Transparent communication requires you to break down silos and enable a boundary-less organization whose culture is focused on the betterment of a healthier whole. This is where a leader must trust herself and her intuition enough to challenge the team until accountability can be fairly enforced and a solution can been reached. As fundamental as communication may sound, don’t ever assume that people are comfortable sharing what they really think. Once all voices have been heard and all points of view accounted for, the leader (with her team) can collectively map-out a path toward a viable and sustainable solution. Effective communication towards problem solving happens because of a leader’s ability to facilitate an open dialogue between people who trust her intentions and feel that they are in a safe environment to share why they believe the problem happened as well as specific solutions. That is why when those involved in the problem would rather not express themselves – fearing they may threaten their job and/or expose their own or someone else’s wrong-doing – the problem solving process becomes a treasure hunt. Yes, communication is a fundamental necessity. I’ve seen one too many times how difficult it is to get to the root of the matter in a timely manner when people do not speak-up. Problem solving requires transparent communication where everyone’s concerns and points of view are freely expressed. Whether you are a leader for a large corporation or a small business owner, here are the four most effective ways to solve problems. The ROI from how we handled this problem helped open our eyes to many elements that were previously being overlooked – and in the long run it helped enable us to grow the business. This experience taught us many lessons about our company and helped us to avoid many unforeseen problems. Rather than viewing this problem simply as a hurdle that could potentially lose us the client, we took proactive measures (and a financial investment) to show our new client that we were capable of not only solving the problem – but earning their trust by responding promptly and efficiently with a comprehensive step-by-step incident report that included our change management efforts. Instead of panicking, we took a problem solving approach that involved multiple steps and resulted in a full-blown change management effort with our label supplier, manufacturer, trucking company and client. As circumstances would have it, this was the first shipment to a new client that was “testing” our new products in 200 stores with an opportunity to expand our distribution to over 2500 stores nationally. When I launched my first venture in the food industry, we had a problem with the adhesion of the labels to the glass jar packaging of our products that affected nearly 20% of an initial shipment. They never realize that, in the end, all problems are the same – just packaged differently.Ī leader must never view a problem as a distraction, but rather as a strategic enabler for continuous improvement and opportunities previously unseen.
As such, they never see the totality of what the problem represents that it can actually serve as an enabler to improve existing best practices, protocols and standard operating procedures for growing and competing in the marketplace. Leaders who lack this wisdom approach problems with linear vision – thus only seeing the problem that lies directly in front of them and blocking the possibilities that lie within the problem. Silos, lack of budgets and resources, and many other random acts or circumstances also make it harder for people to be productive. But the reality of the workplace finds us dealing with people that complicate matters with their corporate politicking, self-promotion, power-plays and ploys, and envy. We must be resilient in our quest to create and sustain momentum for the organization and people we serve. As leaders, the goal is to minimize the occurrence of problems – which means we must be courageous enough to tackle them head-on before circumstances force our hand. Problem solving is the essence of what leaders exist to do. In the process, we fail to solve the core of each problem we are dealt thus we continuously get caught in the trap of a never-ending cycle that makes it difficult to find any real resolutions. Problems keep mounting so fast that we find ourselves taking short-cuts to temporarily alleviate the tension points – so we can move onto the next problem. With as many problems as we are all faced with in our work and life, it seems as if there is never enough time to solve each one without dealing with some adversity along the way.
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