I wrote about the internalised belief that many of us have about asking for help: that’s it’s conditional, and usually, we try it alone first, then exhaust all other options (and often exhaust ourselves) and then finally we consider asking for help. It’s actually quite crazy.
Here I’m diving into how this different way of asking for help can help you create tonnes more impact (pun intended).
There are different levels of asking for help.
Entry level asking: Ask for help when you need it.
You’ve got a challenge and you don’t know what to do. You try lots of things to figure it out and eventually you grind to a stop.
So you seek advice from a friend, colleague, or mentor.
Or you realise that you need to learn a skill so you enrol in a course or hire an expert to teach you.
Finally, you overcome the challenge.
10x level asking: Ask for help even if you think you don’t need it.
This is where you change the game. This is where you level up. This is where you start to create big impact.
How does it work?
- You don’t need help
- You ask for help anyway
- Amazing things happen: connection, collaboration, even better outcomes, fun and laughter, empowering others, delegating. So many good things.
So how do you ask for help, even though you don’t need it?
- Hey, I’d like you to work on this with me.
- When do you have some time to look at this because I’d love to hear your thoughts?
- Folks, we’ve got this challenge/opportunity. How are we going to handle it?
- You’ve got an evil genius mind, how would you solve this?
- Would you be a sounding board for me? I think best out loud and you’re great at asking thought-provoking questions.
You can already feel the team getting empowered, can’t you?
I call on you to start using this 10x level of asking because it will help you create these impacts:
- Empower your team.
A huge challenge for leaders is that we think we need to have all the answers. We don’t. That’s what the team is for. Making it a habit to just ask for help, as your go-to action, will help you overcome this “I need to figure it out then tell my team” and get you straight into involving your team. - Build trust.
Nothing builds trust faster than asking for help. When you ask for help you are- showing recognition of the other person’s value
- opening up and being very human
- bringing yourself closer to the other person
- Lead by example
If you ask for help, people will ask you for help. There’s nothing more frustrating for a manager than a team member who struggles in silence until they can’t take it anymore (trust me, I know. I did it to my manager Peter and it sucked big time for both of us. If I had said something sooner, he’d have had more options and time to help me). - Culture of collaboration.
There is so much talk about how we need to create a culture of collaboration. you’ll find it in the Values set for most companies, yet so many organisations struggle to consistently make it happen. Simple answer? Ask for help. People around you start asking for help. - Creativity and Innovation.
You need minds working together to get great creativity and innovation. If you’re asking for help all the time, you’ll be involving other brains all the time. This sh*t will just happen naturally all the time. - Access your inner badass, not your inner critics.
When we stay inside our own heads, it’s really easy for us to slip into listening to that horde of inner critics. They do not have good ideas, and they make us feel bad. Asking for help from others helps us access our inner badass – who has great ideas, creates more impact, and knows how to enjoy life.
Go on, give it a go. Just start asking for help, especially when you don’t need it. It will change your life.
“What’s a leadership series? How’s it different to the thought series or coaching tips? Good questions. “ This series gives you tips to take your own leadership to the next level, and ways you can extend your own capabilities. Ready to take your skills to the next level, but aren’t sure where to start? Get in touch with me.