As leaders, we want our people to come on the leadership journey with us. We want them to be the best they can be, to love their work, to become great leaders and we are often looking for ways to make this happen. We go to a seminar, a workshop, listen to a podcast, read an article or a book, have a conversation with our coach or mentor, and we get excited about what we have heard, seen or read. Then we want, (or sometimes expect) all of our team to get excited about it as well. But they don’t. Why not?
In my conversations with managers and leaders I hear this tale often. And I know from personal experience (when I had a team of over a hundred) that it can be a real frustration. So, what is the answer?
I think the answer lies within. Not within this blog, nor within this website, but within the leader asking the question. I believe that it is the relationship we have with the concept, how we view it within our own worldview, that drives how we talk about it, how we make it important and a fundamental part of our DNA. As I was learning all about coaching, JMJ Associates, a consultancy here in Perth, helped me enormously in this space.
I learned that in order to enrol others in a concept, you need to be 100% enrolled in it yourself. In the case of coaching I was, and still am about 254% enrolled. I truly ‘get’ the difference effective coaching can make, not only to my life and my effectiveness, but to many of the leaders I touch. As a result, I am often told that I exude passion on the topic.
Under the guidance of a wonderful coach, Helen Benton, from JMJ Associates, I spent quite a bit of time exploring ‘why’ I might be interested in coaching, what was in it for me, personally, and what difference it could make.
I now clearly understand my ‘why?’ And it forms the basis of my practice, Raeda. .
Let’s use a practical example to explore this a bit.
You really believe that your team can be more effective as leaders (and as a result your workplace can be a whole lot safer) if your team are out and about having meaningful conversations about safety as an integral part of their day. You get this, you really do. You have spoken with the senior members of your team and they get it also. You have made sure everyone in the team is trained on how to be more effective in their field conversations and you have set them targets on the number of conversations they need to have each month. Your senior lead team are making all the right noises and they are ‘following up’ on those who are not ‘performing’. Still, you are not getting the improvement that you want. Yeah, the numbers are up but the quality is not. So, who is responsible for this?
Here are some questions that may help trigger an answer to who is responsible:
How passionate are you about having great conversations in the field as a driver of safety?
Is it in your blood?
Are you being driven by others (higher in the organization) to ‘get better’ or is it truly about you and your care for your team?
Do you talk passionately about it with your direct reports?
Are you driven by numbers or quality? (PS. Don’t try for both, the numbers will be what is heard by the team unless they actually ‘get it’)
Why do you want others in your team to feel the passion you do?
Do you give immediate and clear feedback to your team when you hear them talk passionately (or otherwise) about it with their teams?
Is it really important to you?
Are you effective in the field yourself, or do you need a hand from your coach?
I understand now, and maybe at just shy of 54, I should have learned it earlier, that if you understand ‘why’ you want to do something, all your behaviors, language, passion, conversations, body language and interest will align to it and will become part of who you are.
So in the end, if you want your team to be as passionate about something as you are, simply understand ‘why’ it is important to you and then let yourself / allow yourself to be passionate about it. Not passionate in the sense of “Guys, if you do what I suggest, you will become a better leader” but passionate as in“Hey guys, you would not believe the difference this has made to my effectiveness as a leader. I feel so empowered when I am out there. The most important thing I can do when I am up on site is to have conversations: find out what the guys are up to, what they think, how they are, what we can do better, what can hurt them, how they make safety through what they are doing. I feel more than 150% effective as a leader when I am out and about talking with our team. It is simply brilliant” sort of passionate. BUT it absolutely must be real.
So, in the end, it is really all about you, and not your team.