HOW TO TAKE PEOPLE TO A PLACE THEY WOULD NOT GO ON THEIR OWN –By Greg Cox I often have conversations with leaders that are frustrated with the level of effort their team gives to the important work that needs to be done. Many leaders wonder why it is so difficult to get people to give their very best effort. At the same time, there is a large number of people that are unhappy with how the person they report to leads their organization. Gallup reports that 29% of employees are engaged, 54% are partially engaged, and 17% are actively disengaged (a categorical description that still bothers me. What exactly does an actively disengaged person do all day? You can bet that it certainly is not good!), Yikes! It seems like leadership is having a difficult time leading. My experience is that leaders can learn a valuable lesson from President Harry Truman when he said, “The buck stops here.” At the end of the day, the engagement of an organization is going to fall squarely on the shoulders of its leadership. Leaders need to build trust and relationships through effective formal and informal communication (there is no other way Mountain Climbers Don’t Climb Parking Lots. (Have you ever noticed?) it can happen). Dale Carnegie said, “Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.” (Human Relations Principle #17). This means that an effective leader will seek to understand others. Go on “offense” in this endeavor - “The buck stops here!” So what does it look like to go on offense in the pursuit of taking people to a place they would not go on their own? What are the plays in that playbook? Well there certainly seems to be a lot of different options, but at Dale Carnegie - Chicago, we feel that there are some fundamentals that, if skipped, will leave you frustrated, cause your people to be less focused, and result in chronic underperformance. Continued... HOW TO TAKE PEOPLE TO A PLACE THEY WOULD NOT GO ON THEIR OWN (Con’t) Fundamental #1 - VISION MAKE IT COMPELLING Vision is one of the most powerful tools available to any leader. This is why it can come as a shock when we see the data on the percentage of employees that understand their organization’s vision: a measly 7% of employees (Harvard Business School Press). The stinging pain of this statistic is that it indicates that, out of the gate, the typical organization, is by design, set up to get much less of it’s people than is possible. This means that no discretionary effort on the part of an employee gets into play on a regular basis. Dale Carnegie said, “Arouse in the other person an eager want” (Human Relations Principle #3). This means that as leaders that we need to make the future exciting, desirable, thrilling, and rewarding. We have to inspire everyone to want to go! It has to be so awesome that you would have to be crazy not to want to go. In the above diagram, vision is symbolized by the red star. It is important because it is the thing that gets the the leader and the team moving in the right direction and in the same direction. The journey to the vision is never easy. The mountain in the above diagram represents everything difficult and all the effort that it takes to make the vision a reality. The path to vision is not a walk across a parking lot (it’s not nice and flat!). It is often steep, treacherous, and difficult. Like a mountain, the path to vision will make people’s legs burn. This is why what’s on the other side of the mountain had better be good, or people won’t want to go. As leaders we have to come alongside our teams and give them a peek into our crystal ball and help them to see it using words. Making the destination (vision) exciting will tap into your team’s discretionary effort. Leaders that can’t cast a compelling vision won’t have followers. If you don’t know off the top of your head and with precision exactly what your vision is, you might as well not have one (in fact you really don’t). MAKE IT CLEAR Your vision has also got to be clear. It needs to be written and everyone else in your entire organization needs to know it cold. That way when the mountain “blocks your view of the vision” you will have an engaged group of people that are clear and remember what is waiting on the other side (like the little blue engine in The Little Engine that Could) versus what is directly in front of them. Your clear, written, and compelling vision will keep people moving. It will keep them climbing because you started with a clear vision that aroused an eager want and continues to do just that. In our organization several years ago, I produced a vision, mission, and values video thatContinued... is under two minutes long. We update it annually and show the video in every monthly staff meeting throughout the year. We have 100% of our team understanding the company’s vision. HOW TO TAKE PEOPLE TO A PLACE THEY WOULD NOT GO ON THEIR OWN (Con’t) Fundamental #2 UNDERSTAND “THE P17 TRIANGLE” The P17 Triangle was named after the Dale Carnegie Human Relationship Principle that we have already mentioned (#17) - “Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.” This consists of understanding 3 different areas: THEIR PERSONAL VISION (V) The late Zig Ziglar said, “You get what you want when you help other people get what they want.” Seek to understand what is important to others and why. Then, tailor your coaching, encouragement, and context around their vision. Some people will not know what it is they want. In these situations we must use questioning to help them gain clarity. Great leaders are great “question askers” vs. “tellers”. THEIR PREFERENCES (P) In any healthy team there will be a variety of different personalities represented. Teams that are made up of people with very similar personalities are usually exposed or vulnerable. This is because of the gaps and blind spots that they predictably have. For example, a team of people that are all big picture thinkers are going to miss important details. A team that has a number of people that are into the details could miss the big picture. The key in this part of the triangle is to understand how people were born. What makes them tick? How do they process things? And how do they “roll”? Assessments can be invaluable tools that can lead to breakthrough understanding of team members. They take things that are difficult to quantify and turn them into relevant data. We can often find out why we have conflict through specific data on our differences (or even similarities). Knowing how people are wired will help you communicate in a way that they will respond to best. THEIR STRENGTHS (S) Much has been written about strengths recently and for good reasons. Decades ago, Dale Carnegie wrote that people are 85% strengths. This is difficult for us to remember when we are feeling frustrated with one of our team members. It is easy to gravitate toward what bothers us about them. To get people to a place they would not go on their own, we need to spot Continued... strengths in people that they may not even see. We need to see their potential. There is nothing that says, “I believe in you and your abilities” better than a genuine and sincere strengthcentered compliment. HOW TO TAKE PEOPLE TO A PLACE THEY WOULD NOT GO ON THEIR OWN (Con’t) Fundamental #3 - LEARN & PRACTICE DALE CARNEGIE’S HUMAN RELATIONS PRINCIPLES We have already mentioned a few of Dale Carnegie’s Principles with: “Try honestly to see things from the other person’s view” (#17), and “Arouse in the other person an eager want” (#3), but there are another critical 28 principles for a total of 30. For instance, “Don’t criticize, condemn or complain” “Begin in a friendly way” “Talk in terms of the other person’s interests” These are the time-tested principles that are translated into 35 languages and are taught in over 80 countries. There are more than 8,000,000 graduates exposed to these principles in our programs. In the Fall of 2012 Dale Carnegie celebrated it’s 100-Year anniversary. There is only one reason for this tremendous success, and it is because “what we do works”. If you would like to download a copy of “Dale Carnegie’s Secrets of Success” please visit our website at www. chicago.dalecarnegie.com. Greg Cox is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Dale Carnegie - Chicago Throughout his career, Greg has been recognized as an outstanding leader and coach. Before coming to Dale Carnegie - Chicago, Greg spent 14 years with Canon Business Solutions. It was there that he learned to thrive in an ultra-competitive and fast-paced environment. As a facilitator, Greg is known for his humor and his ability to connect with a variety of different people. He has a passion for coaching people to greater performance by better leveraging their strengths (including the ones that they may not realize they have!). Greg resides in Wheaton, Illinois where he enjoys movies, reading, fishing and Continued... spending time with his wife and two children. For more information on Dale Carnegie programs and offerings, call us at 630-390-6050 or visit us on the web at www.chicago.dalecarnegie.com