First and foremost, you are not alone. The fact that you took the time to write this means two things:
1) You're in tune with the situation
2) You care enough to resolve it (and hopefully be open minded enough to do so)
Having passion is great, and sharing that passion with your team is a powerful thing. However, oftentimes when an extremely passionate entrepreneur 'hires wrong' he or she will find that a few things happen:
A) If an employee isnt actively adding to the mix (to the expectations or perspective of the culture) then they begin to be perceived as 'in the way'
B) When something is in the way of passion, the outcome is 'construction' - but rather - 'destruction'
To resolve this issue, as the founder and CEO you are going to have to do a few tough things:
1) Fire the problem employees: If they don't 'get it now' then that means they dont understand your culture (or your "how" process - aka from your example: problem solve on your own and then pitch some solutions)... You have a window of opportunity to onboard a new employee into your culture successfully, and if you miss it, the most successful and responsible thing for the both of you is to admit that failure and move on.
2) Take the time to develop clear and concise actionable strategies, supplemented by a written guideline emphasizing your 'culture' or 'how process'.
It may seem like you "dont have the time" -- but lets not fool ourselves... what's more important than having a functioning company?
Taking the time to do it one time successfully yourself, empowers you to write the manual for others, which then you should walk through and train appropriately using the manual as a tool.
Stop giving your team a fish & begin teaching them from the start to fish for you.
Every employee 'wants' to come through for you when you first hire them... however, they are not sure what you expect or how you expect it & thus afraid, which prevents them from flourishing. Take the time to empower them with the answers and onboard them successfully from the beginning!
Simply put, these employees may be at fault now... but the core of the issue lies with the person who got them there.
Gut your mistakes, and start over successfully. Taking the responsibility it is highly recommended to strategize a successful 'strategic exit' for each of them -- if youd like to talk that through Id be more than happy to.
