A Leadership Paradox: Create Problems or Solve Them?

What separates extraordinary leaders from managers? Managers are great at solving problems.  Leaders exude their greatness by creating problems.  Why would a leader create problems?  Intentional problems can be the catalyst for a company to make changes.  Problems can create the motivation to make a quantum leap in revenue, innovation or significant cost savings.

Can leaders continuously develop themselves to create problems or more importantly, master change? Although change and innovation are chaotic, they are also the competitive edge in today’s global marketplace.  If an organization is committed to greatness, the business leaders are called upon to drive and manage change. Business leaders are then faced with a paradox: drive change and disrupt the organization, or avoid it, at the risk of stagnating.

While change can create problems, stagnation can be fatal.  Disruption, on the other hand, can be managed through powerful tools.  Do tools exist to instil innovation in organizations?  Do today’s leaders have access to the tools that manage chaos?

There have always been leaders who orchestrated change throughout history.  When you look at Sony, Ford or even go as far back as the Founding Fathers of the United States, they all demonstrated a set of skills and competencies for driving change and innovation. Were they just lucky or did they possess special tools?

Is it possible for businesses to create their own futures, instead of being at the effect of the economy or worse, the competition?

The Dilemma of Creating Problems

People who are great problem solvers are often presented with the opportunity to become a manager.  However, the keys to the executive suite require that you develop new skills and competencies.  You must become comfortable creating problems for your people to solve.  Why would a leader want to purposely create problems?  Creating problems leads directly to innovation.

Yet, creating problems intentionally is counterintuitive.  We are taught to fix problems, get rid of them or find out who caused the problem and then get rid of them!  Culturally, we reward people for being problem solvers.  Nevertheless, looking at the accomplishments of great leaders, one finds the achievement was always preceded by a problem. Does your organization have structures to reward people who create problems? Are there consequences for not having those structures in place?

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

In 1908 Henry Ford created a problem. He said that he would make it possible for most households in the US to purchase cars.  This was at a time when only 2% of the US population earned enough income to buy an automobile.  As a result the assembly line was invented to solve the problem he created.

In 1979, Sony brilliantly created the personal audio market with the Walkman.  The problem they created was simple: develop a device that allows individuals to privately listen to music anywhere, anytime.

The problem of not creating problems

Sometimes success can be a corporation’s biggest enemy. For example, once most households owned a car, Ford did not continue to create problems.  He stayed focused on making the automobile still more affordable.  As a result, the window of opportunity was left open for General Motors.  GM created the next problem in the auto industry: people could now drive a car in any colour they chose and could select from a variety of new models.  As a result, Ford lost market share to this new innovator.  Success can create blind spots and leave people with a false sense of security about the competition.

In the case of Sony, they were the innovator of the Walkman.  However, Apple dominates the digital personal audio market with 78 percent market share in the U.S today. Just because you created (and solved) a problem does not mean your job is done.

How Extraordinary Leaders Separate Themselves from Ordinary Leaders

How can an organization be empowered by change and excited about creating new inventions? In some cases, creating a problem is designed to transform an existing problem.  In other cases, it is designed to create a new and empowering future.  For example, when the Founding Fathers declared independence from Great Britain, they created a problem to solve an existing problem of taxation, among other issues.  At the same time, that problem made it possible for a new and innovative nation to be born.  Without the problem our Founding Fathers created, the US would still be a colony, paying taxes to Great Britain all the while having no representation in Parliament.

Similarly, when a leader declares the future for his or her company, this inherently creates a “problem”, mostly because there is no blueprint yet. Declaring a future which does not exist requires everyone involved to walk through the proverbial dark tunnel.  The declaration breaks from the past or the status quo, demanding new thoughts, new needs and certainly new skills and competencies.

In addition, an extraordinary leader must take a stand for something bigger than the problem that has been created. This stand becomes the new value system of the organization, much like our Founding Fathers took a stand for freedom (press, religion, speech…). We are still a nation that stands for freedom. A powerful stand inspires and motivates people. Out of this inspiration and motivation people are driven to innovate. When people are empowered to be innovative, their commitment increases. They have a chance to take new actions and be proud of their accomplishments.

Are you comfortable using a declaration and a stand as the tools to build a new future and instil a set of values that inspire your people to disrupt status quo?  Or, will status quo be your strategy? New opportunities require innovation. Innovation requires a catalyst.

There are 3 kinds of problems, one comes from changes in the economy, another comes from the competition’s disruptive technology and the last one comes from leadership creating a new and innovative future.  In addition to orchestrating a new future through problems, extraordinary leaders create the innovative culture to develop solutions to those challenges.

Creating problems could appear risky.  Not taking a risk, however, is the greatest risk anyone could ever take.