When is a leader a leader, and when just a problem-solver?

In network marketing many leaders burn out because instead of leading they live in constant problem-solving. They react to messages, smooth over misunderstandings, rescue stalled conversations, restart people who have lost their enthusiasm, and all the while feel that everything depends on them. From the outside they look like an active leader, but inside they increasingly become a firefighter.

Problem-solving or leadership?

Problem-solving is part of leadership, but it is not the same as it. A leader naturally has to be present when the team gets stuck, when a key person is uncertain, or when an important decision has to be made. The trouble begins when every small situation comes to them, and team members do not learn to think within their own area of responsibility. In such cases the leader helps, but at the same time unintentionally builds dependency.

A leader leads when they not only solve a situation, but also teach the mechanism behind it. They do not simply write the reply to a prospect's objection, but explain why it is worth reacting this way. They do not just call a person who has slowed down, but help them recognize where they lost the rhythm.

They do not suppress the symptom, but develop the ability with which the team member can operate more independently next time. The problem-solving leader often provides immediate relief. The team likes it, because they respond quickly, are available, and can always be leaned on. In the long run it can still be dangerous if people do not grow up to their own decisions. The leader becomes more important with every problem, but the team does not become stronger. In such a system growth stops at some point not because there is no potential, but because too much passes through one person's nervous system.

The questions that build a stronger team

One of the most important questions of real leadership: what does my person need to learn from this situation?

• If I always solve it, what will they fail to master?
• If I do not hand back responsibility now, what pattern am I reinforcing?

These questions are sometimes uncomfortable, because teaching seems slower than intervening quickly. Yet this is what builds a stronger team.

Part of the leadership role is setting the framework too. Not every message needs an immediate response. Not every uncertainty needs to be personally soothed. Not every conflict needs to be finally closed by the leader. There are things that have to be discussed, things that have to be asked back, and things that the team member has to see through. A good leader does not take the burden off people in every situation, but teaches them to carry their own part more strongly.

At some point every leader has to choose whether they want to become indispensable, or build a system in which others too are able to grow up.

The difference is therefore not whether the leader helps. It is how they help. The problem-solving leader often substitutes. The mature leader develops. One is fast in the short run, the other builds a team in the long run.

From firefighting to steering development

When the leader steps out of constant firefighting, a strange silence may come first. People need time to get used to the fact that they do not receive a ready-made answer to everything. This is not a step back, but a transition. The team truly begins to strengthen when the leader is no longer the terminus of every problem, but the one who steers development.

Moving from problem-solving into leadership is also hard because the leader may lose the experience of quick usefulness. When you do not give every answer, there is less immediate confirmation.

On the other hand, more people begin to operate from their own thinking. This is a slower sense of achievement, but a much greater organizational value. A leader has to learn to feel important not from everyone calling them, but from fewer and fewer situations collapsing without them.

The next level begins when the team no longer just asks for help, but arrives with proposed solutions. This cannot be expected if they always received ready-made answers before. The leader's job is therefore not constant rescuing, but developing people's decision-making muscles. This is what makes the team more grown-up.

This shift can be uncomfortable for the team at first too, because instead of ready-made answers it asks for more thinking. Yet this is where the leader's step up begins. Problems should not be made to disappear from in front of people, but handled in a way that next time they stand more strongly in the same situation.