If you want to get results from your team there are two ways to do it. Push and demand the team such that they are forced to deliver. Alternatively, influence and inspire your team so that they respond positively and deliver.
Some people mistake influence and inspire as a passive and ineffective approach. They regard the demand and push approach to work better. However, for long term results, the influence and inspire approach is not only sustainable and effective but leads to empowerment and growth of the team.
Inspiring and influencing your team will include:
– Involving your team in setting goals
– Discussing the road map of how to go from where you are to where you want to go
– Setting the team up for success by being a servant leader. In other words being there for the team to provide mentoring, coaching, guidance
– Praising good work with specific and sincere compliments
– When teams mess up first taking time to understand their paradigm before offering what could have been done differently
– Encouraging collaboration and teamwork to create synergy
– Allowing a buffer so that corrections can be made before the deadline.
Push and demand require continuous policing from the leaders and may bring results in the short term but it is not an effective long term strategy.
Influencing and inspiring the team can be slow in the beginning but delivers superior results in the long run!