The Problem With Solutions

Clever management phrases

When I was a graduate trainee I had a manager who loved to say:

“Do not come to me with problems, come with solutions”

He believed it was a clever and motivational sort of thing to say.  It would make me more creative, I would start to think ahead and develop my own solutions, and — most importantly — I wouldn’t burden him with my problems.

He was right… In part…

Why do your staff bring you their problems?

I’d hazard a guess it is because they don’t know what the solutions are.

If you don’t value their problems what will happen?

If they don’t know the answers and you only want to hear the solutions, then I suspect your staff will soon stop telling you about the problems.

This will, in turn, lead to one of two outcomes:

• Either all your problems will magically disappear
• Or they will get swept under the carpet

How can you solve a problem you don’t know about?

Having no problems is the biggest problem of all ~ Taiichi Ohno

If you can’t admit you have problems

If it is politically incorrect, a sign of weakness or an admission of failure then you could start calling your problems opportunities; everybody loves an opportunity.

P.S. If your staff didn’t have problems would they really need a manager?