Now, thank you to all of you who have been sending in questions through the comments across all of my social platforms. I love hearing from people and I’m setting myself the challenge of answering as many of your questions as I can and this one really caught my eye.
Someone asked, “what can I do if I constantly have staff coming to me with problems, but they don’t come with the solutions?”.
Now I have to say, this one really resonated with me. I’ve got an amazing team around me, some genuinely brilliant people, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t had moments where this has happened to me. Over the years, I’ve learned that managing staff who regularly bring problems but not solutions can be really tricky and sometimes it can just be quite draining.
On a practical level, it eats into your time and theirs and on a deeper level, it can highlight issues around confidence, communication and accountability. Some people like to be consulted on every decision because it makes them feel needed while other people prefer to make all the calls themselves because they don’t want to burden somebody else with responsibility, the whole, I’ll make the decision and take the blame mentality.
Now, I completely understand both mindsets and to be fair, I’ve probably been guilty of both of them at times. But what I have discovered is that when you empower people to start and think for themselves, it really benefits everyone. It develops their skills, builds their confidence, and crucially, frees up your time to focus on the bigger stuff.
So, here are a few things that have really helped me to encourage people to become more proactive and solution oriented.
Firstly, you’ve got to set clear expectations.
If you want people to think for themselves, they need to know that’s what you’re expecting. So be clear, in your one-to-ones, your team meetings, even in your interviews, that you value staff who really take ownership of problems and come forward with their own ideas.
Make problem-solving part of your business culture. Talk about it regularly, celebrate it when you see it, ask people not just what decision they made but why. Over time they’ll start to view themselves as problem solvers rather than problem reporters and you’ll notice that the number of issues that land on your desk will start to shrink.
I once knew a manager who used to say don’t come to me with a problem, come to me with a problem and at least one possible solution.
It sounds simple, but honestly it worked brilliantly. It wasn’t dodging responsibility, he was encouraging independent thinking. He still discussed and supported decisions, but he built his team’s confidence by making them think first before they even got to him.
Secondly, teach people how to solve problems.
We have to recognise that not everybody is naturally wired for problem solving. Some people are brilliant at spotting what’s wrong, but freeze when it comes to finding the fix, and that’s okay. Problem solving is a skill that you can teach and there are lots of simple tools that can help. Things like the five whys, SWOT analysis, root cause analysis.
In my book, The Six Minute Entrepreneur, I share a one called the problem versus outcome frame and it’s designed to help people shift their focus from what’s wrong to what outcome do we actually want? And once they’re thinking about the desired outcome, it’s much easier to see your path forward.
Now, if you haven’t tried it, I’d really encourage you to take a look and even better and get your team starting to use it too. It’s a brilliant exercise to walk through together and it helps turn the negative conversations into more constructive ones.
Number three, create ready-made solutions for common issues.
Sometimes it really helps to take the thinking out of it by developing some standard responses for recurring problems. For example, say you’ve got a customer helpline and one of the most common complaints is that a customer has a part missing from their order. You could create a short list of approved solutions like sending a replacement part, issuing a discount code, replacing the full item. That way, your team becomes empowered to make quick decisions within clear boundaries that you’ve set.
It saves time, it gives customers a faster resolution and critically it’s going to boost the confidence of the team.
Now number four, build collaboration and learning into your team culture.
If you really want to level up then run some problem-solving workshops. Get your staff together to discuss real business issues and challenges, share ideas, brainstorm solutions because it’s amazing what can come out of those sessions, not only will you get better answers but also more engaged and creative employees.
For your senior staff, go one step further with targeted critical thinking or decision-making training. Use real quick case studies from the business because it’s a win-win. They sharpen their skills and the company gets practical solutions and some fresh thinking on future problems.
The next step is to tackle the bigger cross-department problems.
Sometimes a problem doesn’t sit neatly with one person or team. Let’s say a supplier suddenly puts their prices up by like 50%. That’s going to impact procurement, finance, sales and potentially marketing but whose problem is it? In cases like that, it’s really important to establish accountability and structure.
So he’s a simple four-step process that works for any type of problem, big or small. Firstly, set a clear deadline and timeline for resolution. Then assign ownership, make one person responsible. Thirdly, track progress with regular check-in so it doesn’t get forgotten. And finally, evaluate the options before anything is implemented.
Now that might sound formal, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. It could take a few hours or even a few weeks, depending on the issue. The point is it gives structure and momentum and it’s going to stop problems from just sitting in your inbox.
So to wrap it up, if you’ve got staff who tend to come with problems, try to shift the conversation. Ask questions like what do you think we should do or if you could fix this how would you do it.
Over time you’ll see a real change people will start coming to you not just with problems but with a menu of possible solutions and trust me that is one of the most rewarding shifts that you can create as a leader.
Thank you so much for watching. As always, have a great week and any questions you’ve got in your business, let me know.