To Solve Your Team's Problems or Not?

You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb it himself”.

-- Andrew Carnegie

Every once in a while you are going to come up against performance issues on your team. Someone is not meeting deadlines consistently, work not up to standard, commitment level just doesn’t seem to be there. What do you do? Do you tell them how to solve the issue or ask them if they still want to work there? Hopefully not.


As the leader, you know what the expectations are because you set them, does the individual with the problem understand this? It is time for a face-to-face conversation to help the person solve their problems – remembering that you are the guide through this conversation, not the director or problem-solver. Three questions can guide the conversation:

1. What can you do to solve this problem? – you are helping them to look for specific details.
2. What obstacles can you see getting in the way of doing this? – you are helping to prepare them for anything that could derail their efforts.
3. When can this be completed? – you are helping them to determine how their time frame fits into the larger team picture, getting commitment to you and themselves.

There will be times when you are asked to offer suggestions or ideas by this person. Be sure that when you provide them, the individual understands you are offering suggestions on how you would work with the situation and they need to evaluate if it will work for them.