I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.
– Thomas Paine
When you hear anything about a “problem,” how does your body react? For me, I notice the muscles in my shoulders getting tight and my stomach feels queasy. These are very subtle. But, when I take time to notice, it is my body already gearing up for a stressor. When my stress rises, my thinking becomes cloudy, and I work less productively. Suddenly, my mind’s top priority becomes to relieve the tension. I go into problem-solving mode. How can I fix this problem now? All I see is the problem. I become directive and task oriented.
When there is a crisis that requires a quick reaction, this can be productive. The longer the problem is left unresolved, the bigger the consequence. For instance, if there is a fire on my stove, I need to react quickly to put out the fire. However, more complex solutions will be required for more complicated problems. Instead of us reacting quickly to solve a problem, we will need a whole team to respond.
When sudden problems happen, how do we lead a whole team to engage in finding a solution? Let’s learn from a day in a life of a leader who decided to change his approach to problems that led to results, to positive culture change, and better productivity.
The Problem vs. The Person Approach
This leader, like most of us, can be faced with problems every day at work. A problem had erupted that he couldn’t fix on his own. It required his team to be a part of the process. On this day, he decided to change his approach. He made a choice to focus on the people instead of the problem. How did he do this:
- Observe the Person – As he approached his team member about the problem, instead of putting the focus on fixing the problem, he focused on the person. He first saw the person’s body language. He saw the person collapsing in on himself, such as rounded down shoulders. He knew this could be an indicator of this person feeling stress and losing confidence. So, the leader opened his body posture and smiled towards the person. Immediately, he saw the person “perk up” physically in body posture and in attitude.
- Relate to the Person – Next, his focus on the person included how he spoke to them. Instead of asking a lot of why or how questions about details in a tone that might convey frustration, he became curious and asked high level what questions. What is currently going on from this person’s perspective? What do you see as next steps? Where do you need support?
- Empower the Person – Then, the leader let go of the problem to the team member to do their fact finding and to figure out how to close the gap. He empowered the person to own and implement a solution.
The Result
The team is providing feedback to the leader that he is different. This is impacting how they interact with him and deal with problems. Here are examples of how the team has changed in response to their leader changing:
- Team Openly Sharing/ Not Withholding Information – When a problem happens, the team is supposed to tell the leader right away so he can be aware and prepare for any impact it could have across the organization. However, a team member stated that when a problem situation had been happening, he put off telling the leader because he knew the leader would immediately ask him a barrage of questions he couldn’t answer yet. Since the leader has changed his approach, the team member is letting the leader know immediately of the problem instead of withholding information.
- Increased Team Clarity for Solutions and Productivity– The leader stated that also when problems occur, he has noticed that the team is moving to solutions more quickly and productively. Because of the team feeling less stress around problems, they think and move with more clarity. The team is feeling empowered to find their own “how” to solutions. Now, when facing a problem, the leader’s priority is first to look to decrease stress for the team, not to focus on the problem.
- Decreased Stress and Positive Work Environment – The leader stated his own stress has gone down at work and home. This leader is very conscientious. When a problem would happen, he would take ownership to the point of blaming himself. Blaming others is not healthy, but also blaming ourselves is not healthy. Whenever blame is involved, it puts a negative focus on people (whether self or others). He kept a mindset of ownership and responsibility but with a positive focus on people (self and others) as the solution generators.
Summary
Do you take a problem approach or a people approach? This leader stated he has been known as a problem solver and has attributed his success to this in the past. Now, he states wanting to be known as a people developer, which is propelling him into his future success as a leader. What are you willing to do to go from a problem solver to a people developer?