Developing Thinkers, Not Followers
How to Develop Leaders Instead of Managing People Through Questions, Accountability, and Genuine Investment in Growth
If you walked into my office with a problem, the first question I’d probably ask isn’t, “What happened?”
It’s, “What have you tried?”
Some people are surprised by that question.
I’m not asking because I expect them to have solved the problem already. I’m asking because I believe one of the greatest responsibilities of a leader isn’t solving every problem—it’s developing people who can solve problems long after they no longer need you.
That’s the difference between managing people and developing leaders.
Over the years, through personal adversity, professional challenges, and leading teams across multiple organizations, I’ve developed a leadership philosophy that has shaped every team I’ve had the privilege to lead. It isn’t something I learned in a classroom. It has been shaped by experience, by failure, by success, and by watching people grow beyond what they believed was possible.
One lesson has remained constant throughout my career:
Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about developing people who can find them.
Early in my career, a manager shared a piece of advice that has stayed with me ever since:
“My job isn’t to have all the answers. That’s why I surround myself with talented people who can provide the ones I don’t. They make me look good.”
At the time, I thought he was simply talking about hiring talented people.
Years later, I realized he was talking about humility.
Great leaders don’t become successful because they know everything. They become successful because they create an environment where talented people contribute their expertise, challenge ideas, and make the team stronger.
I’ve taken that lesson one step further.
I don’t just want to surround myself with talented people.
I want to develop them into leaders.
I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room.
I want to build a room full of people who think.
Start With the “Why”
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is assigning work without explaining the bigger picture.
People don’t just need to know what they’re doing.
They need to understand why it matters.
When people understand the strategy behind a decision, they begin making better decisions on their own. They stop checking boxes and start contributing to the organization’s success.
Understanding the “why” creates ownership.
Ownership creates accountability.
And accountability develops leaders.
Don’t Bring Me a Problem. Bring Me Your Thinking.
One of the questions I ask most often is simple:
“What have you tried?”
I encourage my team to work through challenges on their own first. Collaborate with peers. Do your research. Explore different approaches. Not every issue needs to come to me.
But when something does require escalation, I have one expectation:
Come prepared with at least two thoughtful options.
We may choose one.
We may combine both.
Or we may discover an entirely different path together.
That’s not the point.
The point is that you’ve taken ownership of the problem, analyzed the situation, and are prepared to have a strategic discussion instead of simply handing someone else a problem to solve.
If someone comes to me without ideas, I don’t solve it for them.
Instead, I ask them to schedule another meeting—later that day or within the next 24 hours—and come back prepared.
It would be much easier for me to simply provide the answer and move on.
But easy doesn’t build leaders.
It builds dependence.
Helping people learn to see the forest through the trees isn’t always easy. It requires patience. It requires coaching. Most importantly, it requires asking questions instead of immediately providing answers.
Over time, something remarkable happens.
The questions become better.
The conversations become more strategic.
Confidence grows.
Eventually, people stop looking for someone else to solve every problem because they’ve learned they are capable of solving many of them themselves.
That’s leadership.
When Leadership Starts Multiplying
I remember one employee who began noticing a pattern.
He realized I was usually thinking several steps ahead.
Instead of coming to meetings simply looking for answers, he changed the way he prepared.
Before every meeting, he researched the issue, gathered the facts, organized his questions, and thought through possible solutions. He scheduled time with me instead of stopping by unexpectedly because he wanted to make the best use of both our time.
Eventually, he shared that approach with the rest of the team.
He even told them:
“The best time to meet with her is toward the end of the day. She’ll still ask tough questions, but if you come prepared, you’ll leave with direction instead of just an answer.”
It wasn’t long before he was coaching others on how to prepare.
He wasn’t just changing his own approach.
He was influencing the culture of the team.
That’s when I realized leadership had moved beyond me.
It had become part of how the team thought.
My goal was never to make people think like me.
My goal was to teach them how to think.
Cross-Training Builds Stronger Organizations
Another principle I strongly believe in is cross-training.
Too many organizations rely on one person to hold critical knowledge.
That works—until it doesn’t.
Cross-training isn’t simply about preparing for vacations or turnover.
It’s about helping people understand how their work connects to everyone else’s.
When employees understand each other’s responsibilities, silos begin to disappear.
Collaboration improves.
Respect grows.
Organizations become stronger because knowledge is shared instead of protected.
The best teams don’t have one expert.
They have many.
Accountability Is Respect
Accountability has become a word people often associate with criticism.
I see it differently.
Accountability is one of the greatest forms of respect.
When we hold people accountable, we are telling them we believe they are capable of meeting higher expectations.
That doesn’t mean abandoning coaching.
It means setting clear expectations, providing the necessary resources, communicating openly, and then expecting ownership.
People often rise to the expectations we consistently reinforce.
Our responsibility as leaders isn’t to lower the bar.
It’s to help people reach it.
The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Is the Pause
The best leadership advice I’ve ever received was surprisingly simple:
Pause. Listen. And actually hear what the other person is saying.
As leaders—especially experienced leaders—we are often ten steps ahead.
While someone is explaining a problem, we’ve already identified possible solutions and started thinking about our next meeting.
I’ve had to learn that if I’m already preparing my response, I am no longer listening.
The pause matters.
It’s in those few extra seconds that we stop thinking about what we’re going to say and start understanding what someone else is really trying to tell us.
People may not always agree with your decision.
But they will almost always respect it if they know they were genuinely heard.
Sometimes the best leadership isn’t having the quickest answer.
Sometimes it’s asking one more question.
Sometimes it’s simply waiting.
Leadership Is About Leaving People Better Than You Found Them
Growing up, life taught me resilience long before I ever held a leadership title. An abusive childhood, an alcoholic father, and becoming independent at a young age shaped how I viewed responsibility, perseverance, and trust. Later in life, I faced other personal challenges that reinforced those lessons.
Those experiences taught me that everyone is carrying something we cannot see.
They taught me that confidence is built—not given.
They taught me that empathy and accountability are not opposites.
The best leaders practice both.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of leading teams, mentoring interns, coaching new professionals, and helping people discover strengths they didn’t always see in themselves.
Some of those interns are now leaders.
Some of the people I coached are now mentoring others.
Watching that happen has been one of the greatest rewards of my career.
The greatest compliment I’ve ever received hasn’t come from solving a difficult problem or leading a successful project.
It’s watching people I invested in become the leaders others now look to for guidance.
That’s when I realized the true measure of leadership isn’t what we accomplish ourselves.
It’s what continues because of the people we invested in.
I don’t want people to remember me because I always had the answers.
I hope they remember that I challenged them to think.
That I listened before I spoke.
That I expected more because I believed they were capable of more.
That I invested in their growth, even when it would have been easier to simply provide the answer.
Because if I’ve done my job well, they won’t need me forever.
They’ll become the leaders who ask someone else:
“What have you tried?”
To me, that’s the true legacy of leadership.
Not creating followers.
Creating leaders who create other leaders.
When circumstances force you to pivot, change your journey—not your destination.
Leadership Philosophy
- Explain the why before the what.
- Don’t bring me a problem. Bring me your thinking.
- Accountability is respect.
- Cross-train because resilient organizations share knowledge.
- Pause. Listen. Truly hear.
- Develop thinkers, not followers.
- When circumstances force you to pivot, change your journey—not your destination.
Traci L. Skolaski is a senior risk management executive with more than 20 years of experience leading enterprise risk, insurance, claims, safety, compliance, and operational resilience across complex organizations. She is passionate about developing leaders, building accountable teams, and creating resilient organizations where people—and businesses—can thrive.
