It is known in physics that you can't observe something without changing it. Even in software development, the trickiest bugs are the ones like race conditions that change when you pull up the debugger.
As a manager, you also change things by observing them. You carry power just in your presence, and you need to be aware of it. I'm not talking about the abuse of power; I assume you are already onboard with the fact that it is a bad thing. I am just talking about your role and how others will respond to your questions and even your presence.
I learned this from the most unlikely source.
I would like to say that I was given this advice by one of my mentors, but the truth is that this advice was given to me by one of my most difficult employees. I am sure that at the time he was trying to find a way to cut me down, but the critique was true.
There is a sub lesson here.
You should be able to take criticism from anybody. Just because someone does not have your best interest in mind doesn't mean their feedback will be wrong. It doesn't mean it will be right either. This person even tried to get me fired, but I still remember this particular conversation and the lesson I pulled out of it.
Take the criticism and consider it objectively.
Back to the topic of power and knowing how your presence will affect something. I remember the first time I didn't go to a meeting. I was invited, but I didn't show up. I don't remember what the meeting was about, but I remember that my presence as the manager would influence the outcome.
I had delegated the task to someone on the team, and they had set up a working session and invited me. I thought, "Great, I can check in and watch how they are going about this." As the meeting time got closer, I began to realize that my presence would disrupt this leader's ability to run the meeting.
This leader would have an easy solution to defer the hard questions to me. I wouldn't be "just an observer," I would be dragged in as a participant. Even if I wasn't dragged into the conversation, my presence might change the it. It might force people to be a little more reserved in their criticism or a little more vocal in areas they thought I cared about. Whatever it was going to be, I needed to not be there to let the leader lead.
As new leaders we think that we need to be everywhere. We want people to know we support them so we keep showing up and offering that support. We go to every meeting and every working session. But our presence is causing other effects, some good, some bad. We need to understand these. We need to know our power so that when we show up we know how it will change to environment.
Sometimes the best leadership choice is to step back, decline the invite, grab a cup of coffee, and let others run the show.