Problem Solving Leadership Archives

Born or Made?

by Esther Derby | Apr 18, 2025 | blog post, Problem Solving Leadership

In the 1840s Thomas Carlyle gave a series of lectures that were later published as a book. His premise was that leaders are born with innate and unteachable traits. Leadership is the purview of a few very special people. Carlyle’s 19th century theory lives on, in...

4 Steps to Better Communication

by Don Gray | Mar 13, 2025 | Problem Solving Leadership

Solving Communication Problems During my first visit with a new client, Doug, the VP of Engineering said, “Don, if we don’t get a handle on quality, it’s going to kill us. For every story we released into production, there was a new defect logged.” I often find that...

Don’t Let These 5 Assumptions About Leadership Hold You Back

by Esther Derby | Feb 25, 2025 | Problem Solving Leadership

Most of us have been taught—implicitly and explicitly a handful of definitions of leadership. We’ve heard over and over that leadership is: Positional authority. This happens in every formal hierarchy. A job has a set of delegated responsibilities. Because of the job...

5 Questions to Frame the Problem Space

by Don Gray | Feb 7, 2025 | blog post, Problem Solving Leadership

Jerry Weinberg defined a problem as “a difference between what I have and what I want.” When solving our own problems, this can be difficult enough. When we solve problems for other people, which is most of what software development is about, the...

Don’t Just Do Something …

by Don Gray | Jan 28, 2025 | Problem Solving Leadership

The First Rule of Problem Solving Odd as it seems, not all problems have to be solved. Action may actually create a problem that didn’t exist in the first place. The problem-solving starting point should be “Don’t just do something, stand...

Training or Learning?

by Esther Derby | Jan 21, 2025 | Problem Solving Leadership

Many training classes are designed to reduce variation—to ensure that people approach a task the same way. These classes reduce variety another way. They’re designed for people in a particular functional role or specialty. Think programming language classes,...

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