The Otter And The Shell

You can visit a zoo for many reasons. Leadership is rarely one of them. While watching a family of otters drift effortlessly through the water, my mind wandered somewhere entirely different.

A young otter looked at an older one and asked, “What is the first duty of a parent?”

The old otter answered without hesitation. “To keep its pup alive.”

The young otter nodded. “And the second?”

The old otter picked up a shell. “Imagine I opened every shell for my pup.”

“It would never go hungry. ”He picked up another.

“Imagine I chose every stone. Found every meal. Made every decision. Removed every struggle.”

The young otter smiled. “You would be a wonderful parent.”

The old otter shook his head. “No.”

“I would be raising an otter that could survive only in my presence.”

He placed the shell back onto the rock. “The purpose was never to feed another otter.”

“It was to create one.”

The otters carried on with their day.

The dilemma didn’t.

Enabling and empowering often look identical.

Both come from good intentions. Both solve today’s problem.

Only one increases an organisation’s ability to solve tomorrow’s.

Enabling removes today’s obstacle.

Empowering increases someone’s ability to overcome tomorrow’s.

The distinction isn’t measured by how many problems a leader solves. It’s measured by how many problems no longer depend on that leader. That doesn’t mean stepping back. Or lowering standards. Or watching people struggle when support is needed. Quite the opposite.

It means investing enough clarity, context and judgement that decisions can be made where the best information exists. Because organisations don’t move at the speed of their smartest leader. They move at the speed of their collective judgement. Their collective capability.

And perhaps that’s what the old otter understood all along. The purpose was never to feed another otter.

It was to create one.