The Chief Problem Solver

A jigsaw puzzle with a single piece missing.

When I was first promoted into a leadership role, I was a very good finance analyst. My first leadership role was managing a group of financial analysts. I knew the role extremely well and I assumed financial analysis was the key skill needed. Whenever someone had a problem, I had a pretty good idea of what the answer was. It felt rewarding, after all I was helping everyone on the team. I was the chief problem solver. In fact, I reveled in that role, it felt so good to be useful and my boss appreciated my contribution.

My Greatest Leadership Weakness

It took about ten years for my greatest leadership weakness to reveal itself. As I write about in my book, I reached the limit of my leadership competence. Overnight, I went from the leader who could do no wrong, to the one who could do nothing right. My weakness went all the way back to my first leadership role. Being the chief problem solver isn’t sustainable. The better I got at solving other people’s problems, the busier I became. This also meant the people around me were relying on me more and more. It felt good but it was a recipe for disaster. I became the chief bottleneck and limiter.

I was lucky to have a coach at this time and Scott quickly showed me the error of my ways. I had to figure out how to scale my leadership instead of becoming the limiter. My role was to empower and enlarge the people around me, not try to do it myself. In a meeting with Scott a while later he asked me to check in. How was I doing, what was on my mind? I responded I was worried. Not about anything in particular but I had a very uneasy feeling. Things were quiet and I wasn’t in the midst of a crisis. I had time to think and decide where to focus my attention.

Learning To Scale My Leadership

Scott asked me why I was anxious. Whenever I felt like this, it usually meant I wasn’t paying enough attention to what was going on. Something bad was about to happen because of my lack of attention. Scott laughed. Could it be that you’ve become a better leader and the things around you now run more smoothly. And you don’t need to be in the middle of everything?

He was right, it was the first sign I was no longer the chief problem solver. I was becoming a leader who focused on how he could help the people around him to grow their contribution. I was learning how to scale my leadership instead of being a bottleneck.

 

 

 

 

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