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In This Episode:
It sounds like good advice for building independent thinkers on your team. But requiring a solution before someone can bring you a problem quietly trains people to hide the problems they can’t solve, and that’s exactly when you need to know about them most. This episode breaks down why the rule backfires and what to do instead: coach people through problems rather than solving them for them or blocking them from reaching you at all.
What You’ll Learn
- Why requiring a solution before someone brings you a problem can cause the worst problems to go unreported
- The difference between wanting people to think independently and punishing them for not already having solved it
- Why reacting badly to bad news, functionally “shooting the messenger,” trains people to stop bringing you news at all
- The “monkey on your back” concept from The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, and why managers who solve every problem for their team become bottlenecks
- How to coach someone through a problem, mistake, or decision with questions instead of taking over, so the next step stays with them
- Why this same principle applies to mistakes and decisions, not just problems
Resources Mentioned
The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Kenneth Blanchard, William Oncken Jr., and Hal Burrows