Are you encouraging people to think, or teaching them what you want to hear?

“Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.”

It is one of those phrases that senior leaders repeat as though it contains some profound management wisdom. Perhaps they think it makes them sound tough. Perhaps they believe it encourages people to think for themselves, take responsibility and stop passing difficult decisions upwards.

But consider what you are actually asking. Before someone can discuss a problem with you, they must first solve it. Your experience, curiosity, connections and authority will become available once the difficult thinking is finished.

That seems a rather peculiar use of a senior leader.

The safest answer gets through

Imagine a manager who sees that an important customer is becoming dissatisfied. Deliveries arrive on time, the service meets the contract, but the customer’s business has changed. What you supply may soon cease to be what they need.

The manager could bring that uncertainty to you. Together, you might explore a different commercial relationship, a new service or a change to how the business operates.

But you have asked for a solution. So the manager prepares something that looks deliverable, sits within the existing budget and is likely to get your approval. More frequent account meetings, perhaps. A revised service report.

The proposal gets signed off. Everyone can get on with life. The larger opportunity remains unexplored.

When people believe that access to their leader depends on having a defensible answer, they have a strong incentive to produce an acceptable one. An unfamiliar idea, with awkward questions and uncertain costs, becomes harder to bring into the conversation.

You may get very polished proposals. How much thinking have you lost along the way?

Make your experience available earlier

There is also something wasteful about insisting that people work through a difficult issue alone when you may hold information that changes it completely.

You may know that another team has tried something similar. You may understand why a customer behaves as they do. You may be able to remove a constraint that your colleague assumes is immovable.

Equally, they may understand something you have missed. They are closer to the work, hearing different conversations and seeing consequences that never reach your management reports.

Bring those perspectives together while the thinking is still open and you have something useful. Wait until there is a finished proposal and the conversation can easily become a defence of work already done.

There is a further risk. Some problems need to reach you before anyone knows how to solve them. A worsening customer relationship, a serious delivery failure or a concern about someone’s conduct should never wait for a convincing presentation.

Ask for thinking

A better invitation would be: “Bring me the problem, tell me what you have noticed and come with some ideas about what we could do. We will work through it together.”

That still asks people to prepare. They need to understand the issue, gather what evidence they can and think about possibilities. It also allows them to say where they are stuck.

Your contribution is to help them examine their thinking. What are we assuming? Whose problem are we solving? What would we try if the current process did not exist? Could we test an idea on a small scale before committing ourselves?

Resist the temptation to turn the discussion into a demonstration of how quickly you can find the answer. Give their ideas room to develop. Be prepared to have your own challenged.

Before you finish, agree who will act, what they will test and when you will review the result. The person should leave with responsibility for moving things forward and a better understanding of how to do it.

That is how a conversation about today’s problem can build someone’s ability to handle tomorrow’s.

Two curious, inventive brains can take a problem somewhere neither would have reached alone. If you insist on seeing the solution before you join the conversation, you may never discover where that could be.

“Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.”

If they already have the solution, what exactly are you contributing?

Senior leaders say this because they think it sounds tough, or because they want people to think for themselves. But it can encourage people to work out which answer will get approved most easily.

They bring you a proposal that fits the budget, follows the familiar process and raises as few awkward questions as possible. You sign it off. Everyone gets on with life.

What happened to the more interesting possibility? The idea that needed discussion, the assumption that deserved challenging, the opportunity nobody quite knew how to pursue?

You have experience, authority and access to information that could help. Your colleague has knowledge of the work and a perspective you may lack. Why wait until they have packaged everything into a finished answer before bringing those things together?

Try saying: “Bring me the problem and your ideas. Tell me what you have considered and where you are stuck. We will work through it together.”

Then be curious. Ask questions. Explore something neither of you has tried before. Help them decide what to test and leave them responsible for taking it forward.

That takes more thought than approving or rejecting a proposal. It also makes better use of your seniority and develops their judgement.

Bring two innovative brains to a problem while the possibilities are still open. The result may surprise both of you.