As a leader you face problems almost every single day. How do you deal with conflict? How do you jump start growth? How do you survive an economic downturn? In the next two episodes, we're gonna talk about problem solving. I call it problem solving like a boss. This is the "Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast." Well Wwelcome to another episode of the "Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast" where we are building your leadership 20 minutes at a time. If it's your first time with us, I'll tell you a little bit about what we do. We release a new teaching on leadership on the first Thursday of each month, and I want to just encourage you to hit the Subscribe button wherever you consume this content. That way it'll come to you, and you can grow in your leadership and make a bigger difference wherever you are. Also I would encourage you to process this information with your team member. It's really helpful to go through this with others on our team. In fact we've got something to send to you. It's called a Leader's Guide. If you'd like to process and ask and answer questions, just go to life.church/leadershippodcast. Hit the little blue button, give us your email, and then on the first Thursday of the month we'll send you the Leader's Guide so you can process this with your team. Also I just wanna say a big, big thank you to those of you that are posting on social media or inviting your friends. In fact this month we're gonna repost a lot of your posts. So if you do post something, just be sure and mention my name or use the #leadershippodcast. We'll look for those, and then we're gonna invite others as you're inviting them through your different channels. We're talking about something today that I know will apply to a lot of you because here's what I know about every organization in the world, and that is this. You have problems to be solved. You've got challenges that you need to address. You've got tension to manage. I don't know what it might be for you, but chances are pretty good you're either understaffed or you're overstaffed. You might be short on capital, or you're short on time. You might have customer service problems. You might have morale issues. Your team might lack a sense of urgency. You might be facing a lawsuit. You might be losing your lease. Maybe you can't get a permit to build where you wanna build. Maybe you're church is aging or is declining, or maybe it's growing so fast you can barely keep up. We all have problems right? That's why in the next two episodes, we're gonna talk about problem solving. I'm calling it "Problem Solving Like a Boss." Let's talk about it. If you Google problem solving, you'll likely find too many articles to count, and let me tell you what you're gonna see whenever you research how to solve problems. You're gonna see some format of this type of content. It's good, it's helpful, but it's very, very predictable. You're gonna find that you should identify the problem. You'll read something about considering the options. Someone will teach you need to commit to a decision or direction, or attempt to find a solution. Then you're gonna implement whatever your decision is, and then you're gonna evaluate the outcome, and you're gonna find good and helpful predictable articles about problem solving, and that is very good advice. But what I wanna do in these episodes is I wanna take a slightly different approach. Instead of thinking with linear thoughts as I typically do, what I wanna try to do is give you some images or some phrases that I hope will stick in your mind, and that way you can pull them to your memory and apply them the way that will help you become better at solving problems. Let's start off with this idea. What we're gonna do first of all is we're gonna change how we see ourselves and we're gonna change how we see problems. Let's start with ourselves, and acknowledge very likely that in your business or non-profit or whatever, you very likely have a title. What's your title? You might be the Brand Manager, the Sales Director, the Missions Pastor, the Marketing Manager. You might be the CEO, Chief Executive Officer. You might be the CIO, the Chief Information Officer. Maybe in my world you're the SP, you're the Senior Pastor. You're the YP, you're the Youth Pastor. You're the NIWWLL, the New Intern Who Won't Last Long. I don't know what your title is, but the big first thought, and we're gonna look at six in the next two episodes. Number one, I wanna encourage you to expand your title to include CPS. You're not just the CFO or the CIO, you're also the CPS. Since you're the leader, you're the CPS. What does that stand for? You are a Chief Problem Solver. That's what you are. Expand your title to see your role as the CPS, the Chief Problem Solver. In other words, solving problems isn't something that you dread, it's something that you do. It's who you are. The honest truth is that anyone can point out a problem. You see this all the time at meetings. Hey, I don't like this, hey this isn't working. Anyone can point out a problem, but a leader does something about it. You are a CPS. Now let's just tell the truth. I don't know many leaders, including me for example, for years and years, who would get really excited about being in a meeting and someone says, "Hey, we have a problem." In the past whenever someone would say that for me my blood pressure might rise, my heart rate would increase, I'd brace myself. What I wanna do is encourage you to adjust your mindset. Instead of panicking when you hear there's a problem, change your mindset because problems are opportunities in disguise. Let's say it again. Problems are opportunities in disguise. This isn't just something to tweet, it's something to embrace. In fact think about it. What is almost every business? Almost every business is a solution to a problem. What is your non-profit? What is your ministry? In most cases, it is a solution to a problem. You're providing people with support. You're giving people answers. You're meeting needs. Essentially you are solving problems. So we don't dread, deny, or run away from problems as leaders, we solve them. We are Chief Problem Solvers. So when you think about it in your organization, the value you bring is a reflection of the problems you solve. The value that you bring to your organization is a reflection of the problems that you solve. If for example, my first job was at JCPenney's, the department store. And JCPenney's just like all organizations had lots of problems. The problem that I solved as my job is I was the clothes hanger problem solver. That was my job, that was the problem that I solved. To give you context, there were seven different types of clothes hangers. And whenever a customer would buy a piece of clothing, then the employee or the cashier would take a coat hanger and throw it in a box. Here was the problem, the coat hangers would get tangled. My job was to solve that problem. I'd have to untangle the coat hangers and then put each one on one of appropriate seven different racks to put them in the right place so they could be reused at the right time. Now the unfortunate issue you can probably figure out is this was a relatively easy problem to solve. You don't need a Master's degree, you don't need a Bachelor's degree. You don't even need a driver's license to qualify to solve this problem. And therefore, my compensation reflected the simplicity of the problem that I solved. The value of my coat hanger problem solving skills was $2.65 an hour, because the value that I brought was a reflection of the problem that I solved. Now think about this. According to "Business Insider" this year JCPenney's planned to close 27 department stores. If imagine the current CEO could turn around those 27 stores from being troubled to being profitable. And imagine if he or she opened up maybe seven new JCPenney stores. Then I would argue all day long, he or she should be compensated a lot of money, why? Because they solved a really, really big problem. The value that you bring is a reflection of the problems that you solve. If you wanna make a bigger difference, solve bigger problems. If you wanna make more of a significant difference, solve more problems. What are you? You are the Chief Problem Solver. Instead of running from problems, dreading them, ignoring them, we attack 'em because they are opportunities in disguise. You're not just a leader that adds value somewhere. You're a leader that solves significant problems therefore you add significant value. What are you? Number one, you are the CPS. You're the Chief Problem Solver. Number two, sticky thought hopefully, is this. Don't be an ostrich. Whatever you do, don't lead with your head in the sand, you have to acknowledge where you have real problems. This sounds ridiculously obvious, but I think we need to say it. I'm guessing that there are people in your organization that are bothered by problems that you're either ignoring or you don't even know that they exist. They're are people deeper in your organization that are very aware of problems, issues, challenges, and you're either ignoring them hoping they're gonna go away, or you're not even aware of them. In other words, you might be 14% over budget and you're either ignoring it, you're hoping it's gonna work itself out, or you haven't been looking at the numbers, and you don't have a clue. Perhaps you lead a non-profit and your volunteers are burning out and you've got no idea. Maybe you've lost three employees recently, and you have no idea that the manager that's really good with you, is over bearing and costing you great employees, running off very good people. Don't be an ostrich. Take your head out of the sand. In fact I like what Zig Ziglar said, he said this. He said, "The first step to solving a problem "is to recognize that the problem exists." You gotta take your head outta the sand. Lemme offer to you another great resource and that is Jim Collins classic book "Good to Great." If you have not read "Good to Great," stop this podcast right now, go and read that book, and then come back. That is incredibly valuable. One of the things that Jim says is this, "You must confront the brutal facts." Don't be an ostrich, take your head out of the sand. He writes about something called the Stockdale Paradox. It's named after James Stockdale who was a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, and he suffered massively for eight years, but somehow survived. The paradox that Collins writes about is this, we are to, and I quote, "retain absolute faith "that you can and will prevail in the end, "and at the same time, confront the most brutal facts "of your current reality." In other words, we're looking at the problem and saying yes, this is a problem, I acknowledge it. But we know that we will overcome, we will prevail. I'll say it again. You retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end. At the same time, you're not an ostrich. You confront the most brutal facts of your current reality. Now, how do we do that, how do we confront the brutal facts? One of the most important tools for us to develop in any organization is a strong pipeline of consistent and honest upward communication. We have to work very hard to develop this strong, honest, upward pipeline of communication. Why do we need to do this? Think about gravity. Where does the apple fall? An apple falls down, it never falls up. The same is true in most organizations when it comes to communication. Downward communication tends to happen naturally. The boss says it and everyone else carries it out, and takes the communication downward. But upward communication must be way more intentional. Here's what happens, there's a small problem in an organization. And you as a leader, you really don't even know that the problem exists. The team member that knows about the problem may not have the authority, the power, or the resources to solve the problem if he or she knows exists. And because she doesn't want to be a whiner, she doesn't' tell anyone. So what happens? The small problem doesn't fix itself, it grows and becomes a bigger problem. You find out about it later on, it's a big problem now, and you're like why in the world didn't somebody tell me about this problem earlier! And the answer could be any number of reasons. It could be the person who knew about it was afraid to tell you about it, because the last time someone talked about a problem, they got yelled at. It could be that they tried to tell their supervisor, and their supervisor didn't listen. It may be that they wanted to let somebody know, but they didn't have any good channel of upward communication. They had no access to their leaders. So we have to remember this. We don't just solve problems in the corner office. We also solve them at the front desk. In other words, we're solving problems at every level of the organization. We wanna empower the people who are on the front lines to have the resources, have the authority to at least communicate upwardly, or even better yet, to confront the problems head on and to bring solutions themselves. The reality is this, your team members are often thinking of solutions to problems that you don't even know exist. I wanna say it again. You got great people. They recognize this is an issue that needs to be solved. They see a solution, and they see a solution before you even know about the problem. That's why we have to work to intentionally create a clear path of upward communication. You may want more details on how do we do that, and I hope to bring you a future podcast. I've got the title, it's "Learning How to Speak Up," and we'll talk more about how to build upward communication. Now, let's assume you discover there's a problem. It's not a huge issue, it's a small problem. What do we know about small problems? Small problems are actually big problems that haven't matured yet. That's why as leaders we want to work hard to see problems early and solve them quickly. You're the CPS, that's what you do. You're gonna pull your head outta the sand. You're gonna be honest. You're gonna confront the brutal facts, and you're gonna solve problems early, and solve them quickly. Why? Because leaders could solve more problems if they weren't so busy denying them. Let that sink in. If you'll tell the truth, if you'll dive in, if you confront the brutal facts, you can solve more problems if you weren't so buys denying them. You are the CPS. Number three, what are we gonna do? We're gonna kill the roots, not just pick the leaves. Kill the roots, not just pick the leaves. What does this mean? So often we misdiagnose the problem. As leaders, we often end up treating the symptom rather than solving the problem. What do we need to do? To get to the root of the problem, we wanna lead with questions, not assume the answers. We're gonna lead with questions. For example, I had a problem and I went to see a physical therapist, and he asked me question after question after question after question after question after question, and I thought this is a relatively simple problem. I asked him why did you ask so many questions. He said, "Well I train myself to ask 21 questions, "so that I'm not assuming the answer." Then I asked him, when did you think that you knew the diagnosis to my shoulder problem? He said, "Before I asked the first question, "but I train myself, don't go with my assumptions." That's what you wanna do, you wanna ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. You're digging beneath the surface. For example, let's just say, you might come to me and say "I have a problem." And so I'll say what's your problem? You might say, "The problem is my staff is grumpy." I would say that's probably a symptom, but not the root of the problem. Then I might ask you, why is your staff grumpy? You might say, "Well because they're tired." Again that's probably a symptom. My next question is, why do you think they're tired? You might say, "Well they're working too much." Probably a symptom. My next question, I'm digging deeper is why do you think they're working too much? You might say, "Well because we're understaffed." See we're getting closer. Then I might say, why are we understaffed? You might tell me again, "Well four out of seven "of our staff members quit in the last quarter." And then I'm getting close to what I'm gonna ask you, why are we losing so many staffers? I tell our team this, that we're probably three to seven questions away from finding the root cause of the problem. So important. If we find out four people have left, then I wanna ask, well who left, why did they leave? Were these four people in the same department? Were they under the same manager? Did we not give them clear expectations? Did we not give them solid feedback? Did we not give them sincere affirmation? Did we not give them fair and meaningful compensation? I wanna get down to the root of the issue, and that reflects all the way up to why staff members are grumpy today. In other words, we're not picking leaves, they're grumpy, we're killing roots. We're finding out why we have turnover. We're working to solve the problem, not treat the symptoms. Now, on a side note, you're team members? We have to be very careful when they're underperforming. This is super, super important. If the quality of their work is suffering, or they seem distracted or tense, sometimes we're judging them based on a symptom like their work is suffering. When the root issue might be they have a mom that's dying, they have a kid that's on drugs, they have a spouse that has cancer, or maybe they just have too much work to do. When it comes to our team members, we have to remember the people who serve your organization, they are more that problems to be solved, they are people to be loved. Let's dig in and find out the root of the issue. So we're not an ostrich, we're a CPS, Chief Problem Solver. We're not picking leaves, we're killing roots. In the next episode, we're gonna dive deeper. And three more ideas that I believe will add value to you. Let's review briefly this content, and then we'll look at application questions. The first thing is we're expanding our title. You're the Chief Problem Solver. Solving problems is not something you do, it's who you are. Problems are opportunities in disguise. In fact when you think about it, the value that you bring is a reflection of the problems you solve. If you wanna make a bigger difference, you're gonna solve bigger problems. Number two, you're not an ostrich. We're taking our head out of the sand, as Zig said it, the first step to solving a problem is to recognize that it exists. What is the paradox? Whenever we have a problem we're gonna retain absolute faith you can and will prevail in the end. But at the same time, you're gonna confront the most brutal facts of your current reality. We're creating a pipeline of upward and honest communication because you're team is often thinking of solutions to problems you don't even know exist. Number three, we're killing the roots, not just picking the leaves. We're working to solve the problem, not just treat the symptom. Now to get rid of the root problem, we're gonna lead with questions and not answers. We as a CPS, we're working hard to see problems early and solve them quickly because leaders could solve more problems if we weren't so busy denying them. Application questions. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is what you'll wanna process with your team members. Number one, I wanna encourage you to clearly define what problem you're trying to solve. Are you certain that you're addressing the root and not treating the symptom. Very important, define clearly what you're trying to solve. Then you wanna make sure that you're addressing the root and not treating the symptom. In other words if you've got low revenue, that might be a symptom, but the root of the problem might be that you've got weak team members or toxic culture. If you're leading a non-profit and you've got declining attendance in your church. That might be the problem, or the root might be you've got a loss of vision or you become inwardly focused, or you've got judgemental, mean spirited church members. Sorry to call it that, but it might be the case. If you can't define it, you can't fix it. You're gonna clearly define the problem you're trying to solve, and then ask yourself are you certain you're addressing the root and not treating the symptom? The second question has two parts. Here's part one. On a scale of one to 10, what's the quality of upward communication you're receiving from your team? Scale of one to 10, the quality of upward communication you're getting. 'Cause if you can't get right information, accurate, clear, specific and timely, you're in big trouble. Now here's the second part. I want you to ask your team members for this information. If you can get it anonymously, it's even better. Maybe pass a piece of paper and a pen around to everybody on your team, and have them write a number, and here's what you wanna have them write. On a scale of one to 10, how open and available is senior management to hearing my ideas. You wanna hear that from your team. Here's my hunch based on years of leadership experience. Management's number, those who are above, is almost always higher than those who are on the front lines. Almost always, and here's the truth. You cannot make strong decisions without accurate information. If you aren't receiving good information from your team, this is a problem. But the good news is you are the Chief Problem Solver. If you have a problem, you've got an opportunity in disguise. Confront it, because you cannot change what you're not going to confront. Make the change. And then help your organization get better. Because everyone wins when the leader gets better. I wanna thank you for being a part of our leadership community. If this is helpful to you, it would mean the world to me if you would write a review or rate the content. Be sure and hit Subscribe, and then please do invite your friends to be a part, share on social media. Again, tell us that you're doing this, just link to my name and we will repost some of those this month. We'll see you again with another leadership episode. Hey, as a leader don't feel so much pressure. Show up, bring you. Because we say it all the time, people would rather follow a leader who's always real, than one who's always right. Thank you for joining us at the "Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast." If you wanna go even deeper into this episode, and get the leadership guide or show notes, you can go to life.church/leadershippodcast. You can also sign up to have that information delivered straight to your inbox every month. In the meantime, you can subscribe to this podcast, rate and review it on iTunes and share with your friends on social media. Once again, thank you for joining us at the "Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast."
