Do your team members bring you problems or solutions?
Our reader poll today asks: Are your team members more likely to bring you problems or bring you solutions?
– All they do is come to me with problems: 11.03%
– They mostly bring problems with an occasional solution: 66.91%
– They bring more solutions than problems: 20.07%
– They always bring me solutions: 1.99%
Teach them to be problem solvers. If your team members only bring you problems and rarely offer solutions, you may be the problem. You’re an enabler if the behavior continues. A big part of your role is teaching your team how to solve problems on their own. If you build their capabilities to do so, you’ll free up your time and energy to focus only on the most pressing problems and you’ll be improving the skills of the organization at the same time. Stop solving their problems for them and instead offer guidance on how they can become more self-sufficient.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
In addition to teaching subordinates how to solve problems on their own is for the supervisor to learn how to delegate the responsibility to solve the problem. Learning to delegate and live with the delegation was a challenging but very beneficial exercise.