Why ‘Waiting to be Told What to Do’ Might Signal a Management Problem, According to Leanne Bridges

In a recent LinkedIn post, Leanne Bridges discusses a common scenario where an employee is on the verge of being let go due to perceived underperformance, only for the situation to be revealed as a failure of management and clear communication. Bridges highlights how a misunderstanding of priorities and vague feedback can lead to an employee appearing disengaged or incapable, when in reality, they have not been properly set up for success.

Bridges recounts an instance with an IT industry Managing Director (MD) who was ready to dismiss a delivery lead. The MD’s frustration stemmed from the belief that the employee “waits to be told what to do. I need someone who just sees what needs doing.” This sentiment is a frequent pain point for many leaders, but Bridges urges a deeper examination before making such a decision.

“He waits to be told what to do. I need someone who just sees what needs doing.”

The Hidden Cause: Lack of Prioritization and Clarity

According to Bridges, a closer look at the situation revealed that the delivery lead largely understood the tasks required but lacked the crucial context of business priorities. Without this guidance, the employee struggled when faced with multiple urgent demands.

“So… what to do when three jobs all needed him at the same time. So he’d pick one and hope it was the right one. A lot of the time it wasn’t,” Bridges explains, illustrating the direct consequence of unclear expectations. This uncertainty led to a cycle of repeated issues and unproductive catch-up meetings.

Vague Feedback Fails to Drive Change

Bridges points out that the feedback provided to the delivery lead was insufficient to prompt meaningful change. Standard management advice, such as telling an employee to “be more on top of things,” is too abstract to be actionable.

“I need you to be more on top of things” doesn’t tell anyone what to do differently on Monday morning.

As Leanne Bridges notes, effective management involves not just identifying problems but also providing concrete guidance on how to solve them. The MD’s catch-ups had devolved into discussions about what was or wasn’t done, rather than addressing the root cause of the delivery lead’s struggles.

The Solution: Redefining Expectations and Communication

Bridges outlines how the situation was rectified by implementing three key changes: defining what success looked like for the role, restructuring the catch-up meetings, and altering the MD’s communication style to ensure feedback was understood and accepted constructively.

“We changed those three things. What good looked like, how the catch-ups ran, and the way the MD had the conversation so it was accepted and understood without bad feeling,” Bridges states. This intervention proved successful, as the delivery lead began to perform effectively and manage his team independently within weeks.

Setting Employees Up for Success

The core message from Bridges’s post is that employees often possess the capability to perform their roles effectively but require the right environment and direction from leadership. The delivery lead, in this case, “could always do the job. He’d just never been set up to.”

This analysis underscores the responsibility of management to provide clear objectives, consistent and actionable feedback, and a supportive framework for employees to thrive. By shifting the focus from blame to enablement, organizations can unlock the full potential of their staff and avoid the costly mistake of letting go of the wrong person.