Burn The Witch - How anxiety and guilt hinder problem-solving.

Maria Parra, a friend I love and deeply respect, wrote the first guest post for this newsletter. With Halloween around the corner, her article touches on an essential point about the attitude needed to solve issues and how the right mindset can lead to faster solutions.

In the corporate world, solving problems usually has a very specific first step, find and burn the witch!

A crisis emerges a mistake is made, and what should logically prompt a search for solutions becomes an elaborate ritual of finger-pointing and fear-dumping. This phenomenon, is all too common, and it begs the question: Why do we need to place guilt to move forward?

In the heart of countless meetings, I've witnessed the gnawing impulse to find the guilty party before any ideas are proposed for a solution. It's as if the weight of guilt must be placed on someone's shoulders before the gears of progress can begin to turn. This inclination, though perhaps instinctive, has no place in the work environment if we wish to unleash the true potential of our teams.

Guilt, I contend, is but a smokescreen that obscures the path to meaningful change. It obscures the focus from finding solutions and forces us into a realm of self-preservation. A leader's responsibility, then, becomes paramount in dismantling this toxic mindset. To foster a culture of growth, leaders must cultivate an environment where the blame game is relegated to oblivion, and responsibility takes center stage.

However, responsibility must not be confused with a sword of Damocles, dangling over the heads of employees. It is, instead, the mantle of leadership that falls upon the shoulders of those guiding the team. If a team cowers in fear, traumatized by the mere prospect of making a mistake, the leader bears the burden of working through this toxicity that hinders progress.

A manager, a leader ideally, is a source of guidance and strategic power, they should not function as a judge or executioner. Therefore, logically, if someone makes a mistake, their first instinct should not be to cover and hide.

Instead, their initial thought should be, I’ll get my manager; they'll know what to do!

Let us envision a workspace where fear's grip is loosened, replaced by an environment that encourages open communication, vulnerability, and trust. In such an atmosphere, mistakes are understood as an unavoidable byproduct of work, progress, and the human condition. Mistakes are not something done intentionally to harm so why must we punish?

So, let us, put down our torches, dismantle the pyre and try to find solutions, new paths, and more empathy.

By Maria Parra.