Home
>
Team Building
>
Grow Your Staff into a Team of Creative Problem Solvers

Grow Your Staff into a Team of Creative Problem Solvers

As a manager, your employees will come to you with situations they don't know how to handle. When they approach you during these times, they are looking to you to give them the solution to the problem. This is understandable with big problems that have significant monetary and time consequences, or that may have a detrimental impact on your company's standing in the eyes of your professional community.

However, often the problems your employees bring you are neither this momentous nor are they so potentially damaging. Most of the time your staff members could come up with creative solutions on their own if encouraged to do so. The recurring problem I see is employees who do not take initiative in proactive problem solving. Why? Either they haven't been told that this is preferable to bringing their problems to the supervisor, or they have attempted to be proactive in solving a problem in the past and have been told their ideas or solutions were irrelevant. When the latter is the case, what motivation do they have to continue coming up with ideas if the boss tells them their ideas are unworkable?

Often, the problems we experience with our employees are ones we unwittingly help create. In the case we've been discussing, if employees continually look to their supervisors to solve their problems it's probably because the supervisors have solved their problems in the past. Rather than encouraging them to find solutions, these supervisors hand their employees solutions. This behavior drains the creativity from the employee and results in frustration, which leads to reluctance-and eventually refusal-to even attempt to look for solutions.

Part of the reason many managers "solve" their staff's problems for them is in the interest of time. Managers tend to have more experience with solving problems and have already discovered solutions that work. Rather than cultivating an employee's ability to think creatively and allowing time for perhaps one or two unworkable solutions before finding a workable one, the manager will just fix it. The result is a staff that brings even the smallest problems to the manager and a manager who becomes frustrated because the staff cannot work independently. This may feel like parenting a group of small children.

Taking from the example of children, children experience a growing sense of confidence and autonomy when they are encouraged to work problems out on their own. True, not all of their solutions are successful; nor are they necessarily the most cost-effective. But when allowed to attempt to solve their own situations, these children can grow in confidence and experience a greater sense of willingness to try first, ask later. Ultimately, they generally grow into autonomous adults who can think creatively and find workable solutions.

While our employees are no longer children, they need similar encouragement to take a step on their own to find solutions. The most creative, entrepreneurial, and forward-thinking companies are those that are willing to find new ways of doing things rather than sticking with the tried-and-true of their competitors.

Cultivate Their Problem Solving Skills

If you experience frustration at the level of problem-solving ability of your staff, make a commitment to yourself to encourage each individual to find their own solutions first. Do this by asking questions. Questions that begin with how and what are excellent for drawing out an employee's thoughts on a situation and encouraging that employee to think independently for a solution:

? What have you already tried?

? How would you like to solve this problem?

? What would you do if you were me?

These are excellent questions you can ask to begin encouraging your staff to think proactively. A huge element to making this strategy successful is that your staff must be able to trust you with their ideas. In other words, if encouragement to solve their problems independently is a new experience for your staff, they will probably be uncomfortable with it at first and reluctant to step out on their own. You must be willing to withhold your own suggestions-even if you know your way is the best way-and allow them to stumble. Encourage them when they do make efforts to solve their own problems, but resist the urge to fix it for them.

Encouraging them through asking questions and giving them time to come up with their own ideas will help increase their level of trust and ultimately reduce the number of times they bring problems to you without having first tried to solve them themselves.

About the author:

Dr. Tracy Peterson Turner works with businesses that want to improve communication among managers, staff, and clients. She is an expert in written and oral communication. Her presentations and workshops help individuals and corporations meet their communication goals. Find out more about Tracy and her company, Managerial Impact, by visiting http://www.mgr-impact.com

housekeepers near Buffalo Grove ..

In The News:

Analysts at Silent Push have uncovered a widespread scam that uses counterfeit retail websites to steal the credit card information of online shoppers.

Chrome users need to update their browsers immediately as Google addresses a critical vulnerability that hackers are actively exploiting. Additional security measures are recommended.

A study found teens glance at phones for dangerous two-second intervals while driving, using devices primarily for entertainment, texting and navigation despite crash risks.

Security researchers uncovered a flaw in Windows 11 that allows attackers to disable Secure Boot using Microsoft-signed tools, requiring manual updates to protect against bootkits.

Carnegie Mellon's noninvasive brain technology allows users to move robotic fingers by thinking about the motion, offering new possibilities for people with motor impairments.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of protection to your accounts. Instead of relying only on a password, MFA requires you to verify your identity using two or more methods.

Scientists from Duke, Harvard, and the University of Otago have unveiled a game-changing tool called DunedinPACNI. It uses a single AI brain scan to reveal how fast a person is biologically aging.

A disturbing wave of fake agent phone scams is sweeping across the United States, catching people off guard and draining their savings.

Emojis aren't just playful add-ons; they're powerful tools for building stronger connections in our increasingly digital world.

Google has taken a major step toward the future of clean energy by partnering with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT spin-out working to build one of the world’s first commercial fusion reactors.

If you create and share art online, you might have seen messages warning that Facebook's parent company, Meta, claims the right to use or even sell anything you post, whether it's pictures, poems, or artwork.

Cybercriminals hit Qantas in a major data breach that exposed information from up to six million customers.

Having reliable, loud, and timely emergency alerts on your phone or device is important because when severe weather strikes, every second counts.

Here's how your daily brew is becoming the foundation for greener buildings.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are transforming how we learn. But what does this mean for AI and learning retention?

Modern AI data centers use much more electricity than traditional cloud servers. In many cases, the existing power grid cannot keep up. One innovative solution is gaining traction: repurposed EV batteries for AI data centers.

Microsoft 365 and Outlook users are being targeted by a tactic that injects fake billing alerts directly into their calendars.

Researchers are now showing us that old smartphones as data centers could be the next big thing in sustainable tech.

Scientists have created micro-robots for sinus infection treatment that can enter the nasal cavity, eliminate bacteria directly at the source, and exit without harming surrounding tissue.

Let's examine how your data is collected in everyday life, who is buying and selling it, what happens to it afterward, and, most importantly, what you can do to protect yourself.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. developed small robots called "Pipebots" that can travel inside water pipes to find and potentially repair leaks, all without any excavation.

A groundbreaking new study has uncovered disturbing AI blackmail behavior that many people are unaware of yet.

Four teams of autonomous humanoid robots competed in China's first AI soccer tournament, demonstrating advanced capabilities in ball detection and independent decision-making.

The ID. Buzz autonomous van features self-driving technology with 13 cameras, nine LiDAR units and five radars after Volkswagen partnered with Hamburg and Uber for 2026 deployments.

Social Security phishing scams use urgency and impersonation to steal personal data. Learn how to spot fake SSA emails and implement 10 protective measures.

Grow Your Staff into a Team of Creative Problem Solvers

Team Building