The best leader is one who coaches their employees to find resolutions. As an Executive Coach, I’ve worked with numerous businesses and one thing remains true; the leaders who stymied their staff from being problem-solvers cannot create sustainable business growth.
The ability to problem-solve is no joke, it’s the first things we parents/guardians set out to teach our young ones. Why? We want them to be able to successfully tackle every obstacle they come across. The same applies in the workplace because learning never, ever stops. An accountable, resolution-focused employee literally has the power to maintain and grow customer relationships or…set them on fire by failing to act.
As a leader, it is YOUR job to turn your employees into problem-solvers. Here are three steps that will help you create resolution-oriented staff.
Coach Your Staff on Accountability
One thing you must realize by now, is that I am a proud advocate for accountability in the workplace. Here’s the thing:
Demanding accountability in everything that we do and ask the team to do as leaders is essential to our success.
Nathan Jamail, The Leadership Playbook
Accountability teaches our staff to problem-solve by embedding the need to show and own responsibility for their job and how they represent the business.
Problem-solvers cannot Coexist with Micromanagers
We must coach our teams and hold them accountable in the same way the best parents and sports coaches do—not to micromanage, stifle creativity, or take away their authority, but to push them to be better and win. Micromanagers usually only get involved in the negative, so the opportunity to actually coach in order to enable problem-solving skills is never realized. This is why I hate micromanaging; it enables codependence on the leader and no effective leader should encourage sheep-like team members.
By removing our egos and trusting our staff, it removes us as the nexus of all decision-making. One person doeth not make a company; all decisions cannot flow through or be resolved by just a singular individual. (Oh yeah baby, I dropped a doeth, so you know I’m serious :-P).
The best leaders coach their staff on what to do, how to do it and what to do when there is an inevitable issue. Staff should be empowered to problem-solve (we’ll talk a little bit about that in a moment) by applying accountability as they’ve been coached to practice.
Staff Empowerment = Problem-Solvers
Empowerment is a word that gets thrown around often but not often practiced as it should be in the workplace. Let’s consult our good friend, Merriam-Webster dictionary, to define it:
- the act or action of empowering someone or something: the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties
- the state of being empowered to do something : the power, right, or authority to do something
I feel as though this summarizes it all and is a mic drop moment. When we apply servant leadership, that is to serve up to our leaders, serving out to peers and coaching down to our teams- it encourages empowerment amongst our staff. By empowering them to resolve a problem on their own, they become accountable to that resolution and thus become problem-solvers.
Final Thoughts
Micromanaging is not coaching nor is it a good or sustainable leadership habit. Empowering your team to become problem-solvers allows everyone to do the job that they were hired to do. They become accountable to that position and are empowered to own it. A great leader shares his knowledge through coaching and allows their team to shine.
