Tag: problem solving

Many minds are better than one. Turn to Your Team for Solutions.

Have you ever worked at a job where every decision had to be made by the boss rather than turning to the team for solutions?  Asking your team for solutions is a model for growth while single approval control is a misstep.  Following the traditional model of business means yielding to the more senior leader as the expert in all circumstances.  To be fair, nobody can be an expert at everything or should be expected to be.   

Great Leaders know solutions, ideas, innovations come from an array of sources and their role is not to be the one and only solution provider, but the person who creates an environment where everyone has value and is depended upon to contribute to solving problems, innovation, growth.  

The obstacle to including team members in decision making is the leader’s need to control. It may seem like the right thing to do is to defer to the boss, but this presents individuals from learning how to make decisions and grow.  

When I learned to give problems back to my team, they generated amazing solutions.

Since they were hitting the roadblock day after day, they had a perspective I did not. I made it my goal to engage the team in problem solving.  When they would ask me what to do, I asked them what they thought.  If they provided a workable solution, I would let them introduce it and give them credit- “We’re going to follow Amy’s plan today.”  As you can imagine, Amy’s stock rose among her peers and everyone on the team was motivated to provide the next solution.  When other teams spent time gossiping and tuning out, mine were thinking about how can we make things better.  Not everyone can offer a workable solution, but that’s not important, engaging them is important.  

I remember asking my front line team how we can reduce supply costs. They knew exactly what needed to happen and we reduced supply costs by 20%. They were excited to watch our progress!  I was too! 

By turning to your team for solutions, employee engagement, retention rates and operational performance results will all improve, leaving the controllers in your wake.   

What Great Leaders Know

Create an environment where everyone contributes solutions 

Source solutions from an array of sources, not just from the top of the org chart

Focus everyone on making things better

Links

https://whatgreatleadersknow.com/

https://hbr.org/2023/03/how-to-equip-your-team-to-problem-solve-without-you