Why Leaders Keep Solving the Wrong Problems

Let me open up today's episode with a question for you.

Have you ever walked away from a difficult conversation feeling like, man, I nailed this one.

This was absolutely leadership gold only to find yourself having the exact same conversation a month later.

Friend, I have been there myself.

You address the issue, you set the expectations, the team members like, got it boss, I'm on the same page.

Everybody leaves that meeting very optimistic and ready to take the hill.

And then 30 days later, you're right back where you started from.

Has this ever happened to you? Boy, if you've been in leadership any length of time, you can probably say, oh yeah, I have been there.

You know, over the years, I've learned something that has changed the way I lead people.

And I would say it this way, most leaders, they're not bad at solving problems.

They're just solving the wrong problem.

Because most times when we pull that team member into the meeting, we're addressing the issue.

And I don't think it's addressing the issue that's the problem.

You know, you got the courage to do it.

You had the hard conversation.

But sometimes I think we're solving actually the wrong problem.

We naturally, as people, are going to respond to what we see, true? A missed deadline, a poor attitude, declining sales numbers.

We can see this.

There is evidence of these things.

You know that employee that's always late to the meeting? That's concrete data, right? But visible behaviors, these are what I would call symptoms.

They're symptoms.

And the best leaders, they don't stop at the symptom.

The best leaders, man, they become private detectives sometimes.

before they become problem solvers.

They're digging into this thing.