Action This Day

Growing up in Argentina, I learned early that survival depends on solving problems creatively. Economic instability, shifting rules, bureaucratic chaos—problems that other countries resolved decades ago—we solve daily with grit and ingenuity. When feeding your family or keeping a business alive hinges on your ability to act, you don’t have the luxury of indecision. You adapt. You fix things. You figure it out.

That environment taught me that problem-solving isn’t just a nice-to-have skill. It’s a mindset. And it’s why I’m so baffled by managers who treat problems like hot potatoes.

I could list 20 things a first-line manager needs to do well to succeed. But nothing matters more than this:

Solve. Problems. Constantly. Relentlessly. That’s your job.

Your communication skills, coaching abilities, and intuition for innovation mean nothing if you can’t solve problems efficiently.

Yet far too many managers get distracted by internal politics, ego-driven debates, or hesitation until problems escalate. I’ve watched talented teams crumble because a leader refused to make a call—waiting for more data, more revisions, blaming other teams, hiding behind resource challenges, or hoping someone else would make the call. They waste time on meetings about meetings. Meanwhile, customers suffer, teams lose trust, and the business bleeds value. You can’t coach someone into caring—that’s a mindset issue.

Companies pay managers to act in the organization’s best interest, but dysfunctional systems often incentivize the opposite.

But as one of Argentina’s most iconic songs asks: “¿Quién dijo que todo está perdido?” (“Who said all is lost?”).

Problem-solving is a skill we can all learn.
- Identify one-way and two-way door decisions—and make tough calls faster, even with incomplete data.
- Take action. There are rarely perfect solutions, but the problem must be solved.
- Own the problem, even when it’s not your fault.
- Cut through noise to diagnose root causes (not just symptoms).
- Break problems down to their fundamental truths—no assumptions.
- Communicate decisions clearly, even when they’re unpopular.

Problem-solving looks different every time. Sometimes you fix it yourself. Sometimes you coach your team to fix it. Sometimes you overhaul a process to prevent it from recurring. But when the power went out for the 10th time that week, “no llores—resuelve.” (“Don’t cry—solve it.”)

So stop playing small games. Stop hiding behind politics or indecision. If there were no problems to solve, they wouldn’t need you.

PS: In 2021, during a vacation in London, I visited the Churchill War Rooms—the bunker where Winston Churchill led Britain through World War II. I bought the sign: “Action This Day.” Churchill used this phrase to cut through bureaucracy and force urgency. It hangs in my home office today.