Do you have ‘excellent problem solver’ listed as a core skill on your resume?
We admire people with excellent problem-solving skills. They have the ability to analyse effectively and get to the root cause. Then they determine the best solution and implement this successfully. People who can do this are genuinely valuable to your business.
But is there a skill that is even more valuable than problem solving?
Imagine being a ‘problem preventer’.
You see the potential problem and put strategies in place to prevent it from actually occurring.
More than 80% of the problems we need to solve could have been pre-empted and therefore prevented. In order to pre-empt you must have a sense of being ‘in control’, so that there is the possibility to reflect and see the ‘big picture’. It’s as if you are ‘up in your helicopter’ overlooking your business. It’s much easier to see bottlenecks and potential crises from above.
It’s also much easier to see how they can be fixed or prevented.
Ensure that you schedule time to be ‘in your helicopter’ each week. This requires real discipline and focus, because the time to do this won’t be given to you, you will need to give it a priority and schedule it.
You will be well-rewarded for this discipline and focus. It will enable you to lead your business to peak performance because time and energy will be spent on proactive work which is high-yielding. It will minimise the wasted time and stress that ‘firefighting’ inevitably brings.
To your team’s success,
