What You'll Discover In This Episode:
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
That saying rings true at home with your toddlers when you teach them how to sort the blocks through the differently shaped holes, with your teenage children when you teach them how to drive a car, and with your team members when you teach them how to come up with their own answers and solutions.
Just think about a typical day or week in your business. How many “problems” are dropped at your feet to figure out? How many times do your team members knock on your door, email you, or message you through Slack asking for help with a problem they have? My guess and experience say WAY too many.
If you are just readily giving your team members the answers and solutions they seek so you can get back to your work, you are creating a culture in which they will always turn to you for everything without a second thought. You will continue to be interrupted throughout the day because you’re teaching them that you’re the only problem solver in the business. You’re letting them know that you have all the time, energy, and mental bandwidth in the world and thus should be their go-to for every question and problem - even when that isn’t true in the slightest!
Instead, teach your team members to be fishermen by pushing back, training them to make decisions, and empowering them to figure out the answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. In doing so, your team members will start building those muscles, sharpening their skills, and gaining the experience of being problem solvers. Then, the next time a problem arises, you won’t be bothered because you will have created a business full of problem solvers.
In this episode of the Small Business Straight Talk Podcast, I dive into the challenge of being the only problem solver in your business so you can step down from that demanding role, effectively empower your team, and create a business full of competent and capable problem solvers.
