Calling All Questioners, Not Problem Solvers

It’s tempting — whether you’ve been in leadership positions for decades or are new to the role — to believe that the faster you can find a solution for the challenges your team members bring to you, the more capable and effective a leader you are.

However, Americans weigh traits like trustworthiness, loyalty, authenticity and passion equal to, if not higher than, a leader’s ability to be strategic, pragmatic and decisive.

With the intense pressure to get things done in this fast-paced business world, work can feel like one long to-do list, where we can only catch our breath when we cross something off our to-do list. Leadership and mentorship, however, are not tasks we can just check off the list. To be a truly impactful leader, we must slow down and teach our mentees to do the same.

Roots before remedies

One of the most valuable lessons we can teach our up-and-coming leaders is the discipline to stay present and resist the urge to solve immediately. The problem with solving too early is that you’re not yet at the root of the problem. You might implement a solution, but without addressing the core problem, it persists.

In areas like recruiting, for example, staying curious rather than rushed can reveal deeper insights about candidates and their fit for the business. The more you ask, the more you learn; the more you learn, the better equipped you are to find the right person for the job. When we rush to solve without listening, we limit our options. Instead, consider all the places from which you need information. Who do you need to talk to? What questions need to be asked?

Leadership requires us to guide teammates in developing their own thinking processes, not just hand them answers. When we encourage digging deeper, questioning assumptions and exploring different perspectives, we empower us all to become problem solvers who are not only capable but also creative and resilient.

Aspiring Leaders Program: A lesson in slowing down and thinking

At Brown & Brown, we recently completed our annual Aspiring Leaders Program, designed to cultivate the next generation of leaders. In this program, we bring together 20 rising leaders from across the organization and challenge them to solve a real business problem.

One of the key areas we look for in the process is the ability to listen deeply and stay curious before jumping to solutions. We encourage our participants to resist the urge to rush into problem-solving mode by first understanding who they are as individuals through personality assessments, then forming teams where they learn to work together to solve the problem effectively. While the program puts them in high-pressure simulations, we focus on quality decision-making practices and knowing what questions to ask. And that’s exactly what we found the program does.

Some of the biggest takeaways from the 2024 cohort:

1. The level of creativity when you’re unburdened is exceptional. Young professionals haven’t experienced business like a seasoned career C-suite has, and there’s a weightlessness in that. One that has significantly fewer limitations and restrictions. That means our emerging leaders aren’t going to nix ideas easily. Instead, they will go out on a limb and suggest what comes to mind. And maybe, just maybe, some of them will work!

2. Teammates coming together from across the organization creates business opportunities. A teammate from the Retail segment has the chance to talk with and gain a deeper understanding of what someone in the Wholesale segment does. This cross-pollination of the business opens new relationships and better insight into capabilities, ultimately leading to partnership and greater knowledge sharing.

3.     This cohort grows and learns together and remains connected throughout their careers. Finding opportunities to learn, build and grow together in real time can be challenging in a disconnected and remote work world. The Aspiring Leaders Program allows emerging leaders to return to their home office and integrate the lessons they’ve learned into the broader business while relying on and staying engaged with their cohort from across the organization.

The program’s culmination is a presentation in front of our senior leadership team, where each group offers its solutions to the business challenge. Senior leadership rates the teams, and in a nod to one of Brown & Brown’s core values, meritocracy, there is a clear winner who enjoys a number of perks throughout the coming year until our next cohort begins.

Sometimes, the winning team’s idea will be fully implemented, and sometimes, parts of their solution will be executed, but a guaranteed result is that we all slow down our thinking and start asking before solving.