How many problems did you solve today? Or if it’s before 10am, how many did you solve yesterday? If you’re a manager worth your salt, you probably solved a couple few ammiright?
How did it feel? Did you feel the little pump of dopamine even as you read the subject line? Did you think to yourself with anticipation and wry amusement “now, what did those colleagues get themselves into now?” Did your lizard brain – the one that reacts before you react – rub its scaly paws (paws?) together in anticipation of a cluster tangled up good and tight? Because you know that’s what you’re born for. It gets your blood going and the adrenaline singing and makes you perch on the edge of your seat.
Why Managers Like Solving Problems?
As managers problems are almost always an opportunity to get our needs met. We likely got the job of manager because we were good at solving problems and even more likely because we were good at helping other people solve their problems. What does that have to do with our own personal needs? Plenty!
We All Have Needs
According to the emotional intelligence experts and neuropsychologists out there, we human beings come ready made with a set of needs that evolve with us over our lifetime as a result of our nature and nurturing. While we all have a built in need for basics like sustenance and a sense of safety, we each have more nuanced needs like a need for freedom, control, to be heard or to be right. Each of us has a unique set so while I don’t know what yours are, I’ve worked with enough managers to know that many of us get ours satisfied through problem solving.
Satisfying Our Needs
What’s so satisfying about problem solving? Ahh let me count the needs… I’ll take myself for example. Some of my needs are for personal power (initiative taking), to be recognized, to be heard and to be respected. When someone comes to me with a question, they might just as well have brought me a blueberry cheesecake. I get to exert initiative, enjoy being sought out, relish talking through potential solutions and bask in the acknowledgment from others that I was a help. See? Just like eating cheesecake. But instead of satisfying my sweet tooth, it’s satisfying my ego.
What’s So Bad About Solving Problems?
If you’re the only one who can answer a particular question of untangle a particular cluster, there is absolutely nothing wrong with going ahead and indulging. However, if you are robbing someone of their opportunity to learn, stretch and develop by answering them instead of coaching well then, you’ve just taken a piece of cheesecake that wasn’t yours to have. And if you’re complaining about not having enough time or staff or bandwidth to get the big stuff done at the same time you’re swiping other people’s cheesecake, well then…you’re missing out on your chance to lead a bigger badder stronger cheesecake-eating team.
Stop Stealing Cheesecake
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