Good managers do not become bottlenecks
Good managers let employees identify and solve the problems instead of unconsciously attempt to solve all problems that come to their attention.
If managers attempt to solve all the problems, they will become a bottleneck and stifle the growth of the employees.
1:1 meetings provides an excellent opportunity for the managers to ask probing questions and let employees identify both the problems and the solutions.
Examples of questions that a manager can ask to encourage problem solving in their teams:
- Tell me more about this issue
- What are the options that you are considering for this problem?
- What is your dominant thinking?
- What is the downside to this dominant thinking?
- What are the pros and cons of the alternatives?
