Situational leadership :) Adapt your leadership style to the skills and confidence of those you are leading. In a situation where your subordinates are unsure

Situational leadership :) Adapt your leadership style to the skills and confidence of those you are leading. In a situation where your subordinates are unsure of what to do and they really don't have the skills to do it alone, you have to provide leadership and encouragement. Lead by example, show them how to do it, and let them iterate without too much micromanagement. When your subordinates are competent but lacking confidence, it's often a better option to stand back and say nothing. The "ownership" piece is huge -- if this is the first big project you've "owned", you'll probably iron out the kinks even if I don't say anything to you. Also keep in mind is that there are many correct ways to solve a problem; while your solution may not be the one I would go with, you're more comfortable with your solution and can probably see things about it that I can't. I trust you to be the expert on the solution; I've got bigger things to worry about like how I'm going to continue servicing my same workload with a 10% cut in budget. The goal is to move everyone up from "unconfident and incompetent" to "confident and competent". Some people also go through "incompetent and confident", which is also something where the best option is often to stand back and act as a safety net while letting the person learn whatever lesson they needed to learn.