I have a reasonable home gym set up including a bench press. When I lie on my back I'm pressing a barbell up from my chest. At home I never pushed myself to my limit because it would be unsafe, whereas when I'm at a gym I will use a spotter to help me safely stretch what I'm capable of. The most ineffective spotters I have used over the years are those that start assisting me with the weight far too soon and affectively rob me of the opportunity to extend myself.

In the same way far too many people leaders rob their team members of opportunities for extension and growth by talking too much both in one-on-one interactions and also in Group meetings. A saying that I often use in training is “the person who is doing the talking is doing the most work”. The most effective people leaders ask short, great quality open-ended questions to their team members in order to stretch their thought processes. The most ineffective meetings that I've observed over the years have involved people leaders doing all of the talking and not using good quality questions to facilitate team members doing some of the “heavy lifting”.

Part of effective people leadership is talking less and listening more.