Looking for another eye-opener on what employers want from the people they consider hiring? Read on for our latest discussion on how highly organizations value problem solvers.
- EMPLOYERS WANT PEOPLE WHO FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS.
Problems exist everywhere at some point in time, and business operations are not exempted. When they cannot be prevented or averted in advance, problems can negatively affect the goals of an organization.
Problems resulting in missed opportunities can be very frustrating for employees and management who have invested time and effort. Frustration can lead to different reactions, the worst of which is blaming. But why is blaming considered the worst reaction to problems?
See, when people point fingers at each other as the ones responsible for failed objectives, the focus is on what happened and how to avoid being held responsible for it, not on how to recover. Blaming is therefore an avoidant action, which is never the same as ensuring accountability. Accountability is anchored on the initiative to take responsibility for mistakes. Blaming, on the other hand, is denial of full or partial responsibility for mistakes made through attribution of that responsibility to others. It is a defense mechanism, and when people are being defensive the priority is to detach from the problem instead of solving it. And an unsolved problem can keep growing and producing other smaller problems that can also grow on their own. What started as a single issue can thus become a complicated disaster that will have major effects on the organization’s goals.
It is important to determine the people responsible for any setback in order to identify and acknowledge its root cause. But manipulating that to avoid damage to one’s reputation is not the logical next step in solving the problem. That is a self-serving move that has no place in a team and only distracts from problem-solving process.
So what is the correct move to make? First, identifying the problem without blaming can lead to constructive intervention for employees who make mistakes. It’s always better to teach them and help them learn from their mistakes, than pull them down and make them prone to repeating mistakes. That grants the whole team a certain level of reassurance that the mistakes will have low chances of being repeated, enabling everyone to focus on solutions. With everyone focusing their time, energy and talents on solving the problem, the best long-term solutions can be implemented to not only immediately repair any damage but also prevent future damage to the company’s goals.
Employers will always prefer to hire candidates who adopt this constructive mentality and practice from their first day and maintain it as they move up to leadership positions. They are looking for the kind of professionals who understand that people are equal not to their mistakes, but to their efforts to make things right. Employers want people who can help the organization solve the problem with having problems: too much of the blame game and not enough to prevent the same.