Great leaders don’t tell you what to do

In many cases, people become managers because they are better problem solvers than others. And troubleshooters can take quite a bit of pride in telling others how to implement the solutions they’ve discovered. While being a problem solver may be a normal path to management, it is a trap. For those managers moving into C-suite, being the best problem solver can get frustrating, especially if you’re the CEO. Therefore, the best managers have strong leadership skills. They are mission-driven and empower their people to solve problems.

In previous articles, I talked about the transformation that occurs for top leaders. They transform from problem solvers to problem creators. In other words, leadership is paid to intentionally create problems for others to solve. For many, this is contradictory. Why? At school, we are trained to think like problem solvers. We are graded and rewarded for solving the problems the teacher gives us. That mentality stays with us. It’s the same mindset that is rewarded in the workplace. However, that mindset can work against leaders.

The job of leadership is to invent new possibilities. When John F. Kennedy declared that the United States would send a man to the moon, it wasn’t his job to figure out how to do it. His job was to allocate resources. The amazing thing about that initiative is that there would have been no budget before he said the United States had committed to going to the moon. He had to make a budget. He even created NASA to run the mission. Kennedy’s time was better spent building the team to accomplish the mission, rather than rolling up his sleeves and being a rocket scientist.

That said, instead of solving problems, Kennedy created one for others to solve. While spending time in meetings with NASA leaders, Kennedy could ask questions. I guess Kennedy didn’t tell the aeronautical engineers what to do. He would have asked what was possible and what resources they needed to make it happen.

Too often, leaders proudly tell their people what to do: micromanagers. Over time, the staff and management become yes-men. From there, the leader gets frustrated because his people don’t think for themselves. Because he solved most of the difficult problems, they would have lost their ability to handle difficult challenges effectively. They just run to the leader for the solution. As a result, the leader, especially the CEO, will have to fire the people around him and replace them with more experienced people. Except he will eventually replace those people when the company outgrows them.

Imagine, on the other hand, that you have a team that comes up to you and says, “We have a problem. What should we do?” Instead of solving it, you ask them what they would do if you weren’t there. They may tell you that they will wait for you to return. (That answer could be very problematic.) Instead of being upset, that’s a training moment. That’s the time to use your experience to ask the right questions instead of solving it. Now imagine that eventually the same team comes to you and says, “We have a problem. I know you’re going to ask these questions. I’ve already thought about them. This is where I’m at. Now I’m stuck.” At that moment, you, as the leader, can know the answer. That’s the time to ask them questions they haven’t asked themselves. As that team evolves, they could easily solve problems without you. What you’ll eventually hear is “We had a major problem two weeks ago. It was partly our fault and partly the customers’ fault. We take full responsibility and this is how we fixed it. I just thought you should know. Oh and stop By the way, The customer loved how we fixed the problem. He called one of his customers and sent them over to us.”

When your team reaches that level, they are ready for new and more challenging possibilities: the new problem you create. That new problem is better if it breaks into an untapped market and generates new revenue. Even that new possibility will arise because you, as a leader, have begun to ask yourself questions that you have never asked yourself before. What questions are you asking?