Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golagiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five eighty five. There is a leadership lie
Speaker 2: that keeps getting passed around boardrooms, masterminds, and business books.
Speaker 2: That lie is this, problems are bad. We treat problems
Speaker 2: like messes, to clean up fires, to put out things,
Speaker 2: to get passed so we can get back to normal.
Speaker 2: Leaders spend huge amounts of time trying to eliminate problems
Speaker 2: instead of understanding them. And here's the truth. No one
Speaker 2: likes to say out loud. Problems or where profit hides,
Speaker 2: not motivational, poster profit, real profit, market share, loyalty, trust, pricing, power, momentum.
Speaker 2: Every meaningful gain your business has ever made came from
Speaker 2: a problem that someone else ignored, minimized, or complained about.
Speaker 2: The difference between average leaders and exceptional ones is not
Speaker 2: intelligence or experience. It's what they do when problems show up.
Speaker 2: Most leaders see a problem and ask how fast can
Speaker 2: we make this go away? High level leaders ask a
Speaker 2: different question, what is this problem trying to tell us
Speaker 2: that shift alone changes everything. Problems are signals. They reveal friction,
Speaker 2: They expose gaps, They highlight unmet needs. They point directly
Speaker 2: at where value can be created. If your customers are frustrated,
Speaker 2: there's profit in that frustration. If your employees are confused,
Speaker 2: there's profit in that confusion. If your systems keep breaking
Speaker 2: in the same place, there's profit sitting right there in
Speaker 2: the wreckage. But only if you're willing to slow down
Speaker 2: long enough to look. Most leaders move too fast. They patch, smooth, apologize, discount,
Speaker 2: and rush forward. They treat symptoms instead of studying causes.
Speaker 2: So let me say this clearly. If you rush past problems,
Speaker 2: you also rush past opportunity. The companies that win long
Speaker 2: term do not have fewer problems. They are better at
Speaker 2: mining them. Think about recurring complaints, not the one off noise,
Speaker 2: but the patterns. When you hear the same issue again
Speaker 2: and again. That's not bad luck, that is data. Recurring
Speaker 2: problems are invitations. They're telling you where your process is weak,
Speaker 2: where your communication breakdowns are, where expectations are misaligned, where
Speaker 2: you're offering no longer matches reality. Leaders who profit from
Speaker 2: problems do three things differently. First, they stop taking problems personally,
Speaker 2: and this is huge. Many leaders see problems as criticism
Speaker 2: of their leadership, so they get defensive. They explain, they justify,
Speaker 2: They blame circumstances or people. The moment you defend, you
Speaker 2: stop learning. Strong leaders separate ego from information. They understand
Speaker 2: that a problem does not mean failure, it means feedback. Second,
Speaker 2: they ask better questions. Instead of asking who caused this?
Speaker 2: They ask why does this keep happening? Instead of asking
Speaker 2: how do we fix this fast? They ask what would
Speaker 2: prevent this entirely? Instead of asking how much will this cost?
Speaker 2: They ask what does this cost us if we ignore it?
Speaker 2: Better questions lead to better strategy, and better strategy leads
Speaker 2: to profit that compounds. And Third, they redesign instead of repair.
Speaker 2: This is where most leaders miss the opportunity. Repairs keep
Speaker 2: things running. Redesign creates advantage. If you keep fixing the
Speaker 2: same issue, you're paying a tax for not changing the system.
Speaker 2: That tax shows up as wasted time, burned trust, employee fatigue,
Speaker 2: and lost customers. Redesign is uncomfortable. It challenges habits, It
Speaker 2: requires ownership. It often exposes decisions that should have been
Speaker 2: made earlier. But redesign is where growth lives. And here's
Speaker 2: another hard truth. Your biggest future revenue stream is probably
Speaker 2: hiding inside your most annoying current problem, the delay. Everyone
Speaker 2: complains about the process, everyone works around the friction. Customers
Speaker 2: tolerate because they have no better option. Yet someone will
Speaker 2: eventually solve that problem. The question is whether it will
Speaker 2: be you or your competitor. This is where leadership courage matters.
Speaker 2: Profiting from problems means leaning into discomfort before you're forced to.
Speaker 2: It means listening closely when things are quiet, not waiting
Speaker 2: for crisis volume. It means treating complaints as intelligence, not interruptions.
Speaker 2: It also means being honest about what you tolerate. Problems
Speaker 2: that linger do not by accident. They linger because leadership
Speaker 2: allows them to. What you tolerate becomes your brand. What
Speaker 2: you fix thoughtfully becomes your edge. If you want a
Speaker 2: simple action step, here it is this week. Identify one
Speaker 2: recurring problem in your organization that everyone knows about and
Speaker 2: nobody owns. Write it down, and then ask one powerful question.
Speaker 2: If we solve this completely, what would it change? Not
Speaker 2: how do we manage it? But how do we eliminate
Speaker 2: it or turn it into value. That question alone can
Speaker 2: reshape how you think, how your team operates, and how
Speaker 2: your business grows. So leadership is not about avoiding problems altogether.
Speaker 2: It is about seeing what others overlook and then having
Speaker 2: the discipline to act on it. Every problem that we
Speaker 2: encounter as leaders carries a lesson. Some also carry profit.
Speaker 2: The leaders who win this are the ones willing to
Speaker 2: open the package instead of throwing it away. This has
Speaker 2: been the seven minute Leadership podcast and I thank you
Speaker 2: for listening.
Speaker 1: For more, Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com