Have you ever heard these statements in your work place?

• I’m not paid to think! That’s the boss’s job.
• I’m here to work, not think.
• That’s not my problem.  It’s management’s problem.  They should fix it.

Leading staff in business is a challenge. If you have heard these statements from staff and they frustrate you, don’t give up! By working closely with staff, you can influence how your people view their role in the team.

What are they really saying?

Staff could really be meaning:

• I am not clear on my role.
• I’m not sure how to solve this issue.
• This situation is causing me stress.
• I don’t want the responsibility.
• Thinking ahead, taking initiative and making some decisions are not things I do
• I did ‘think’ once and I got criticised for what I came up with so I’m not making that mistake again.

The Link to Leadership

The approach that staff take in solving problems in the workplace can be due to the ‘culture,’ previous leadership styles, individual self confidence levels or your leadership style.

Are you doing something that encourages people to believe they are “not paid to think?”

A few examples might be micro managing, not spending time with your people, making decisions for staff who should be making decisions themselves, not inviting ideas from staff to solve problems, using an autocratic leadership style when it’s not necessary.

Good Leaders…

• Value contributions from their team. They encourage their team to contribute to the identification of particular issues and then come up with possible solutions.
• Don’t throw issues at people and expect them to come up with the answers straight away.  They spend time with staff and ‘facilitate’ the exposure of the issues and the solutions.
• Listen to their staff and encourage their input.  They believe there is validity in the issues that staff offer, and ask them for ideas to possibly solve the problem.
• Make decisions based on what they have heard and their own intuition.
• Follow through on their decisions. 

As a leader, the key question you need to ask yourself is ‘How do we move people from being problem-centred to solution-focused?”

What do you need to do?

You need to make time to be with your team. Recent research says that effective leaders spend at least 60% of their time with their teams, or with individuals in their teams. Just leaving people on their own and expecting them to think through issues is not leadership. In most cases, staff need assistance to debate ideas and come up with solutions, and then over time, this process will become second nature. 

It is important to use a consistent structure within your discussions:

Focus on the positives:

• What’s going well?
• What’s the result of this going well? (the key to success)
• What will we continue to do?

Then focus on the negatives/problems:

• What’s not going well?
• What’s the implication/result of this occurring? (the key/core of the problem)
• What ideas have we got to fix this?

You must be diligent with your process and don’t allow people to dwell on the problem examples.
Too many people get stuck going over and over the problem.

Help staff to identify the ‘core’ of the problem and then provide them with time to come up with ideas to solve the problem. The leader’s job is to keep the analysis moving towards some productive conclusion.

Be careful not to give the impression that once staff have offered an idea, it means that it will be actioned. Staff need to understand that you are keen to hear what they think and you will take this on board when you make the final decision. 

What are you really doing?

There are additional benefits to what you are doing:

• Increasing staff self confidence as they see that their ideas are being listened to
• Encouraging ownership and ‘buy in’ from the team
• Building trust
• Demonstrating teamwork - ‘a number of heads are better than one’
• Increasing self responsibility – people coming up with their own solutions
• Setting the scene for staff to feel confident to take initiative, think and contribute to decisions in the future

Making progress

Your leadership style has a big bearing on how people operate.

There are some decisions that staff can make themselves by using the above process and then there are decisions that staff can contribute to.

You must remember for certain decisions, you are the leader and it is your responsibility to set the direction and make the final decision.

Tracy Cooper is an experienced facilitator of change processes at an Organisational, Team and/or individual skill level. She is also one of the founding Directors of the Brisbane based company SeeChange Consulting. SeeChange works with organisations to facilitate successful change by maximising the productivity of the people. 

Connect with Tracy:

Website: See Change Consulting