The Problem with Always Being the Problem Solver
Coaching Real Leaders
Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins
4.8 • 759 Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He’s spent much of his career successfully solving complex problems. Now, as he works his way up, he’s realizing that always trying to fix everything won’t let him focus on leading – or help his team succeed.
Host Muriel Wilkins coaches this leader through adapting his approach to lead more effectively.
For more on this topic:
- “Leading by Letting Go”
- “How Leaders Can Let Go Without Losing Control”
- “Why Your Team Should Practice Collective Mindfulness”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | HBR Presents. |
| 0:03.0 | I'm Muriel Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network. |
| 0:20.0 | I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders is coaching real leaders part of the HBR Presents Network. |
| 0:26.1 | I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit a bump in the road. |
| 0:32.3 | My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying their goals and figuring out a way to reach them. |
| 0:38.7 | I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have a one-time coaching meeting, focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing. Today's guest is |
| 0:48.7 | someone will call Charlie to protect his confidentiality. He works for a large company and has mainly led large-scale technology |
| 0:56.0 | projects or handled mergers and integrations, which means he's very good at solving complicated |
| 1:01.6 | problems. My day-to-day is a lot about actually trying to define and manage the requirements and push the progress of the program, right? So I have quite a |
| 1:13.9 | variety of duties in over what I really should be doing. And that's a battle. And this is where I |
| 1:20.9 | come your direction, is to try and get somebody who can help me sort of build a skill set to |
| 1:26.6 | manage that better and also manage |
| 1:29.0 | kind of my thinking on how structure my career. When it comes to prioritizing and figuring out how to |
| 1:35.3 | best add value, that's where he wants to continue growing as a manager and leader. And Charlie admits |
| 1:40.8 | he doesn't always know where to begin when it comes to developing those skills. |
| 1:45.0 | It would be easier for me to then get myself organized to reach goals that I'm trying to define. |
| 1:51.0 | It's like I'm not looking to have 50 people reporting to me. |
| 1:54.0 | I'm looking to be a better person and do a better job and then expand my skills in my job |
| 2:00.0 | and become a resource for the company. My inclination |
| 2:03.3 | is never to let somebody fail. And that's one of the things that I'm being told I have to stop |
| 2:07.7 | doing. And it's just, that's just hard for me, right? I care about people. And I think that the |
| 2:12.1 | the managerial side of its management of me as well as, you know, outwardly. |
... |
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