It’s not about being right. It’s about doing the right thing.

It’s one of the most challenging things to do as a manager – accept that your idea might not be the best one in the room. 

People often think that once they are in a position of authority, it is their responsibility to come up with all of the solutions to everyone’s problems. Not only that, but also their solutions will be the best solution that anyone can think of. Managers see it as being their duty to troubleshoot, removing barriers for their colleagues and answering the questions that stop them from performing to their optimum level.

It takes a large amount of humility (and no little ego control) to accept that yours is not the best solution and that someone else in your team has the better idea. It’s a challenge that I struggle with on a regular basis. Because I think we all have a part of ourselves that wants to be seen as providing the solution. For certain managers, I think its more than this – its a sense that if they aren’t coming up with the solution, well, what the hell are they doing then?

The answer is of course they are facilitating the solution. They are providing the environment (often just the space in someone’s working calendar) for the solution or new idea to be produced. And providing some solutions that get shot down are a helpful and necessary part of this process.

For example, I used to work with someone who would come to me with a problem and then after I’d suggested something they could do, they would counter back with a different, more perfect solution. It used to frustrated and irritate me. I used to think “If you know the answer, why are you bothering to ask me?” Until I realised that she actually needed the conversation to articulate her solution. She knew what she had to do but needed both the chance to explain her plan and the confirmation that it was the best way forward.

So don’t feel you need to be the ultimate problem solver or ideas person. And don’t feel bad when your idea gets trampled underfoot. Accept that answers are going to come from other people and that they are going to have better ideas than yourself. It’s a fact of life and the natural product of working within a team. Enjoy it.

Tags: being right, ideas, management