Have you ever approached a problem with “If I want something done right, I will just have to do it myself?”

I have spent much of my life with that thinking. But then, I have to ask if that approach is really a good way to teach others? You really cannot count on someone else just observing the way you do something and learning all there is from that! Communication is a huge ingredient in the problems we confront each day. Maybe lack of communication is how a problem started. Maybe communication is why a problem is not getting solved.

As I listened to an Impact Driven Leader podcast interview Tyler Dickerhoof conducted with John Houston, author of Brilliant Ideas: Three Questions to Ask Yourself, I had to stop and ask myself “Instead of looking at the problem, focus on the WIN that can come from it.”

Many choices, and ultimately decisions, on how to solve a problem fit well into the three questions John Houston says to ask yourself:

• Is this an idea for me to do alone?
• Is this an idea for me to partner with someone else to do?
• Is this an idea for me to hand off to someone else to do? (this one involves a lot of communication, and ultimately, a great deal of trust in someone else’s abilities). Teaching others well should make this easier.

Apply these questions to your work environment. Sometimes, there are just too many ideas on how a project will get accomplished! As you go through John’s Three Questions, you must ask yourself how much of an idea are you willing to partner with someone else, or more importantly, hand off to someone else and trust them to complete?

Apply these questions to your personal life? Too many ideas of tasks to carry out on your own can be fatiguing and ultimately, shut you down from using any.

Tyler’s comment sums it up best when he said, “Until you let go, you are not going to grow!”

Can the WIN come from the collaboration with others, their opinions and expertise?