One of the basic skills of the leader is his ability to solve problems. The problems are part of the daily dynamic of organizations and leaders need to know how to approach and what decisions to make to solve them. Problem solving is thus related to making timely and correct decisions. That is a very practical aspect of leadership, the problems are part of the situations that the leader has to manage. Now, the leader needs to know when facing a problem. How does the leader who is facing a problem? A problem arises when the actual state of affairs does not conform to the desired state, as when sales are falling below the minimum expected, or you see a competitor with more advanced technology or financial limitations. There are several signs that tell us when we are faced with a problem: He has broken an existing pattern in the performance of the organization.
For example low productivity below the minimum acceptable. It happened deviation from the plan. The costs are well above the approved budget. The leader is approached and bombarded by people with concerns and worries which fail to resolve, as complaints from customers, suppliers or employees. What approach is addressing the problems? You may decide to ignore, hide or even deny them, waiting to be solved alone or someone to solve for you, which means making the sand: stand on their heads, but responsibility remains the leader, and this only worsens the problem. You can defer the resolution indefinitely, hoping to have all the details to resolve, but the delay would seriously affect the effectiveness of the response.