Why ‘don’t come to me with problems—come to me with solutions’ is bad advice

“Don’t come to me with problems. Come to me with solutions.” You’ve almost certainly heard this line. You may have even said it yourself. It sounds both tough-minded and empowering. But of all the things managers say with good intentions, this is my least favorite. It inadvertently sends two unhelpful messages: First, that problems aren’t welcome, and second, that solving them is something you should do on your own. Both are exactly wrong in today’s complex, uncertain world. As a management aphorism, it’s in direct tension with what the best leaders tend to say and do. Colin Powell once said: “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” Having spent much of my research career studying why people fail to speak up with their concerns, questions, and even ideas at work, Powell’s words seem refreshingly wise to me. And they remind me of something Fujio Cho, then the Toyota plant manager in Georgetown, Kentucky (and later chairman of Toyota worldwide) said in a senior leadership mee…