You know the difference between a migraine and a headache right?  

A headache is annoying, sure, but manageable. You pop a pill, power through, and hope it fades on its own.

But a migraine? That’s a show stopper.  You cancel meetings, turn off the lights, and do whatever it takes to make it stop now.

When I talk with organizations, I can usually tell pretty quickly: are we dealing with a low grade headache... or a full-blown manager migraine?

If you’re not sure where your team’s pain falls on the spectrum, here are three questions to help you diagnose:

How emotionally connected are you to the problem?
Translation: Who’s driving you up the wall?

Back when I was a brand-new manager, my biggest challenge wasn’t the job, it was managing a former peer.  We had history.  We were both competitive.  Now I was their boss, and the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.  Every day, I obsessed over how to fix it.  That’s how you know it’s a migraine, it lives rent-free in your head.

How urgent is it, really?
If you catch yourself saying, yeah, this is important… but we’ve got other priorities, that’s a sign.  It might be a headache now, but left untreated, it has full migraine potential. (And spoiler: ignoring it won’t make it go away.)

What have you already tried?
Migraine problems force action.  Time, money, energy, you throw whatever you’ve got at the issue.  If you haven’t invested anything yet, chances are it’s still in the nagging headache territory.  But be careful, headaches ignored too long tend to blow up into something much worse (usually right before a major deadline).

As managers, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for things to fix themselves.  Our job is to pay attention, track the symptoms, and take action before we end up curled in the fetal position under our desks.

Still wondering if what you’re facing is worth solving?  (Hint: if it’s giving you heartburn, lost sleep, or a recurring forehead twitch… it probably is.)

Let’s talk before the Motrin runs out.  Grab a time here.