{"id":8018,"date":"2024-01-29T08:27:34","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T14:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/?p=8018"},"modified":"2024-01-29T08:27:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T14:27:35","slug":"how-to-solve-the-leadership-challenge-of-over-solving-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/29\/how-to-solve-the-leadership-challenge-of-over-solving-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Solve The Leadership Challenge of Over-Solving Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article is part of my Global Leadership series; \u00a0Insights from more than a decade of leadership training around the world\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In your leadership, have you ever been guilty of over-solving a problem?<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you have, it has meant you have squandered precious resources in a way wholly disproportionate to the size of the problem you were addressing.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Over-solving a problem happens when you invest too much time, too much money and too much organizational energy towards a problem that simply did not warrant that level of attention. When this happens, the organization becomes unfocused, sluggish and drifts off its central mission.<\/p>\n

I came across an example of this on a leadership trip to Subic Bay, the Philippines. This area, site of the former U.S. military base, had been chosen as a meeting place for the 1996 meeting of the heads of state from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries.<\/p>\n

18 heads of state, including U.S. president Bill Clinton, came to the Philippines for these meetings, meaning that the Philippines needed to ensure accommodations for each country leader. While a level of accommodation befitting their roles was certainly appropriate, the Philippines over-solved the accommodation problem. They constructed 18 mansions, at a cost of up to $2 million US each, $4 million in 2024 dollars. The mansions were occupied for only the few days of the meetings, then were abandoned and fell into disrepair.<\/p>\n

This came to my attention when a large group of us were hosted in one of these homes, now refurbished as a meeting place for Christian leaders.<\/p>\n

But the history of these homes, almost all of which had been abandoned after the 1996 APEC meetings, was a haunting reminder of what can happen when leaders over-solve a problem.<\/p>\n

Why does this happen? Here are three common root causes of over-solving a problem\u2026<\/p>\n

1. People pleasing<\/h2>\n

If you are obsessed with making everyone happy, you are a candidate for over-solving a problem.<\/p>\n

2. Not having a broader perspective<\/h2>\n

If you approach a problem without a grid to inform you as to how big, or how small, a problem really is, you could well find yourself over-solving that problem.<\/p>\n

3. Not having clear strategies or priorities<\/h2>\n

If you can\u2019t clearly identify your top priorities, you can find yourself pouring far too much energy into menial issues. That will often lead to over-solving a problem.<\/p>\n

None of this is to suggest you shouldn\u2019t obsess over solving problems. But learn to harness your time, money and energies towards the problems that matter.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t over-solve them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is part of my Global Leadership series; \u00a0Insights from more than a decade of leadership training around the world\u2026 In your leadership, have you ever been guilty of over-solving a problem? If you have, it has meant you have squandered precious resources in a way wholly disproportionate to the size of the problem…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7758,"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":[738,7,1020],"tags":[984,668],"class_list":["post-8018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-leadership","category-problems","tag-leadership","tag-problems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018","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=8018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8020,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018\/revisions\/8020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}