Don’t raise an issue without doing THIS

IMAGINE if you were offered some IT support, and all this person did was come into your office, look at your computer, and point out all the things wrong with it without giving you any solutions or fixing a thing.

Where would that leave you? 

With a broken computer and worried sick about all the problems that just a moment ago you were blessedly ignorant about. You’d be stressed knowing there were issues and you wouldn’t know where to go or what to do to fix them.

That doesn’t serve you well. In fact, it only complicates the matter.

I bet you know someone like that, don’t you? This someone comes and dumps all over everyone and everything, is first to point out what’s wrong with the project, your approach, what you wear, anything, and seldom if ever, acknowledges anything that is right. 

You may well be thinking right now of a certain person in your life. Maybe it’s a colleague, client, boss or employee. Or maybe it’s someone in your personal life.

We all have people in our lives who are big on complaining and not so big on finding ways to improve the situation. It’s easy to shoot down projects and ideas; anyone can do that. It’s much tougher AND much more valuable to everyone, to present solutions.

You benefit from people who help you see the challenges you don’t.

Allow me to divert for just a moment and to be clear here: Someone pointing out the limitations of your project or venture is a useful exercise. You actually benefit from people acknowledging the pitfalls, the dangers around you, and the traps you could step into. 

These guardians make you aware of things you might not have known or seen, and now that you do, you can be on your way to correcting them now and avoiding them in the future. The difficulty comes when these people stop there, at the problem only. Is that you?

Here’s the key: Stop complaining, start creating.

Be a problem solver – present problems WITH solutions. Otherwise, you appear negative and that’s a downer for everyone. It doesn’t help you or your team. Offering feedback is wonderful, as long as it’s accompanied with possible solutions to address deficiencies you feel compelled to point out. Let that be your rule… to present problems only when you have a possible solution … or two.

© 2013-2020 Marion Grobb Finkelstein