Leadership Skills: 5 Ways to Deal With Problems in Your Life and Work
Most of us claim the cause of our problems lies outside of us — “It’s not my fault!” But we have a hand in creating all of our own consequences.
Recognizing and owning one’s own role in creating one’s problems is the key to personal responsibility, a topic I’m passionate about.
5 Ways to Think About Problems in Your Life and Work:
1: Whether it is a stopped drain, or a difficult coworker, acknowledge and claim ownership of each problem as soon as possible. You will deal with it sooner and more effectively that way.
2: Appreciate that you have problems and reframe each as a gift of learning and stretching, like Jessica Soroky does in her guest posts. You are going to encounter problems for the rest of your life, so you might as well see them as presents with purpose.
3: Claim those problems as your own. This does not mean that you release anyone else from their role in creating the problem, just that you completely own your own role and take ownership of correcting the problem.
4: Ask yourself
- what role you had in creating or attracting this problem
- what you can learn from it so it won’t repeat
- and how you can correct or improve as a result of experiencing this problem
When problems persist for a long time, or when they recur over and over, ask yourself what you are not yet understanding.
5: When you successfully clear a problem, celebrate it!
Get Started with This 5-Minute Stretch
Ask yourself what problem you have avoided owning that would empower you if you addressed it.
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether people do.
~ B. F. Skinner
Leaders and coaches: Get Christopher’s best team building and leadership strategies collected over two-plus decades of solving teamwork problems for smart people. Attend the acclaimed Creating Results-Based Teams workshop, or get this FREE Special Report while it lasts: The Five Flawless Steps to Building a Strong Executive Leadership Team.
Christopher Avery, PhD, is a recognized authority on how individual and shared responsibility works in the mind and an advisor to leaders worldwide.
