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You’ve solved this problem before.

Maybe twice. Maybe ten times. You’ve shifted resources, changed the reporting structure, brought in a coach, even launched a new initiative. And yet, here it is again.

Same issue. New version. Same frustration.

What’s happening isn’t always personal. It’s often a business problem that’s being solved the wrong way.

That’s not because you’re a bad leader. It’s because you’re solving the wrong problem.

This is one of the most tiring challenges I see in business. Leaders stuck in a loop. Fixing symptoms that look urgent while the real issue goes untouched. They’re not underperforming — they’re misdiagnosing. And it’s costing them time, energy, and trust.

When Progress Feels Like Running in Place

Most leaders don’t realize they’re misdiagnosing because the fix appears to work. At least at first. A process change smooths things out. A new hire brings fresh energy. A meeting helps refocus priorities.

Then, just when things seem to stabilize, the issue returns. Deadlines slide. Accountability fades. That same uncomfortable feeling settles in again.

It feels like a step backward. But it’s just the natural outcome of treating the surface-level pain, not the root cause.

When a challenge keeps circling back in new forms, it’s rarely a surface issue. It’s buried in how the problem is being defined.

We’re Not Trained to Slow Down Our Thinking

The real trap? Naming the problem before we’ve clarified the challenge. Solving fast instead of solving right is what sends leaders down the wrong path with full force.

The brain sees a pattern, labels it, and jumps to fix it. Fast. That instinct serves us in emergencies, but it works against us in complexity.

Leaders are rewarded for decisiveness. We are expected to take action and keep things moving. So when something goes wrong, we respond quickly. Not because we’re careless, but because urgency has been mistaken for effectiveness.

But urgency without clarity leads to repetition. You solve quickly, but not at the root. You get movement, but not momentum. And without realizing it, you end up stuck in a loop of partial fixes.

That’s the cost of jumping to solutions before understanding what you’re really solving.

A Real-World Example: Mislabeling the Problem

Imagine a department struggling with missed deadlines. Leadership assumes it’s a performance issue, so they invest in training. When that doesn’t work, they offer bonuses. Then tighter accountability.

Still no change.

Eventually, they step back and discover something more fundamental. No one actually knows who owns which decisions. Roles are unclear. Priorities shift constantly. Teams work near each other, but not with each other.

The issue wasn’t effort. It wasn’t capability. It was lack of clarity around outcomes and ownership.

Every solution before that was built on a misdiagnosis. That’s why nothing stuck.

Let’s Talk About the Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis in business isn’t about being careless. It’s about being too close to the problem to see it clearly.

It happens when we solve what’s loudest. We treat symptoms because they’re visible without investigating what’s behind them.

Sometimes we mislabel problems because the alternative feels too big to untangle. Other times, we simply assume we’ve named it correctly because we’ve seen it before.But that assumption that seems so harmless is often what keeps us stuck.

How Misdiagnosed Problems Show Up

If a problem keeps coming back, you’re not solving it, you’re working around it.

I always tell leaders to pay attention to patterns. Recurrence is your clue. It’s your evidence that something deeper hasn’t been clearly defined. It’s what gets us caught up addressing symptoms instead of root causes.

Here’s what those disguised problems often sound like.

-“We just need better accountability.” Is it accountability or are the outcomes still undefined?

-“People don’t follow through.” Or do they not know what success looks like?

-“We need better systems.” Or do we lack shared and co-aligned thinking that makes systems effective?

Disguised or surface problems feel real because they are real. But they’re not the root cause. They’re downstream. They’re the ripple effect of something structural, strategic, or unclear that never got addressed.

The Cost of Solving the Wrong Thing

When we chase the wrong problem, three things happen:

1. Energy gets drained. The team spins its wheels on solutions that don’t move anything forward.
2. Trust wears thin. People feel like leadership keeps shifting directions or overcorrecting without results.
3. Momentum disappears. Every failed fix chips away at confidence — sometimes subtly, sometimes permanently.

This is how good teams lose belief. Not because they’re incapable, but because they’re tired of chasing answers that don’t solve the real issue.

What to Do Instead

Before solving anything, pause long enough to reframe what’s actually going on. Ask yourself and your team questions that force you to slow down and really think below the surface.

• What’s the real outcome we’re not achieving?
• What do we believe is causing that?
• What if we’re wrong?
• What assumptions haven’t we tested?
• What part of this system do we keep working around instead of addressing?

These questions won’t solve the problem. But they’ll make sure you’re solving the right one.

If you’ve been here, you know the frustration. The more you try to fix it, the more it seems to stick around. That’s the signal it’s time to pause. Not push harder.

Clarity Is Always the First Fix

Most persistent problems in business aren’t about people. They’re about structure.

And structure isn’t just systems or processes. It’s how we think about the work. How decisions get made. How outcomes get defined. How accountability gets shaped.

When you stop reacting to what’s visible and start clarifying what’s essential, the right solution gets easier. You stop changing tactics and start changing dynamics.

That’s what makes progress real.

Final Thought

If you’ve solved something five different ways and it still won’t go away, the problem isn’t your strategy. It’s how you’ve defined the problem in the first place.

Momentum doesn’t come from speed. It comes from solving the right problem. And the right problem is almost always hiding behind the obvious one.