Don’t Fix It: The Power of Letting Your People Struggle

Are you a 'fixer?' If your immediate response to a problem is to deliver a solution, you might be robbing your team of their greatest growth opportunity. On this episode of Owlcast, Dr. David Morelli and William Oakley discuss why your value isn't wrapped up in being the problem-solver. They explore the connection between struggle and growth, the hidden dopamine hit managers receive when fixing problems, and the single question that can revolutionize your team's capability. Learn the power of letting your people struggle—it leads to greater ownership, better metrics, and a lot less on your desk.Key Topics:• Your Value Isn't in Fixing: The impulse to solve a problem instantly comes from a desire to feel valuable (a personal dopamine hit) but often disengages the employee, who receives only "more work" crafted by the manager.• The High Cost of Fixing: Continually solving problems for your team creates learned helplessness and turns the manager into a bottleneck, forcing them to address the same issue multiple times, which is inefficient.• Struggle = Growth: Struggle is the professional equivalent of "time under tension" in muscle building. By letting people wrestle with problems and come up with their own solutions, you foster mindset growth, capability, and ownership.• Become an Enabler, Not a Fixer: Stop telling people what to do. Use coaching and the Strategist style to help employees solve problems for themselves or in partnership. Managers should ask the questions they would ask themselves (their "question hierarchy") to train their team's problem-solving ability.• Adjust the Tension: The appropriate amount of struggle must be adjusted for the individual. Leaders need awareness (of their own biases) and empathy (to understand the employee's current emotional/situational capacity) to prevent overstraining and ensure the struggle remains productive.• Recovery is Key to Growth: If you allow struggle, you must also provide a safe place for recovery. Validation, encouragement, and support act as the "recovery drink" after the "workout," helping the employee integrate the struggle into a positive, lasting growth experience.