Have you ever worked hard to “fix” a problem—only to watch it come back again and again no matter what you do?

As an NGO leader, your time and energy are too valuable to waste on band-aid solutions. This episode speaks directly to the frustration of constantly firefighting recurring issues and helps you shift toward solving the real root causes so you can create lasting change, stronger teams, and more sustainable leadership.

In this episode, you’ll gain:

1. A simple question that helps you identify whether you’re solving the wrong problem before you take action.
2. Real-world examples of how leaders often mistake technical issues for deeper emotional or systemic blockers.
3. A practical method to uncover root causes so you can prevent problems from repeating instead of constantly reacting.

Press play now to learn how to stop wasting effort on temporary fixes and start leading like an architect of long-term team success.

Watch on YouTube Here

What Is Your Leadership Style? Free Quiz:

Want to know how to lead better? It starts by understanding your leadership style. To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader. Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.

This podcast empowers international development and humanitarian NGO UN leaders to achieve high performance teams, fostering diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing, overcoming burnout and overwhelm, while maximizing impact and productivity.

Have you ever spent weeks solving a problem on your team?

Only to have the exact same issue pop up again a month later?

In the NGO world, we are action-oriented.

We see a fire and we wanna put it out immediately.

But often we move so fast, we end up solving the wrong problem.

We treat the symptom, but we ignore the disease.

Hello, my name is Torrey and welcome to the Modern Humanitarian

and Development Leader Podcast.

Today I wanna share the one question smart leaders ask before they take

action and how asking it can save you the massive amount of time and energy.

So, how do you know if you are focused on the wrong problem?

Well, there are two major red flags.

One, recurrence.

The problem keeps coming up no matter how many times you 'fix' it.

Number two, the band-aid effect.

Your solution feels like a temporary fix, but not a permanent change.

If you're nodding your head right now, or you can identify with this, then you

need to stop solving and start probing.

You need to become a leadership detective.

So let me give you three examples that I constantly see with leaders I coach.

Number one, The Bad Listener.

You as a leader might think when you're starting to think about listening,

that you need to become a better listener, that you need to take a

course on active listening skills.

However, what I observe is usually most people have an idea on how to listen.

The real problem is that it's not a skill issue, it's a time issue.

They feel like they don't have enough time.

They're so overbooked that they physically don't have the space to listen.

You don't need training, in this case.

You need calendar management.

Example number two, The Impossible Government.

So maybe you think we need to change the government regulations because

they are blocking our program.

But the real problem here might be that you can't control

the government, first of all.

I know many of us would like to, but unfortunately we cannot.

So the real problem that we want to solve is that your internal operations are too

rigid to adopt to the current reality.

And you need to change the way you operate, not the way

the government does things.

And then finally, example number three, The Budget Error.

You might think, 'My team keeps making the same mistakes on the budget report.

I need to teach them how to read Excel better'.

But the real problem might actually be, they know how to read.

They know how to read a budget report, but they lack the confidence.

They are afraid of making a mistake with money, so they freeze up.

So this last example is actually crucial.

The area where I see leaders struggle the most is when a problem is people-related.

We are taught to fix technical problems as leaders.

It's easier to focus on technical problems or action-oriented solutions.

So for example, when a team member struggles, we try to teach them

the solution, but often the root cause isn't a lack of knowledge.

It's an emotion.

It's something that they're feeling, for example, fear or, or anger or frustration.

Or maybe they feel hopeless or lack confidence.

These feelings can actually be the things that prevent them from taking action.

So you can teach them all you want to, but it's not going to work.

You cannot 'teach' away fear.

So, in my course, this is one of the things that I show leaders

how to specifically use coaching questions to uncover these emotional

blockers, because standard management advice just doesn't work here.

So, what do you do?

Before you launch a new initiative or schedule a training, stop.

Ask yourself, is this the real problem that we are solving and focused on?

Or is there a deeper one?

And you can use the problem tree method to determine this.

Keep asking why until you hit the bottom.

So for example, why is the report late?

Because the partner didn't finish it.

Why didn't they finish it?

Because they were afraid to ask for help.

Why were they afraid?

Because last time someone asked, they got criticized.

This is an example of asking why, why, why, to get deeper and deeper

into the true problem so that we can really effectively address it.

Boom!

So now, you know the real problem, and this case isn't

time management, it's trust.

So solving the problem.

And focusing on the right problem takes a little more time upfront,

but it will solve it more sustainably than if we just go with the first

thing that we think is the issue.

Look at the big picture here.

Don't just ask, how do I fix this now, but ask, how do I make

sure this never happens again?

If you start asking that question, you stop being a firefighter

and you start being a true architect of your team's success.

Alright, until next week, keep evolving.

Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do, or do you let

them figure it out for themselves?

Understanding your leadership style is a first step to deciding what's

working for you and what's not.

To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz, What is your Leadership Style?

You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting

your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz.

Fill out your quiz and click submit.

So what are you waiting for?

Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now.

Your team will thank you for it.