Coach Me! Your Personal Board of Directors

41 Identifying and Approaching Different Types of Problems

Nankhonde Kasonde-van den Broek

Nankhonde Kasonde-van den Broek is an executive coach, organizational change architect, and entrepreneur. She has over 20 years of experience supporting multi-nationals, international organizations, and governments. She is an accomplished professional with a wealth of African, international, and multi-cultural experience in designing and leading large-scale change across multiple sectors.

Introduction

Every business is built on the premise of solving problems, but successful businesses have a deliberate strategy on how to deal effectively with different types of problems.

I have been coaching management teams across Africa in both the private and public sector over the last 10 years. Through these experiences, I have had the opportunity to unpack a number of challenges that come with effectively executing C-Suite roles. One of the challenges I have come across repeatedly is the ability to make decisions timely. This starts with an appreciation of the problem to be solved so that the correct course of action can be taken. However, the definition of the situation is affected by the perspectives of the stakeholders involved. Each of us has a different perception of the same situation (or the context of the problem), based on the mental models we use to make judgements on reality.

Understanding Types of Problems

Recognizing that there is a problem is the first step in problem resolution, ...