When Alex Hinrichs retired from Microsoft, he wrote the traditional goodbye email. It was so well received that he decided to post it to LinkedIn. In his letter, Hinrichs shares 11 lessons he learned over the years. Most of the advice he shares is good, but he also included something I strongly disagree with:
If you bring a problem to your boss, you must have a recommendation. When presenting solutions to your boss, give them a menu and tell them your recommendation. “Hey boss, choose solution a, b, c, or d… I recommend a”.
Hinrichs is not the first person to share this advice. I see it all over the place, and I hate it. I get the intent. If nothing else, coming up with the list of options and your recommendation forces you to think through the problem. It’s good practice and it makes you look good.
But it’s also a good way to suppress red flags. This is particularly true for early career and underindexed employees. For them, reporting a problem can be intimidating enough. The pressure of having to figure out a solution means they might just stay quiet instead.
Now it may turn out that what a junior employee sees as a problem that they don’t have an answer to really isn’t a problem. On the other hand, some problems are much easier to identify than they are to fix. This is particularly true with ethical and cultural problems. If your policy is “don’t come to me until you have a solution”, you’re opening yourself up to letting bad culture take root. And you’re depriving your junior employees a chance to learn from you and your team.
If someone is constantly reporting problems but not showing any willingness to address them, that’s an issue. But saying you must have a recommendation is a good way to not learn about problems until it’s too late.