Recently, I worked with a successful business woman who is desperately seeking to implement procedures in her office that will help her to spend less time solving the problems that her staff is constantly running into. She had come to the point where she would constantly keep her office door closed, so she would not be disturbed. She said, “I can never get my work done, or have the opportunity to bring in new business, because I am constantly solving their problems.” So I asked her to repeat that statement again, but asked her to listen to what she had just said.
As repeating it, her eyes opened up wide and she screeched, “Why did I hire them in the first place!” That’s right. Why did you hire these people? You are a leader, not a problem solver; that is why you had hired them. Granted, a few leaders enjoy being known as the problem solver, it gives them an air of importance; but believe me, this process is only encouraging co-dependency relationships and we all know that is not a healthy place to be. Business owners are the leaders of their organization, the visionary whose main mission in the office is to fulfill that vision and expand the business.

 If you are constantly solving everyone else’s problem, then who is solving yours?? Good leaders come to realise that their most able resource in any problem situation is the people around them. Just as problems do not occur in the vacuum, neither do solutions appear from thin air. It is a mistake for leaders to think that they must solve every problem by themselves. Problem solving, like leadership in general, requires participation of others. Input is needed from all those involved (clients, staff, vendors) before a leader can make hard decisions and set direction for an organization.