All of us, me included, often think a key aspect of leadership is about solving problems. Whatever the problem–a strategy problem, a market problem, a product problem, operational problems, sales/marketing problems, people problems…… We tend to think of ourselves as problem solvers.
It’s likely our problem-solving skills earned us promotion after promotion. However, if you think about it, that’s a bit arrogant or vain. The belief that our problem-solving abilities are the main reason for our organization’s success is common in today’s business world, but it’s quite misguided.
Think, for a moment, the CEOs of large corporations can’t possibly have the bandwidth and knowledge to solve the problems — even the big problems — themselves. A front line sales manager doesn’t have the bandwidth and capability to solve the problems of hitting the numbers herself.
The reality, leadership is really about putting in place the frameworks that enable everyone in the organization to identify solve the problems the organization faces. Then it’s about having the courage to let them do their jobs.
Great leaders establish strong, performance oriented cultures. An organization composed by people with growth mindsets, with common sets of values, committed to continuous learning, committed to teamwork and collaboration, with the grit/tenacity/resilience to understand and overcome obstacles.
Great leaders pay attention to getting the right people on board, people aligned with the culture and values of the organization. They coach and develop those people to achieve the highest levels of performance possible.
Great leaders provide the resources to enable people to solve problems and to perform. Whether it’s funding, systems, processes, tools, programs, training; they make sure their people have what they need to solve problems.
Great leaders remove obstacles that prevent their team from solving problems. They always aim to simplify things and look for barriers that hinder people’s ability to find solutions. Whether it’s silos in the organization or inconsistent goals and metrics, they work to eliminate anything that gets in the way of each person reaching their full potential.
Great leaders celebrate the success of the individuals and, mostly, teams who are solving the problems. They know that it’s their hard work and problem solving capability that created the success, not the “leader’s problem solving ability.”
Great leaders recognize the moment they violated these principles, they actually have taken away the responsibility and accountability for people solving these problems. On doing that, it becomes the leader’s problem to solve—which is impossible.
It may be our problem solving capabilities that got us promoted into leadership. Those abilities help us recognize what our people face, how we might develop them, help them learn to solve problems on their own. But we have to have the belief and courage to hold our people accountable for identifying the problems the organization faces and provide the framework that enables them to solve them on their own.