Bring me Problems, not Solutions

There’s a meme circulating on the internet called the bell curve meme, or the midwit meme. It points out funny things that newbies do, compared to the prevailing wisdom of the masses, compared to the insight of the experts. The joke is that the experts often mirror the newbies.

I haven’t seen the meme applied to technology leadership, but I thought I’d give it a try.

“Don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions,” says the leader, feeling smart, strong, and confident. With this one, striking command, he’s fixed all of his problems and empowered his team… Or has he?

It’s compelling. It sounds wise. It makes sense. It seems relevant to a whole host of situations.

In this article, I’ll challenge that thinking, but before I get to that, I’d like to explain how leaders mature to the point where this thinking makes sense.

The new leader

Think back to your first leadership job. How did you get it? This isn’t always the case, but often you get promoted because you’re the smartest person on the team, or the most experienced. You’ve exhibited some leadership skills in unofficial capacities, and finally, someone takes a chance on you and makes it official. That’s a special moment. I remember when that happened to me.

Since you are the smartest or the most experienced on the team, it’s natural for your team members to come to you to solve the most difficult issues. You’ve been around, seen it all, and they haven’t. It’s only natural for you to serve your team in that capacity.

Without stating it, your leadership philosophy is “Bring me problems, not solutions.” It’s implied that the people bringing you problems don’t know the solutions, but they trust that you do.

As a new leader, you quickly learn that your capacity is extremely constrained. You only have time to work on the most difficult issues, so you use every opportunity to develop your team members, so they gain more of the knowledge that only you possess. In turn, they become more self-sufficient and only bring you the really hairy problems.

The experienced leader

About this time in your career, you read this compelling quote somewhere on LinkedIn: “Bring me solutions, not problems.”

That sounds brilliant, so you put it into practice. The next time one of your team members comes to you with a problem, you ask them to go back and see if they can figure it out. Perhaps you get a little pushback, because they were used to relying on you for support, but they trust your leadership, so they go back and work on it.

Maybe they succeeded. Maybe they failed. You don’t know because you’re no longer involved. You make a mental note of this and follow up at your next one-on-one to find out how it went. It turns out, they figured it out. Fantastic. High-fives all around. Your new leadership philosophy is paying off.

Time passes. Your team adapts to your evolved leadership style. You no longer hear about problems. This is great. You’ve led your team well and they seemingly take care of things without burdening you. You’ve got more time on your hands and your team members are developing. All is well… or so you thought.

Then one day, you find out about a big problem. It is severe and exacerbated. You didn’t find out about it from your team but from your customers, peers, or boss. It’s embarrassing because it went down on your watch, within your team. Frantic, you gather your team together to find out what is going on. It turns out, they all knew about the problem. They were busy trying to figure out the solution. The things they were trying weren’t working and as time went on, things got even worse.

When you asked why no one brought you into the loop, you didn’t need to wait for an answer, you knew immediately: You just trained them not to bring you problems, but only to bring you solutions.

Wow, did that ever backfire.

The advanced leader

You want your team members to work, learn, and figure things out independently. You also want to be informed. You want to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s really going on. You can’t afford to be detached or aloof. You’ve learned that “no news is good news” isn’t actually true. Ignorance is not bliss.

You need to reopen the door you closed. You invite your team to share their problems with you, even if they don’t have solutions. You coach, consult, and steer them based on your perspective, wisdom, and experience. You point them in the right direction. You invite them to connect with you again frequently, especially for sensitive issues.

This gets you the best of both worlds. Your team members are smart and capable, but some things happen that are beyond what they can handle. That’s okay. It’s good to shine the light on the unsightly problems. It’s good to provide help when it’s needed.

Now that you are in the loop, you can evaluate how long to let your team member work on the issue or when it’s time for you to intervene directly.

“Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” has run its course. Ironically, we’re back where we started: “Bring me problems, not solutions.” Let’s look at the most difficult problems together and develop the solutions together. Between the two of us, we’ll figure it out.

Read this article on my blog site or listen to it on my podcast🎙️