Don’t Fix It. Facilitate It.
I recently had a post go viral on LinkedIn where I shared a video from Keith Barry, the mentalist and performance expert.
Keith's daughter hit a roadblock with a school project. Instead of telling her how to fix it, he guided her through a process:
- Doodle freely for a few minutes.
- Look for new connections between the drawings.
- Then walk away from the problem. Go rest, listen to music, anything but think about it.
When she came back, she solved it. Keith still doesn’t know what the problem even was. But the point wasn’t what she solved. It was how she solved it.
This system created an "aha" moment through reflection and incubation.
And it's something leaders need to use more often to help their teams.
The Leadership Trap: Solving Too Fast
Leaders often have a superhero syndrome. Someone on your team hits a wall, and before they’ve even finished explaining the issue, you’re already flying in with a solution.
You save the day.
You feel productive.
Everyone moves forward.
But your team never learns to fly on their own.
When leaders constantly step in, they unintentionally create dependence, not growth. Employees start to believe their value lies in execution, not innovation. Over time, creativity withers.
These rescue reflex moments happen every day:
- A team member says, “I can’t get this client to respond,” and you take over the call.
- Someone struggles with a presentation, and you rewrite the slides instead of coaching them through it.
- A project is behind schedule, and you jump in to get it done.
Each of these moments feels like leadership, but it’s actually robbing your employees of the opportunity to wrestle with discomfort, think critically, and grow stronger.
The best leaders aren’t fixers. They’re facilitators of growth.
What AI Is Teaching Us About Human Learning
Artificial Intelligence has become the ultimate assistant. It’s fast, efficient, and eerily good at connecting dots. Need data analyzed in moments? AI is able and ready to help.
But even AI needs a human behind it. It doesn’t learn the way we do. It doesn’t feel frustration, hit a wall, or experience the satisfaction of pushing through it.
AI enhances human intelligence. It doesn’t replace it.
The same principle applies to leadership. You can use tools, systems, and strategies to help your team perform, but you can’t outsource growth. That comes from experience, especially the hard kind.
So the next time someone on your team says, “I’m stuck,” resist the urge to fix it. Encourage them to pause, think, and find their own way through.
That’s their version of an incubation period.
How to Help Without Doing It for Them
Here are some leadership actions that foster independent thinking and problem-solving:
✅ Ask before advising. Instead of jumping to a solution, ask, “What have you tried so far?” or “What’s another way you could approach it?”
✅ Normalize struggle. Make it clear that frustration isn’t failure. It’s part of the creative process.
✅ Set boundaries for help. Let your team know when you’ll guide them versus when they need to figure it out on their own.
✅ Encourage incubation. Suggest they take a walk, work on something else, or reflect before returning to the problem. Space can be the most powerful problem-solving tool.
✅ Celebrate learning, not just outcomes. Reward the process of growth and reflection, not only the win.
Your job as a leader isn’t to solve every problem that lands on your desk. It’s to build people who can solve problems long after they’ve left it.
That’s what it means to Lead on Purpose.
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