Effective Leadership: Prioritizing and Solving Problems Efficiently (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: So I didn't get to do a video today with the normal video team because I'm running late, but I wanted to get something out there for you guys this week. So as I'm driving home here, the thought that's coming to mind is how to solve problems as leaders, right? And as we solve problems as leaders, we become better leaders. And what I've found is that new levels bring new devils, and the more levels that you rise as a leader and the more people that you lead, the more problems that you hear about until your day is mostly consumed with solving problems. So what I've learned over the years is to be successful, you need to embrace that. It's kind of like that song, more money brings more problems. It's not a bad thing, right? It means people are counting on you and they're looking to you to help identify problems and identify solutions and make things better. And so what I've found over the years is a couple things, 90% of problems fix themselves. So don't feel like as a leader, you need to drop everything you're doing and fix everything. If you feel like that, you probably feel like you don't have enough time, right? There's not enough time in the day to solve every problem. And so it's literally impossible. And what I've found is that time fixes 90% of problems. When you hear a problem, give it some time, right? Think about it. Collect some additional feedback. 90% of the time, if you just wait for two weeks and you follow back up with that individual with that problem, you're going to find that the problem was either solved automatically, they solved it, or it is no longer a problem, right? And so it really reduces the amount of problems you have to fix by 90%, meaning that you only need to spend your time on the top 10%. When it comes to the top 10%, a lot of those, you know, really half of them is a leader because you see things at a higher level and have a different perspective. You're going to be able to solve those almost immediately. Half of those you're just going to be able to knock out with an instant response, connecting the dots for somebody, helping them understand the why so that they can go out there and spread the good word, right? And solve that problem for themselves and others that are passing along that something is an issue. The other half, we're going to take some additional thought, right? You're going to have to put some thought into it. You're going to have to solicit additional feedback. You may have to have brainstorm sessions. You may need to spend a week or two or a month just letting it crockpot in your mind so that you really are able to identify a good solid solution, right, before you roll it out. And so what it comes down to is out of 100% of the problems that you're hearing every day, 90% of them are going to solve themselves if you just wait two weeks, okay? 5% of them you're going to be able to solve instantly just because of your perspective. And the other 5% is going to take some time. And so the 5% that take time, some of them take a lot of time to come up with a solution. For those things, you need to prioritize. You need to prioritize that list of big problems that you're trying to find big solutions for. And with that prioritization, I give you permission as leaders to slow down, right? Don't try to move too fast. Don't try to get it all done at once. Just prioritize. Maybe pick one big problem this week, and that one big problem this week is the one that I'm going to solve this week. I'm going to sink my teeth into that. And between all the emergencies that are hitting me all day long, every day, between those things I'm going to be trying to solve this one big problem. And then next week, I'm going to go to the next one on the list, right? And the list of priorities changes. You may get a new problem this week that is in that top 5%. That's a big problem. And that may move right to the top and push the other ones down, right? And that's fine. But the point is, is don't try to solve them all at once. Just solve one at a time. And what you'll find is you'll make great progress. If you try to do too many things at one time and solve too many things at one time, what happens is you can't get anywhere, right? Do one thing, do it well, and then move on. You can't do multiple things and do them well and gain progress. So that's my leadership power tips of the week. I'm out of here.