problems and solutions

A quote on a manager’s door in my office – “Don’t come in with problems. I want solutions”. I think a beginner will go to his boss with problems and would not have thought about solutions at all. Next level is thinking about options to solve and the pros and cons in choosing any of the options before even going to the manager. You cannot expect the manager to solve every problem. Anyway the first thing he will say is “okay, I hear your problem. So what can we do about it?”, so better be prepared for that. Better yet, identify the best solution and implement and then inform the manager. You have to inform your boss anyway – if you find the problem, analyze it and fix it and nobody knows about it, still you will be on losing end since nobody will ever know how good you are. Even the next level will be anticipating problems and fixing it before it can surface.