Overview
When you’re the ultimate problem solver in your business, you become the bottleneck. This video breaks down why owners get trapped solving every problem, how it limits growth, and a systematic approach to develop problem-solving capability in your team.
Key Takeaways
- Being the ultimate problem solver works when you’re small, but becomes unsustainable as problems grow in severity and number
- You must choose between strategic leadership and getting caught in the day-to-day whirlwind
- The fix isn’t dumping problems—it’s developing your team’s ability to solve them independently
Why This Happens
When your business is small, you’re the ultimate problem solver by necessity. Nobody is as incentivized, excited, or invested as you. If something goes wrong at 2am, you’re the one getting up to fix it. You show up repeatedly because you’re building the business, generating cash flow, driving growth, and carrying the vision.
With a small team, this works. The problem is that as the company grows, problems grow both in severity and in number. At some point, you no longer have the time or energy to tackle everything.
The Critical Choice
You end up facing a decision:
- Strategic leadership — Purposefully choosing direction and how to get there
- The whirlwind — Getting caught up in day-to-day problems because the business needs cash flow
Almost everybody chooses the whirlwind. You’ve been so busy solving problems that you never raised up leaders or built systems that could solve problems without you.
Now you have a company with too many problems for one person, and nobody underneath has developed the skill to handle them.
The Socratic Method of Management
Step 1: Flip the problem back
Every time someone brings you a problem, respond with: “How do you think we should solve that?”
This puts the problem back on them and forces them to think through solutions. Their first answers will be rough—remember, you’ve been solving these problems for months or years while they’ve always handed them to you.
Step 2: Guide with questions
Use questions to help them arrive at the right answer:
- “Is that the best way?”
- “Won’t that use up a lot of cash?”
- “What could we do that might take less time?”
- “Is there a way we could band-aid this now and solve it over the weekend?”
When they hit a good answer, affirm it: “That’s a great idea—go execute it.”
Step 3: Build the problem-solving muscle
Within 2-3 months, your team will realize every problem they bring gets pushed back to them. They’ll start:
- Self-solving (ideal, though less common)
- Coming prepared with solution ideas before approaching you
Leveling Up: Require Multiple Solutions
Once your team starts bringing solutions, push further. Require them to bring multiple solutions with each problem.
Now you’re teaching them to evaluate options:
- Some cost too much money
- Some cost too much time
- Some aren’t aligned strategically
Help them reason through these trade-offs.
The Three Skills You’re Building
- Problem solving — The ability to analyze and find solutions
- Decision making — Choosing the right solution from multiple options
- Agency — Taking control and ownership of outcomes
Intent-Based Language
The final level: when someone comes to you, they should communicate with intent-based language:
“There’s a problem with the furnace. I intend to call [vendor] because we don’t have the right parts internally.”
They’re giving you:
- The problem (one sentence)
- Their chosen solution
- The reasoning (they’ve already evaluated risks)
Your only answer should be: “Yes.”
Action Items
- Start responding to every problem with “How do you think we should solve that?”
- Read the HBR article “Who’s Got the Monkey” on delegation
- Read Turn the Ship Around by Captain David Marquet for deep implementation
Resources
Quick read: Harvard Business Review article “Who’s Got the Monkey” — covers how people walk into your office and throw their monkey on your back, and how to throw it right back.
Deep dive: Turn the Ship Around by Captain David Marquet — True story of an underperforming nuclear submarine in the U.S. Navy that became the best-performing sub through intent-based language and pushing problem-solving to the point where the most information exists.