one looks like. Maybe the data they needed was locked. Each of those needs a different response, and only one of them is the analyst's to fix.
Check the conditions first
Before you decide what someone needs, check five conditions, in order:
- Capacity. Are they carrying work nobody backfilled?
- Capability. Do they have the skill, system, information, or access?
- Authority. Can they decide where the work actually happens?
- Standard. Has anyone defined what good looks like?
- Will. They can, they're allowed, they know how, and it still isn't happening.
Capacity, authority and the standard aren't development problems. If the person lacks time, move work or take it to your own leader. If they lack a decision right, give it or escalate. If nobody wrote down what good looks like, write the standard first. You can't coach toward a line nobody drew.
Coach when the thinking is the gap
If the person has what they need and is stuck, hesitant or circling, coach. The program's coaching frame is SEE / ALIGN / ACT / REFLECT:
- SEE. Get their account before offering yours: "What's working? What's stuck?" Then stay quiet long enough that they fill it.
- ALIGN. Agree what better looks like, in their terms: "What would good look like here, for you, and for the people affected?" Then: "Where do you want my help?"
- ACT. Let them choose the next step: "What will you try, and by when?" One step, dated, theirs.
- REFLECT. Review the attempt, not just the outcome: "What happened, and what did you learn? What will you keep or change?"
The hardest part is not answering. Once you name the problem, the person stops thinking and starts editing.
Mentor when a capability is missing
If a specific capability is missing, mentor. The program's mentoring frame is OBSERVE / DIAGNOSE / DEVELOP / SUSTAIN:
- OBSERVE. Watch a real attempt: how they got there, not only what came out.
- DIAGNOSE. Name the specific thing that's missing, with them. Is it skill, context, pattern recognition, judgment, or access to people and information? "They need more experience" is a description, not a diagnosis.
- DEVELOP. Transfer that one thing. Skill needs practice with feedback. Context needs the history nobody wrote down. Judgment needs your reasoning on a live case, out loud, including what you rejected. Access needs an introduction.
- SUSTAIN. Check it holds somewhere new. Give them a different situation and ask them to explain the principle, not repeat your answer.
Back to the analyst
Suppose the lead checks. The analyst had the time and access, and the standard was clear. They'd never written a recommendation for this audience and didn't know how much detail to include. That's capability, so the lead mentors: shows one good recommendation, explains what they'd cut and why, and has the analyst draft the next one while the lead is still there to look at it. Two weeks later, the analyst writes one alone for a different decision.
If the analyst had known how and was stuck choosing between two good options, the lead would have coached instead: "What's pulling you toward each one?" And if the data had been locked, the right move was neither. It was opening the access.
Try it this week
The next time someone brings you something stuck, don't answer for ten seconds. Check the five conditions, decide whether the gap is thinking, capability or neither, and say which out loud: "I think you need an example here, so let me show you one." Then ask the person afterward what helped.
If your free Leadership Climb result starts with Build Others, the Coaching and Mentoring course goes deeper on both frames, with worked examples and practice in six on-demand lessons.