Your Guide to Becoming A Chief Solution Finder.
If you struggle to say no, try channelling a different vibe.
Do you struggle to say no at work?
If you enjoy the ‘doing’, but have bigger aspirations for your career, try channelling your inner ‘Chief Solution Finder’.
When people like working with you, they’ll find reasons to give you more work.
If this is you, you have a highly valued skill set. The flip side is, when you keep getting more work to do … you eventually get too thinly stretched.
The risk of this is burnout, for one. Another risk is a career defining perception that you can only be a doer.
Does that seem right to you, knowing what you’re truly capable of?
If you have bigger aspirations for your career (e.g. leadership, more senior gigs), it could be worth learning how to say no, in advance of the dream job you’re hoping to get.
Why? When you get to a certain level at your career, there becomes a point where you want to be either perceived differently or you’re ready for that next step.
You can’t do that unless you get out of ‘doing’.
Your brain can’t think strategically when it’s doing or reacting.
It thinks differently when you have space.You need a buffer. Between the autopilot of doing, and the space to think more strategically.
To do that, you’ll need to start saying no.
When you’re the go-to ‘yes’ person, saying no might not come naturally.
In our workshop on Managing Expectations, we ask people who are serial ‘doers’ what stops them from saying no more often.
They say:
‘I don’t want to burden other people.’
‘I didn’t know there was a choice?’
‘It’s easier to do it myself.’
Feel familiar?
What’s really happening is the ‘doing dopamine’ is in full force.
Assuming you’re more valuable to others when you’re doing something for them. And of course the skills you’re getting paid for are valuable.
But if you feel like there’s more you can show your colleagues, or more in your career to come, it’s worth thinking about whether saying no can help you get there.
Specifically, saying no to make more space in your brain to actually think strategically.
Are you curious about becoming a Chief Solution Finder?
A Chief Solution Finder is someone who centers the problem to solve, instead of their (natural) desire to want to help and ‘fix’.
A Chief Solution Finder, when is asked to take on a task, first asks three questions:
What’s the ideal solution this person wants?
What’s the smallest win available?
If not you, who?
Here’s a quick overview of those questions.
What’s the ideal solution that this person wants?
Articulating the end-goal is the first step to getting out of ‘doing mode’. It forces you to mute the part of yourself that wants to save the day or just fix it quickly yourself.
Getting the other person to articulate what their ideal outcome looks like, even if you have zero idea how you would help them do that, can help you press pause on your internal ‘let me fix it’ button.
What’s the smallest win available?
This protects the perfectionists in the room. You know, the ones who only deliver a finished, perfect product, but then get bogged down creating a perfect, finished product and feel overwhelmed. (Can you relate?)
What could the minimum look like, as a thought exercise? What could be the smallest way this stakeholder could make a dent in this request?
It helps you not take it all on, but to start thinking about small ways to make progress. It also forces you to break down a big ask into small, practical, do-able wins.
If not you, who?
Sure, you might end up just doing the task. But, if you want to practice being a Chief Solution Finder, try this thought exercise: if it wasn’t you, who could it be?
You’re training your brain to think: who else could do the minimum better than you? If you don’t know the person, what skill set or expertise would they need?
Also useful if you’re also wanting to delegate more. Four powerful words to write on a post it note: If not me, who?
Remember: most people aren’t bothered who does the ‘doing’.
They usually ask you because they’re used to you saying yes. It doesn’t mean they don’t value you. It just means they value the skill you have.
Why not add another skill this year that more people will benefit from, including you. From Doer to Chief Solution Finder.
What do you think?
Do you want employees to have the skills to manage expectations?
In our workshop, Managing Expectations, employees get tools to manage expectations of stakeholders. This creates more trust, less single person reliance and less stress.