The Problem You Solved For Them Instead Of Handing Back

A direct report walks into your office with a problem, lays it on your desk, and before she has even finished the sentence you have already started solving it in your head.

It feels like leadership. Half the time it is actually theft — you are taking a growth opportunity that belonged to her.

C.H.E.W. with Me

New here? What is CHEW? — a 30-second practice that grows into a day woven with God’s love.

C – Clarity: The Reflex To Take The Problem Back

The disciples come to Jesus with a real, legitimate problem: five thousand hungry people, nowhere to buy food, evening coming on. It is exactly the kind of problem a leader would normally step in and fix personally.

Their instinct, in verse 36, is to send the crowd away to solve it themselves — get rid of the problem rather than own it. Jesus refuses both easy outs: He will not dismiss the need, and He will not simply absorb it Himself either. He routes it through the very people who came to Him hoping to hand it off.

H – Hear: You Give Them Something To Eat

“But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.'” (Mark 6:37)

The Greek is dote autois — “you give,” a direct imperative aimed squarely at the disciples, not a rhetorical deflection. Jesus already holds the miracle in His hands. He assigns the problem to them first anyway.

This is not Jesus refusing to help; a few verses later He multiplies the bread Himself. But He deliberately routes the problem through the twelve before He solves it, because being handed responsibility they cannot fully carry is part of how they grow into leaders who can.

It is worth noticing what Jesus does not do: He does not hand them a fully-formed plan. He asks them a question first — “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” (Mark 6:38). He sends them to take inventory of their own resources before He multiplies anything, which means the miracle still runs through their hands, their counting, their distribution to the crowd.

E – Exchange: Trading Rescue For Equipping

When you take a problem back onto your own desk instead of handing it to the person who brought it — with the resources and backing they need — you protect today’s outcome at the cost of their growth over the next year. Equipping costs you more up front than rescuing does; it just pays a return rescuing never will.

Because God’s love is one that equips before it ever assigns, how does that change the next problem a direct report hands back to you today?

W – Walk: Hand One Problem Back This Week

The next time someone brings you a problem they are fully capable of solving with the right support, do not take it. Ask, “What are you thinking?” — then give whatever resource or backing they are missing, and let them own the solution.

Closing question: What problem did you take back today that was never actually yours to solve?