A Porcupine on the Lap

One of our mentors at Sól Recruiting, Coaching, and Consulting is a former turn-around CEO who has successfully transformed multiple companies over his career. During a recent workshop he shared a great way of upgrading how we share problems. He said something like this, “Don’t just bring me a porcupine and drop it on my lap! Come with some sort of solution, even if it’s imperfect.” The situation he was describing was that of an employee coming to a supervisor with some problem, a deadline they missed or an obstacle that arose, etc. This proactive stance toward developing solutions in advance seems valuable and rare. It seems that the default way is to just drop off our problems and wait for someone else to solve them. 

The more I ponder the porcupine image, the more it seems to me that it applies in all kinds of other scenarios as well: giving feedback to someone without proposing a solution or making clear requests, complaining without exploring what can be done or without asking for help or advice, bringing a bad mood and hoping or even actively trying to have it spread to others. All of these passive stances are porcupines that place the burden of a solution on others. 

This week, I invite you to ask: 

What are my signature porcupines? Whose laps do I tend to drop them in? In these scenarios, what would change if I adopted a more active, solutions-focused mindset instead? 

God bless,
Dan