What Problem Do You Want to Be Known for Solving?

Most career conversations start with the same question. "Where do you want to be in five years?"

I understand why managers ask it. It sounds forward-looking. It invites ambition. It fits neatly into a development plan.

But think about the answers it produces. People name a title. They describe a version of success that sounds responsible. They tell you what they think you want to hear. The question asks them to plot a path on a map someone else drew, so they pick the most familiar road.

After decades of sitting across from leaders and the people they lead, I have come to believe that question is one of the biggest missed opportunities in the workplace. Not because ambition doesn't matter, but because it points people toward positions instead of contributions.

The Question That Changes the Conversation

Here is the question I ask instead.

"What problem do you want to be known for solving?"

It sounds simple. It isn't. It asks a person to name what they actually care about, the thing they notice that others walk past, the frustration they can't let go of, the work that energizes them even when no one is watching. It cuts through performance because there is no safe, rehearsed answer. You either know what pulls at you or you have to go find out.

I worked with a leader who sat with that question for weeks. What she kept coming back to was this: information in her organization was everywhere and accessible to no one. Valuable knowledge lived inside people's heads and disappeared when they left. Teams kept solving the same problems from scratch because nobody could find what the last team had learned.

There was no role for what she was describing. So the company built one. They created a Director of Knowledge Systems position, a role that did not exist until she started answering that question honestly.

That is what happens when you stop asking people where they want to go and start asking what they want to contribute. You don't just develop a person. You discover value your organization didn't know it was missing.

Why Titles Make Poor Destinations

A title is a container. It tells you where someone sits, not what they bring. When we organize careers around titles, we train people to compete for boxes rather than grow into their gifts.

The cost shows up everywhere. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 found that only 20% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, and just 22% of managers are. Those numbers don't describe a shortage of talent. They describe millions of people performing roles that were never designed around what makes them exceptional.

The problem question reverses that. It starts with the person and works outward. It treats each individual as someone with a unique capacity to contribute, rather than raw material to be shaped into a predetermined mold. That shift is at the heart of everything I teach about individuality. Your people are already exceptional at something. Your job is to be curious enough to find out what.

What Leaders Hear When They Listen

When you ask this question, be prepared for answers that don't fit your org chart. Someone may describe a problem that crosses departments. Someone may name a frustration with how you do things. Someone may not have an answer yet, and that is valuable information too.

The worst thing you can do is ask the question and then file the answer away. The best thing you can do is let it change something. A stretch assignment. A new project. An introduction to someone working on the same problem. Sometimes, as with the leader I described, an entirely new role.

This works in your own career, too. If you have been chasing the next title and feeling strangely empty each time you reach it, try asking yourself the same question. As I've written about building a strategy for your career, the most fulfilling paths are designed around contribution, not just promotion. When you know the problem you are meant to solve, you stop waiting for permission and start building the work that only you can do.

From Fitting In to Standing Out

There is a deeper reason this question matters. Most people spend their careers learning to fit. They study what success looks like in their organization and edit themselves to match it. Over time, they become very good at performing a role and lose touch with what they were built to contribute.

The problem question invites them back. It says: I'm not interested in the version of you that fits the job description. I'm interested in the version of you that sees something the rest of us are missing.

That is how individuality becomes a competitive advantage rather than a liability to be managed.

Ask It This Week

In your next one-on-one, set aside the five-year question. Ask the one that matters more. Then listen. Really listen. People rarely light up describing a title they want. They light up describing a problem they cannot stop thinking about.

When you hear that spark, you have found where their best work lives. Build around it.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.