Your Problem. Your Solution.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn

My wife and I were walking our dog on a local bike path. Coming toward us was a woman walking a St. Bernard. It was obvious our paths would meet at the intersection ahead. As we got close, she stepped a few feet off the trail.

It seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but a little late and not far enough. Her dog began to pull hard. It wasn't aggressive. It wasn't barking or lunging. It simply wanted to do what friendly dogs often do. It wanted to meet another dog.

The leash tightened. The dog leaned forward. She struggled to pull back.

Then she looked directly at us, visibly irritated, and said, "I KNEW it."

I couldn't stop thinking about those three words.

She knew this was likely to happen. In fact, she said as much. She anticipated the problem before it ever occurred. Yet when it did, her frustration wasn't directed at the dog she already knew would pull, nor herself. It wasn't directed at the situation she had anticipated.

It was directed at us.

Somehow, without saying a word or changing our course, we had become responsible for solving a problem we didn't create. The encounter lasted only a few seconds, but the leadership lesson stayed with me.

I see the same mindset in business far more often than I wish I did.

A company builds a complicated process, then becomes frustrated when customers struggle to navigate it. A manager provides vague direction, then criticizes employees for not meeting expectations. A leadership team tolerates an inefficient workflow for years, then acts surprised when productivity suffers. An entrepreneur knows cash flow is becoming a problem but waits until the bank account forces the issue, blaming the economy instead of the decisions that led there.

The circumstances are different, but the pattern is the same.

Somewhere along the way, we begin to expect other people to accommodate our problems or accept them simply because we have.

Instead of asking, What should I do differently?, we find ourselves asking, Why didn't they?

The best leaders I've known have a remarkably consistent habit. They assume ownership before assigning blame. They understand that ownership is the only place where meaningful change begins.

Blame may explain why something happened. Ownership determines what happens next.

I've worked with executives who seemed almost incapable of saying, "The market did this to us," or, "Our customers caused this," or, "If only our employees would..."

Their instinct was different. They wanted to know what they could improve. What assumptions had they missed? What systems had failed? What could they have controlled? That's what made them effective leaders. They focused their energy on the part of the equation they actually had the power to change.

The woman on the bike path wasn't wrong for owning or walking a St. Bernard in a public place. Large dogs are powerful, enthusiastic, and sometimes difficult to handle. Anyone who's owned one understands that. But if you already know your dog is likely to pull every time another dog walks by, that isn't everyone else's problem to solve. It's yours.

Your Problem. Your solution.