The same issue, again and again
Why problems keep gravitating to you
I was in conversation recently with a senior leader who kept finding themselves pulled into dealing with the same kind of issue again and again.
It wasn’t exactly the same each time: a contractor problem one week, a customer issue the next. Different details, different people involved. But the pattern underneath it was becoming familiar: the same kind of challenge kept being drawn to them. It was taking up time, attention and energy, and it had started to feel relentless.
The short-term trap
Each time it happened the leader had been doing what many experienced leaders do. They stepped in, calmed things down, sorted the issue out and moved everyone forward. In the short term, it was working. But it left very little time for the leader to focus on the bigger picture challenges that really needed their attention.
I’ll be honest: when a client brings me a challenge like this, I have to resist the urge to focus on the latest issue in front of us. Instead, I know we need to slow the conversation down and look at it from a slightly different angle.
When we looked closer, something else became apparent. Each time they stepped in to resolve something, it reinforced a system where problems naturally gravitated towards them.
Not because other people were incapable of dealing with it, but because of the way the work was flowing through the organisation. Decisions were not fully owned, tensions were not fully resolved and it felt easier to pass things upwards than deal with them directly.
Once that became clearer, the conversation changed. We were no longer just looking at the latest challenge, we were looking at the pattern around it.
Shifting responsibility back
Once we could see the pattern, a few small shifts started to suggest themselves. Nothing particularly dramatic, but enough to shift where responsibility was held, and to make it easier for others to deal with things themselves rather than pass them up.
I notice versions of this quite often. When something matters, the instinct is often to stay close to it. To make sure it is handled well. To protect it from being dropped. And sometimes that is exactly what is needed.
But over time, it can also make it more likely that the same sorts of things keep returning to the same person, not because they should, but because that is where people have learned to send them.
So if there is something in your world that keeps reappearing in slightly different forms, it may be worth asking:
What are you doing, perhaps unintentionally, that makes it more likely this ends up with you again?
I work one-to-one with senior leaders, helping them build strategies to tackle complex challenges. If you'd like to explore what that could look like for you, you can find out more here.
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