"Listen long enough and the person will generally come up with an adequate solution."
This is truly a powerful tool to use as a manager, or really, in any circumstance and situation in life.
If you want to become known as a great manager and develop a strong reputation for solving problems, learn to be a great listener. A great listener obviously listens, but will also know the occasional time to throw a quick question or comment in to direct the conversation, so the person or people come up with the answer themselves.
With my own experience, and listening to other managers, many times their greatest contribution is when they help guide people to discover answers themselves, rather than always giving out the answers.
This is so powerful and effective because people will remember better and take ownership of something they come up with, far easier than when a boss simply tells them the solution.
Here's another valuable reason to operate in this way: sometimes people are dealing with very emotional issues, which they are ready to fight for to the end. But if you let them talk it out to you, they basically defuse themselves, relax, and start offering up solutions to the problem, which they couldn't do before because simply verbalizing it to you helped the answers to come forth.
I would say that close to 90 percent of employee problems would be solved through managers disciplining themselves to be even better listeners. It's not enought to repeat company policy. While that's obviously a guideline that needs to be considered, there are so many problems connected to individuals, that no rulebook could be made that could cover all eventualities.
So keeping mind the impact on the company - the willingness, skill and discipline of listening can be one of the most powerful tools in our "people" arsenal. Once the worker talks their way through things and discovers solutions, you'll get the reputation of caring about your people, and will many times look like a genius.
You'll be surprised at how many problems can be solved by patiently listening and letting people talk things out until a solution is reached. It's one of the most significant tools and skills of great managers. Mary Kay was one of the best at it.
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