Problem-solving makes you a better leader
As a leader, I deal with complex challenges in my business, workplace, and personal life.
Leadership is not only about being a leader at work; you are also a leader in your day-to-day life.
Here are a few common leadership types.
Parents are leaders for children. Friends are leaders to their friends or close relatives when seeking our advice. Siblings are leaders when guiding, in some instances, our older or younger siblings.
So you may accept that you are a leader, but are you doing your best?
You may come across these problems:
How to be excellent in resolving issues like COVID 19?
How do we plan and deal with a project running behind schedule and not in the budget range?
How to retain talented staff as long-term employees?
How to identify transferable skills and attain career change opportunities.
As a leader, you need to maintain integrity be trustworthy and approachable.
It would help if you built trust at work and in your personal life. It is ideal for engaging your team and personal relationships through the problem-solving process.
Here are some practical and straightforward problem-solving tips which I have implemented with my team.
Tip 1: Facilitate problems with your team members
Make sure you upskill your team with the best problem-solving techniques through constant mentoring and training. Encourage your team to brainstorm the problem.
You may want to organize and facilitate an initial problem-solving brainstorming session. This will provide your team with initial guidance and expectations.
Assist your team members in brainstorming their problems based on their competence, and only step in on a need’s basis when necessary. I don’t micromanage my team members.
Tip 2: Arm your team with techniques to solve problems themselves instead of telling them the answers
Ensure you and your team have the proper mindset to resolve the issues.
Outline all pros, cons, and a different course of action for every problem you are trying to resolve. These steps are essential to building more robust and more resilient teams.
Allow your team members to make the final decision. The team members should be encouraged to make decisions. This will also be very effective in your personal life.
It is important to note that the team member must have skills and knowledge to make relevant decisions.
The best way I found is to allow my team members to make their decision first, of course, if they are competent in making decisions. I have found this is the best strategy to boost their confidence and to increase their ability to solve problems by themselves.
Tip 3: Analyze problems with your team members
Think through the problem, its cause, possible solutions.
When analyzing, keep in mind these questions: What is the problem? What is the route cause of the problem? For any situation, think about resolutions? What is the reason? Who can help with the best answer? What can I do about it?
Solving problems can be challenging at times. Think about solutions and create strategies.
You need to research, analyze and find a solution continuously.
Tip 4: Identify the importance of Ownership
Find ownership in your team and ask them to be responsive when solving the problem before raising it with you. It is everyone’s responsibility to fix it.
Tip 5: Don’t forget to start with why
My favorite question nowadays is — why.
Start with why to understand the root cause of a problem.
Why concept may sound familiar to you, a well-known idea explained by Simon Sinek is one of my favorite methods. I would often remind my team members to think about the why.
This helps them think and walk through the root cause of a problem. I have found using well know five whys a beneficial technique which is extremely useful, followed by questions: What? How?
I bring the why to most aspects of my life and find it particularly relevant to problem-solving.
Here is a simple working sample.
PROBLEM: Team members are not getting their work done on time and are not taking accountability for the last two months
Question 1: Why are my team members not taking accountability for the tasks that need to be done? Because their roles and responsibilities are too generic and not well defined.
Question 2: Why are the roles and responsibilities too generic and not well defined? Because I have provided my team members with the flexibility to multitask, I firmly believe they know their roles and responsibilities.
Question 3: Why have I allowed my team members to multi-task? I have allowed my team members to be efficient in carrying out their responsibility and even upskill by taking the opportunity to add value to themselves and the organization.
Question 4: Why do I need my team to be efficient in carrying their responsibility and even upskill by taking the opportunity as it arises? Because I want them to take ownership and stay motivated.
Question 5: Why do I need my team to stay motivated? Because motivated employees provide better outcomes and satisfaction at work.
In the above example, I have pointed out how to solve the issue by digging into the root cause of the problem (for example, question 5 is a root cause of a problem).
The main objective is to articulate the intent to stay motivated, be satisfied at work, and provide better outcomes is to understand their responsibility, and meet deadlines.
Some key questions to ask:
Why is this happening? Why is that? How did we end up in this situation? Why is my team lacking proper communication? Why are we not reaching expectations? Why are team members blaming each other? Why are we lacking integrity and trust among team members?
Remember, instead of jumping straight into a solution, ask yourself why?
This will lead you and your team to find out the root cause of your problems.
Practical problem-solving techniques can guide your team towards success. Problem-solving will encourage better collaboration between team members to meet deadlines. The partnership provides continuous improvements.
Tip 6. Use some neuroscience techniques to help your team recognize the problem.
Based on the neuroscientist, there are two sides to the brain. For example, when you constantly focus on the problem, it affects the negative side of your brain, which can block your potential to think of solutions. I found it very useful to understand my team members’ strengths in the right and left brains. The best outcome is when both sides of the brain are used.
The left hemisphere takes care of linear, factual, and logical thinking, whereas the right brain champions artistic thought. Creative thinking can assist with the creation of possible solutions.
There’s no limit to the amount of invention that can happen when teams come together to tackle a problem — Michael Nelson
Start with initiating the thought on the problem, and then work on the possible solutions with a positive mindset rather than thinking about faults.
My advice for you and your team members is to: Question everything! Get the idea by now?
Allow your team members to reflect on their mistakes.
A growth mindset is critical. When I believe my team members were inefficient in making decisions, I ask them to reflect on their choices. I remind them to think about the problem they are trying to resolve.
Reflect with your team members, even if mistakes were made.
Ask questions such as. What do you think? What have your team members learned? What happened? What would be the strategy? Do they need any additional support? What strategies can you think about to solve that problem?
Putting it all together
Today as Leaders, our responsibilities and roles are limited to delegating and managing.
As a leader, it is up to you to make problem-solving a seamless process that allows your team to look at the problem, the information provided, and find a solution to it. Your team should be able to use whatever information they have at their disposal.
Even if issues are minor, problem-solving is critical for leaders, who must aim to reduce any challenges and barriers that can get in the way of their team or business performance.
Problem-solving is one essential skill to have in leadership and everyday life. Encourage your team by asking questions that lead them to solve problems themselves.
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