The number one question you need to ask to be a great leader is: 'How can I help

“The number one question you need to ask to be a great leader is: ‘How can I help?‘”—Juli Fulks

I had the pleasure of hearing Coach Juli Fulks speak this past week at Leadership West Virginia.

We’re a big basketball family in our house. We’re also big on the Thundering Herd. We love going to Marshall University Women’s games, Isaac especially enjoys holding up the “3” sign every time the Herd hits a bucket from long range.

So I was really looking forward to Juli’s session. And I was especially excited to get a photo with her to make Megan jealous!

What stuck out to me about Coach Fulks, though, wasn’t about basketball. It was her philosophy around leadership.

I’ve always heard leadership experts say that you should find what you’re good at and then delegate everything else. It makes sense. It seems like great advice.

But Juli flipped this idea on its head. “My job is to help people develop the next thing they can be really good at.”

A key leadership philosophy of hers is this: put people in position to do what they are really good at, help them continue to get better, and then she fills in the cracks of what’s left.

This is a complete 180 from your typical teaching on leadership. It’s easy to focus on what’s missing. Fretting over what people aren’t doing well. And becoming obsessed with what needs fixing.

But the best leaders help people get sharper at what they do best. They don’t try to make everyone everything. And they don’t just dump a bunch of stuff they don’t want to do onto other people.

Good leaders look for what’s not working, They fix what’s broken. Great leaders look for what’s already really good, and they pour gas on it.

It’s not always comfortable. It doesn’t always feel natural. But it works. And it is genius.

And when I ask, “How can I help?” instead of, “Why aren’t they better at this?” or “How do I fix this?” the answers tend to be a little more simple. And it’s almost always better.

Thanks for the insights, Coach. Looking forward to a great season this year.