Treat the system not the symptoms

A team misses deadlines. Sales are down. Meetings feel unproductive. The instinct? Fix the symptom. Push for tighter deadlines, ramp up marketing, schedule more meetings. But symptoms aren’t the same as the real problem.

The real problem hides beneath the surface. Maybe deadlines slip because priorities are unclear. Maybe sales are down because the market has shifted. Maybe meetings suck because no one feels ownership.

Leaders who attack symptoms stay stuck in firefighting mode—reacting instead of improving.

Great leaders step back.

They ask: What’s actually causing this? They keep asking why until they uncover the real issue.

They don’t get distracted by the noise. They solve the system, not just the symptom.

And when they do, everything changes. Problems stop repeating. Progress sticks. Teams move faster with less friction.

Want to be a great leader? Stop being suckered into slapping band-aids on broken systems. Dig deeper. Solve the real problem.