You probably know one. Maybe you are one.
They’re the founder or leader who thrives on dealing with problems as they hit. Every issue that lands on their desk gets chopped down with speed and efficiency. By end of day, they’ve slayed a dozens of fires and they feel great.
But that feeling is a lie.
Because while they’re in full ninja mode, they never stop to ask the question that actually matters – why did this issue turn up in the first place?
In my experience, here’s what most people miss – there’s rarely just one root cause. Underneath every issue there are usually multiple causes, layered and connected. Fix the obvious one and you’ve treated a symptom. Leave the others untouched and the issue comes back – maybe in a slightly different form, but it comes back.
In EOS, we use a process called IDS – Identify, Discuss, Solve. The whole point is to slow down enough to find all of the real causes, not just the one on the surface. To solve the issue completely, so it doesn’t return.
But Issue Ninjas often don’t want it solved completely. (Even if they’d never admit it.) Because if it’s truly gone, there’s nothing left to chop down.
Reactivity feels productive. It isn’t. It’s a default human setting – and in fast-moving businesses, it’s dangerously easy to reward.
As your business scales, the Issue Ninja becomes the bottleneck. Too busy fighting the same fires to hit their Rocks. Too reactive to be strategic. And quietly, they’ve become the reason problems never really go away.
The real measure of a great Issue Ninja? They should only be needed for something that’s never happened before. If it’s happened before and they’re dealing with it again, that’s not a win – that’s a warning sign.
The antidote is a curious mindset over a reactive one. Don’t just reach for the sword. Ask why – and keep asking until you’ve found every root cause worth solving.
Spot the Issue Ninja in your business. Then help them become something better.