Leaders require the ability to look at problems and determine their relative size and importance.<\/strong><\/p>\n Is this a big problem, or a little problem? Of all of the problems facing our team, which is the most important, and which is the least?<\/strong><\/p>\n One piece of leadership counsel I learned from a mentor of mine years ago has helped me immensely in making these determinations.<\/strong><\/p>\n I was describing a significant financial challenge being faced by the organization I was leading at the time. This problem was keeping me up at night and this wise leader I was talking with could see the weight of the worry I was carrying.<\/p>\n After I had described the challenge in explicit detail, he asked me, \u201cScott, how big a problem is this for you?\u201d<\/p>\n I responded, \u201cThis is huge. This is crushing me.\u201d<\/p>\n Then he said something that has stayed with me for years ever since.<\/p>\n \u201cScott, any problem that can be solved with money is not a big problem. I\u2019m not saying that a financial problem doesn\u2019t have to be solved, and perhaps solved quickly. But in leadership you need to put things in perspective. And I\u2019ll say it again, if the solution to the problem can be found in money, then in the big scheme of things you are not dealing with a big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked him to tell me what then does constitute a big problem.<\/p>\n \u201cScott, if someone on your team comes to you and says they have just received very bad medical news, that\u2019s a big problem. If your kids are in trouble, that\u2019s a big problem. If someone\u2019s marriage is falling apart, that\u2019s a big problem. These are life changing, emotionally devastating problems. By contrast, if you can fix it with money, I\u2019ll say it again, that is not a big problem. It may be a\u00a0difficult<\/em>\u00a0problem, but it is not a\u00a0big<\/em>\u00a0problem.\u201d<\/p>\n What does this mean for your leadership?<\/p>\n Because\u00a0one of the most important functions in effective leadership, is to master the power of perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most important functions of effective leadership is\u00a0to master the power of perspective. Leaders require the ability to look at problems and determine their relative size and importance. Is this a big problem, or a little problem? Of all of the problems facing our team, which is the most important, and which is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7,1019,1020,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-perspective","category-problems","category-wisdom-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6514,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions\/6514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Learn to master the art of perspective. Determine what constitutes and big problem, and what doesn\u2019t.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
Learn the difference between a difficult problem and a big problem.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
Don\u2019t treat big problems as though they\u2019re little problems, but don\u2019t treat a little problem as though it were a big problem.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n