How To Actually Help
'Helping' is doing the things that need to be done without being told to do so.
There are layers here:
1 - being able to figure out what actually needs to be done
2 - being able to make an impact on whatever that thing is
A simple ‘how to help scenario’ can apply to preparing the Thanksgiving meal in the kitchen at home.
Not helpful: asking the person who is doing all of the cooking how you can help
Helpful: setting the table and taking out the trash (because the table wasn’t set, trash can was overflowing)
But it can also apply to your manager. Or the CEO. Or the VC. (an ongoing joke in the startup community)
Asking if you can help is a vanity metric and not valuable. Asking to help makes the person feel like they are doing something of value. Sometimes it's genuine, but sometimes it's lazy.
Helping is seeing the future. And then executing. An example:
At Thanksgiving dinner, if you weren't cooking any of the meal, instead of asking people, how can I help, you would set the table and take out the overflowing trash.
A more complicated business example:
You're the leader of a sales organization. You came up short of the monthly growth target last month. You're going to have to present to the board.
You could look directly at your AE's and ask them why. They will explain that a handful of deals got pushed to next month, etc. Not ultra-valuable or helpful to you, the board, or anyone else involved.
A great leader would do the following:
Look at the lead flow:
Do we have enough leads
Are they quality
Are we routing them in the correct direction
Look at the product:
Is the product working
Why are we losing deals? do we have the right features
Have we shipped what we said we would on the roadmap
Outlier or standard
Is this a one-time thing? Or happening regularly?
Collateral
do we have all of the tools necessary to close deals?
Price
Are we priced correctly?
Can we be creative here?
Support
Is there adequate support
Are people getting answers on time/can they reach the support staff with a call/email
Is the technical team there when issues arise
And, of course, talk to your AEs (and the rest of the team) / get their input.
But often, the most important thing you can do for your team is impact all of the other inputs I highlighted before!
Going into a conversation with the above breakdown level is much more helpful.
Put yourself in a position to understand and address the root cause, then implement change!
That’s helpful.
Action item:
Instead of asking someone, 'How can I help':
Put yourself in the shoes of the person you are asking
think thoughtfully about what their current problems are
if easy, go ahead and just do stuff for them (you don't need to ask permission)
if more complicated
highlight problems / propose how you'd go about finding a solution
if able, implement changes
if unable, at the least, this will spur a much more productive dialog for future change
Happy Thanksgiving.