There are two ways to look at avoiding problems.  The first way, as the cartoon points out, is to ignore the problem, sweeping the problem under the rug and hoping it just goes away.  Humorous for a cartoon; deadly for a leader.

The second way is for the leader to be proactive and steer his or her company to avoid problems or issues even before they crop up.

In short, while good leaders are good at solving problems; excellent leaders are good at avoiding them.

How to Avoid Problems?

• Care About the People.  With a strong, people-centric culture, we can have our Human Resources team focus on training and developing the team rather than resolving employee complaints.
• Stamp out Bad Leadership: Bad leaders inevitably lead to HR issues and poorer performance and all the knock-on effects, including low morale and having good people leave the company.
• Address Issues Before They Fester: Solving problems, complaints, or similar issues as soon as they appear in even the mildest of ways will avoid the mess such problems create later.  The most damaging festering issues that need to be addressed immediately are ethical lapses, especially by leaders or other high performing employees.
• Avoid Ambiguity: If something is ambiguous or unclear, there will be multiple ways to interpret it.  This nearly allows leads to problems down the road.  Excellent leaders take their lumps now and require clarity and concreteness.
• Require Excellent Quality and Customer Service: This comes from doing our job right and treating our customers well the first time.  Instead, too many companies spend time fixing poor quality work or mending relationships with dissatisfied customers.  The old adage  – “we never have the time to do it right the first time, but we have the time to correct it now” – is just sad.
• Sound Decision Making:  With good decision making, we anticipate next order effects and responses from either a competitor, a customer, an employee, or a vendor.  We also plan for unintended consequences of any decision we make.
• Vision (In the Medium Term): Excellent leaders, be it for a project and/or for a company, need to have the vision to see what problems could occur over the next 6 months to a year and create a plan to side-step these problems.

Conclusion

To avoid problems, excellent leaders are proactive and focused on creating a winning team that does the right thing and gives great customer service.

The billionaire, Warren Buffett, has a quote that sums it up well:

“Charlie [Munger] and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems.  What we have learned is to avoid them.”