Your ability to solve problems is tied to your perception of yourself. If you perceive yourself as a person who has no solid answers, no useful information, and no practical experiences to share, your ability to solve problems effectively is going to be greatly reduced. Conversely, if you feel good about yourself and have a healthy self-esteem, you will be glad to share your ideas, your experiences, and your advice to change issues and solve simple and complex problems at work, at home, and in the community.

Unhealthy self-esteem can interfere with your problem-solving abilities because of ineffective communication. People with unhealthy self-esteem sometimes need to have the spotlight shine on them alone. They need to know that they have something that no one else has in order to protect their importance. Because of this need, they withhold information that could be essential to the problem-solving process. They see it as necessary for their personal survival, when in essence, the withholding of that information may be costly to the company, the community, and them personally.

Another problem with communication and self-esteem is that if you feel that your information is useless or arcane, you may not feel like you need to share it. In every problem-solving situation, there is information that is generally known, information that is known only by a few, and information that is known by you alone. Your information may be the key to the solution, but without your confidence to share it, it can't be used.