Seven Years On, Reflections on Your Oxygen Mask First: Stop Being Chief Problem Solver

“Give a man a fish, he eats for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.”

-Chi­nese proverb

As I reflect back on Stop Being Chief Prob­lem Solver (chap­ter 12 of Your Oxy­gen Mask First) this is an area where many oth­er peo­ple – myself includ­ed – get stuck.

I get that it’s hard to watch some­one strug­gle – and so much faster and eas­i­er to answer a ques­tion and move on.

But if you take the time to coach peo­ple through their prob­lems, you’ll have far more free­dom in the long run, and a much shrewder team.

Oth­er­wise, lead­ers get buried in low-val­ue prob­lems and don’t ded­i­cate enough ener­gy to the future of the company.

Enable Suc­cess

Instead of being Chief Prob­lem Solver, it’s far more effec­tive to clear­ly artic­u­late your goals and expec­ta­tions and then teach and guide peo­ple to think for them­selves and present you with rec­om­men­da­tions. You’ll boost their con­fi­dence, expand their abil­i­ties and force them to be stronger leaders.

Only then can you have the time, breath­ing space and ener­gy to focus on things that mat­ter to you.

Of course, you’ve got to have enough of the right peo­ple on the team. Peo­ple who are the right fit for the role and capa­ble enough to mas­ter their areas of respon­si­bil­i­ty, and sup­port­ed by the right men­tor­ship, learn­ing and development.

Watch the video: Stop Being Chief Prob­lem Solver

Good Inten­tions

It’s inter­est­ing that even peo­ple who are very good at not being a Chief Prob­lem Solver can get tripped up sometimes.

In my case, when I’m in the mode of pure­ly lead­ing or facil­i­tat­ing, I find it much eas­i­er (although I’m not per­fect at it) to ask a lot of ques­tions and get peo­ple to make recommendations.

But, on top­ics I’ve stud­ied in great detail, or have writ­ten or talked about, I can switch modes to become Chief Prob­lem Solver, in a mat­ter of seconds,

While under­neath the sur­face are good inten­tions and a desire to help, in senior lead­er­ship roles, it’s usu­al­ly a bad idea to acti­vate your inner teacher where it’s not wel­comed, appre­ci­at­ed or helpful.

The Chal­lenge

• If your team isn’t com­ing to you most of the time with rec­om­men­da­tions, you might want to go through the exer­cis­es in the chapter.

Your Oxy­gen Mask First Resources

• Page 166 – Four Steps to Mastery

Oth­er Blogs

• How Lead­ers Should Spend their Time
• The Shift from Chief Prob­lem Solver to Strate­gic CEO
• How to Teach Peo­ple to Think for Themselves

Old­er Podcasts

• I’m Wor­ried that I’m Micro­manag­ing my Team. What Should I Do?