One of the most common questions I get is:
“What problem do you solve?”
It’s a reasonable question. But I’ve come to believe it’s often the wrong one.
Because by the time most CEOs call for help, they already know the symptoms.
- Revenue growth has slowed.
- Execution feels inconsistent.
- The leadership team keeps having the same conversations.
- Important decisions seem to take longer than they should.
- Projects stall.
- Departments blame each other when things fall through the cracks.
- The organization is busy, but progress feels slower.
- The business simply feels harder to run than it did a year ago.
The real question isn’t: “What problem are we trying to solve?”
The real question is: “Are we solving the right problem?”
And that’s where many organizations get stuck.
The Answer That Almost Cost Me a Job
Years ago, I was interviewing for a senior leadership role. The CEO asked me a direct question:
“We have a turnover problem. What are you going to do about it?”
My answer was simple. “I don’t know.” You can imagine his reaction.
I followed with: “I don’t know because I don’t know why you have a turnover problem.” Fortunately, he hired me anyway.
Several months later, we were riding together to a company outing when he brought up my interview. He laughed and said: “You know, when I asked what you would do about the turnover issue? Yeah, I didn’t like your answer.”
I responded, “Yet you hired me.” We both laughed.
What he eventually realized was what many leaders discover: Turnover wasn’t the problem. It was the symptom. The real question was what was creating it?
- Was it leadership?
- Unclear expectations?
- Poor management practices?
- Weak accountability?
- Decision bottlenecks?
- Organizational friction?
- A lack of career growth?
Until we understood that, any solution would have been little more than an educated guess. And that’s the trap many organizations fall into. I call that “whack-a mole”.
Most Organizations Don’t Have a Solution Problem
They Have a Diagnosis Problem.
When growth slows, leaders assume they have a growth problem.
When execution slips, they assume they have an execution problem.
When accountability feels inconsistent, they assume they have a people problem.
When teams struggle to work together, they assume they have a communication problem.
Sometimes they’re right. Most of the time, they’re solving symptoms. The visible issue gets all the attention. The underlying condition remains untouched. Which is why the same problems often keep returning under different names.
The Business Feels Different Before Leaders Understand Why
One of the patterns I see repeatedly is that leaders recognize something is wrong long before they can explain it.
They say things like:
- “We’re having the same conversations over and over.”
- “Everything seems to require more coordination than it used to.”
- “We’re adding people but not getting more leverage.”
- “My leadership team is aligned in meetings but not in execution.”
- “Every important issue somehow ends up back on my desk.”
- “We’re busier than ever, but progress feels slower.”
- “Cross-functional work is where things fall apart.”
- “The business is growing, but it’s getting harder to run.”
Those sound-like different problems. But they often point to the same reality. The organization has become more complex than the way it operates.
Growth Exposes How Organizations Actually Operate
As organizations grow, complexity increases.
- More people.
- More customers.
- More priorities.
- More decisions.
- More interdependencies.
What once worked through proximity, relationships, executive intervention, and informal coordination starts to break down. Not all at once. Gradually.
- Decisions require more discussion than action.
- Leaders spend more time coordinating and less time executing.
- Ownership becomes less clear.
- Teams work hard but struggle to move together.
- Issues that should be resolved at lower levels find their way back to senior leadership.
The organization starts compensating based on effort rather than discipline.
- Most leaders respond by adding more meetings.
- More process.
- More oversight.
- More reporting.
- More initiatives.
Few stop to ask whether they are solving the right problem.
This Is Why I Focus on Operating Discipline
Most organizations do not struggle because leaders lack effort, intelligence, or strategy. They struggle because complexity exposes weaknesses in how the organization actually operates.
The challenge is rarely one thing.
It’s usually a combination of conditions that have gradually weakened over time:
- Decisions are unclear or slow.
- Accountability varies across leaders.
- Priorities compete for attention.
- Leadership standards are inconsistent.
- Cross-functional execution breaks down.
Individually, each issue seems manageable. Together, they create organizational drag.
The business becomes harder to run. Performance becomes less predictable. Growth creates more complexity than leverage.
That’s why my work doesn’t begin with solutions. It begins with diagnosis.
Because most leaders are trying to solve the problem they can see. My work begins by helping them identify the problem they can’t.
Five Things to Consider Before Solving the Problem
- Separate the symptom from the cause.
The issue getting attention may not be the issue creating the problem. - Pay attention to recurring patterns.
If the same issue keeps returning under different names, there is usually a structural cause underneath it. - Listen to what leaders complain about repeatedly.
Repeated frustration often points to an operating condition that is breaking down. - Resist the urge to implement solutions too quickly.
Premature solutions often create additional complexity without addressing the root cause. - Ask what has become harder to do as the organization has grown.
Growth exposes weaknesses that smaller organizations can often work around.
Pressure Test This
What issue is your leadership team spending the most time discussing right now?
If that issue disappeared tomorrow, would performance improve, or would another version of the same problem simply emerge?
