Are your team members more likely to bring you problems or bring you solutions? - SmartBrief

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Are your team members more likely to bring you problems or bring you solutions?

1 min read

By Mike Figliuolo 05/26/16

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: 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.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”