It’s very easy to complain about something. All you have to do is point out faults and you’re done. But to actually be useful to your company, you need to be focused on actionable issues that you can solve. You need to be solution oriented. This means that instead of just looking at what is wrong, you need to focus on what you can do to correct those errors, mistakes, problems, etc. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. Really, it’s just a simple attitude adjustment.

Most people are not satisfied with thier jobs for one reason or another. The first thing you should do when trying to become solution oriented is to look inward at yourself. If you aren’t satisfied with your job, ask yourself why, and more importantly ask yourself what you can do to make things better. You cannot control anyone but yourself, so you need to be able to find a way to take action and solve your problem. Once you can do this, you’ll be ready to apply that thinking to other problems. The trick is to look at what you yourself can do to solve the issue.

Weather you’re a manager or not, it’s your job to get things done, and to do so, you will need help at some point. Sometimes you just don’t have the expertise, or talent, or whatever to fix the problem yourself. It seems like an easy task; all you have to do is ask for help after all. But the fact is that you need to get buy-in from your team first. No one is going to throw their back into the work if they don’t believe in it. The best way to get buy-in is to clearly identify the problem, and communicate why your team should care. If you can’t do that, then you’re done. To be effective at this, you can’t just point out the problem. You need to focus on what your team can do to solve the problem, and what the possible outcomes will be.

Not every problem is solvable. Sometimes there are things outside of your control. The economy, for example, is something you can’t really control. What you can do is try to take advantage of the situation in some way. You can only play with the cards you’re dealt, and sometimes you are given a bad hand. The game is still winnable… if you are smart and bold enough to do what you have to do.

I guess to sum it all up, please don’t be one of those people that just sits around and complains about things. Be the person that gets things done. To become a true asset to your company, try to be the problem solver, not the complainer.