We’ve all had them: the “don’t come to me with problems if you don’t have a solution!” boss. It’s old-school, hierarchical management 101. The underlying assumption of the manager being that if the employee really had any value, they’d be able to solve the problem themselves…and if they didn’t, they were just lazy or incompetent. It’s intellectually lazy and inherently wrong so long as the manager didn’t hire for lazy and incompetent up front.
Having been on both sides of the equation (raising problems and having them raised to me), I can’t tell you how much I disagree with the concept (let alone the underlying assumption which Ill just ignore based on merit). As a leader, I want people to come to me with their toughest challenges if they are unable to solve them. There are 3 key reasons I foster this environment.
First, the pragmatic business reason: if you require people to come to you with both problems and solution, you will likely not have many of the day to day critical problems get raised to you. In addition, you will have severely limited the ability to get to the best solution because the person who raises the issue will be limited to their thinking and their own opinion and solution. Many times when you force someone into that conundrum (don’t speak up without a solution) they will either shut down and not raise the issue for fear of anger or ownership (afraid they will be assigned finding a solution). And even if they do speak up, the solution will often be suboptimal – that’s the whole reason they were reaching out as they understood that they may not have a comprehensive solution that works for all involved or are not confident in the solution they are offering as it is beyond their current experience/knowledge. The act of forcing a solution is the fastest way to submarine any efforts at brainstorming or collaboration as once a solution is in mind, it is very hard to think more creatively of options. Either way, creating a situation that rewards unearthing issues and collaborating on solutions benefits everyone much more than the alternative.
Second, from a management perspective: much like you I hire really strong performers who work hard. If they don’t have an answer to something, there is likely a really good reason why. Maybe it’s a new situation for them that they haven’t experienced or is something just beyond their current (comfortable) skill set. Great! Once you have the base assumption that you know your team wants to do well and are very well skilled, then you understand that if they have a question for you it’s simply something new to them that they aren’t as confident about and they don’t want to do the wrong thing. We all started there! What a great opportunity to help them bridge whatever gap may exist and solve the problem that stands. Odds are that with a little questioning, you can get some ideas from them around the solution…you just shouldn’t expect them to come in and bang your desk and say “the answer is X!”. They are asking you for guidance because they aren’t sure – ideally it’s one of the areas that you can help them grow from your accumulated experience or an area that you can unlock their knowledge by building their confidence.
Thirdly as a leader and developer of people: the act of unearthing a problem, admitting a challenge, and asking for any assistance creates a moment of vulnerability which can be a very human way to deepen a relationship. If you are an authentic leader that wants to help your people, this is a great gift and responsibility that you are being given. You now have the opportunity to guide, educate, teach, and mentor someone who clearly wants to learn and solve. Diligence on your part will create a trusting relationship going forward. And helping in the right way (don’t just give answers, use questions/answers, hints/guidance, feedback, and reassurance to get to solutions), will grow the employee’s skill, confidence, and empowerment right away. Creating a situation where employees feel comfortable simply asking the question or highlighting the problem creates a win/win/win scenario for everyone when handled properly.
These simple little “management phrases” and sometimes small moments just simply repeating a cliche can be what define us as leaders. It may sound empowering and “smart” to tell people to come with solutions, but the overall message it sends can be poisonous. People easily can view this as a “not my problem” approach to leadership and feel like their leader isn’t open to constructive feedback when issues are observed. It can make employees feel inferior for need to ask for help with a problem and can leave them with even less confidence depending on how they are treated in the conversation. Hopefully, none of those are your intent – so if not, just don’t say it.
Instead, view yourself and portray yourself as the “New Colossus” of problems (referring the poem on the Statue of Liberty). Have your team bring you the tired problems, the poor problems, the wretched refuse problems…tell them to keep unearthing the problems, solve the ones they can, and share the rest with you.
View from the Middle 