Chapter 37. Train Them to Bring You Solutions, Not Problems
It’s too easy for staff to moan. I think it becomes a habit. You have to train your staff not just to moan. You can allow moaning but insist that if they bring you a problem they must also suggest a solution to the problem. Any idea that there is something wrong should always be met with, “And what would you like me to do about it?” If they complain, meet them with, “What do you think we should do?”
The best manager I ever worked for carried this even further and made us tell him the solution first—and then let him guess what he thought our “problem” was. It made it a game, which was sort of fun, but it also made us think on our feet a bit—made us be a bit lateral in our moaning. I ...
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