Do you find more things on your to do list at the end of the day than at the beginning. That's normal, but when the to dos are initiated by your staff, you may need to re-evaluate who's really in charge. Our leadership guru Glain Roberts-McCabe has some great advice on how to stop solving your employees problems.

One of the hardest things about leadership is the ability to let go of control and delegate. On top of that, most of us who lead, ended up at the helm because we're good at making decisions and solving problems. The challenge with any strength is that when we overuse it, it becomes a liability. If you find yourself continually wondering why your team is constantly coming to you to solve their problems, it may be that you're overusing that strength muscle of yours.

Here's one of my favourite techniques to stop myself from trying to solve everyone elses problems. Next time, we'll call him "Bob" barges into your office with an "issue" stop him and say "before you go on, there are 3 doors in front of you. I need you to pick a door so that I know how to be of best service to you."

The "door" choices are:

You just need to vent and blow off steam and need me to listen

OR You need my advice and are looking for my input

OR You've got a monkey on your back that you're looking to move onto my back

Chances are your employees will think twice about what they bring to your door next time, and you'll save time and energy as you force yourself to disengage from automatic problem-solving mode helping them become better problem-solvers at the same time. Afterall, a big role for all leaders is to help develop others. You'll never develop your team if you're constantly solving their problems and fighting their battles.