The rescue reflex
The manager's instinct to step in with the solution the moment someone struggles. It feels like help and is faster today, and it teaches the person they cannot be trusted to think. In an organisation it takes the form of doing a manager's job; at executive level, of an organisation that waits for the executive's answer.
Evidence grade: practice A widely adopted practitioner model with clear provenance.
Use it when
Every wobble; the question of who decides at the end of the conversation.
Where it stops working
It rests on experience. The judgment lies in the counter-practice, which is to support or coach, and to rescue only when being wrong would be costly and irreversible, and then to do it explicitly.
Where the standard uses it
- CC-2Coaching versus directingDeveloping judgment in others.
Used alongside it
- Coaching the coaches practice
- Situational leadership practice
- The GROW model practice
- The learning organisation practice
Cite this model
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). The rescue reflex. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, TEC.rescue-reflex). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/techniques/rescue-reflex