As you move into or consider moving into a leadership role, you have likely noticed that it can be both rewarding and difficult. Rewarding in that you get to make a difference for people and get things done. Difficult in that it is a never-ending problem-solving effort. As soon as you resolve one problem, another one appears.
While the following statement falls short of fully defining leadership, I think it’s fair to say that leadership is about solving these problems. Part of what makes leadership difficult is that many of the problems you face are multi-faceted and intertwined with no single solution.
For example, you need to delegate a project responsibility to one of your team members in order to give them a development opportunity and to free your time to work on other issues. As you are discussing their responsibilities and your expectations, they feel like you have been condescending in your approach, and they get offended.
You started the conversation with one problem: getting the project off of your plate and on to theirs. You now have (at least) two problems: the business problem you started with and their feeling of offense.
One is a business problem. The other is a relationship problem. Even though they are different and call for different solutions, they are deeply intertwined and interconnected. It is this intertwined and interconnected nature that makes these situations so difficult to resolve. It is both easy and tempting to see them – to define them – as one problem when they are actually two.
In moments like this, I find it helpful to remember a statement often attributed to the American business leader and inventor Charles Kettering:
“A problem well stated is half solved.”
The point being that defining a problem well and accurately is a major step towards solving it. Likewise, defining a problem inaccurately can stop you from solving it.
The business problem in the example above is about time management and resource allocation. It’s easy to define and to resolve. You have other things to do, and it would be good for the business if you focused on these other issues. This thing you need to delegate is also important, and you need someone to take care of it. Pretty simple and straightforward.
The relationship problem is more difficult to define and resolve. Did you cause the problem by how you approached them? Are they too sensitive? Is there a different, unresolved issue between you that is now coming to the surface? Is there something else at play in their life that you don’t know about? These questions and others form the list of potential reasons for – and frame the solutions to – the relationship problem now before you.
A step towards resolving these two problems successfully starts with realizing that they are two problems rather than one and then focusing your attention on one problem at a time. Whether you focus on the business or the relationship problem first depends on your time constraints, your relationship history, and other factors specific to the situation at hand.
When you find yourself in a situation like this, remember that you have two simultaneous problems to solve. Trying to solve both at the same time will likely lead to more confusion and frustration. Ignoring either problem also leads to bad outcomes.
The art of leadership is learning to read the situation, recognizing that you have two problems to solve, picking the one you need to solve first, and then solving that one so you can quickly focus on the other one.
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