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Key Takeaways

Finding the problems with your business is only one piece of the leadership puzzle — experienced leaders know that you have to be able to find paths forward, too.

Leaders also have to be able to evaluate risk and decide what risks are worth taking.

At senior levels, raising an issue is never a neutral act. It is a decision about how much responsibility you are prepared to carry — and how much you expect others to carry for you.

Leaders are surrounded by problems. What they pay attention to is how those problems arrive. When an issue is presented without any thinking attached, it creates drag. When it arrives with options, trade-offs and consequences already considered, it creates momentum. The difference is not subtle, and it compounds quickly.

This is why experienced leaders follow a quiet rule: Problems should arrive paired with possible paths forward.…