As a leader, people aren’t going to follow you.
There is resistance to you, your ideas, your vision. And those voices are loud.
And these people take up so much of your time.
It’s slowing down your progress of making those really vital changes that the organisation needs to succeed.
It’s the uncomfortable truth.
Does it mean no one will follow you? No. Some people will agree with you. But you only need one really vocal dissident to make your life miserable.
And if you are really trying to make a change, like really shake things up and do things differently, you’re going to get a lot of resistance.
How do you stay focused on the right things?
Take Q, a GM who’s excellent at getting results for the short and long term, by fixing the root causes.
Q wanted to make big changes. Those necessary, will save the company, changes. Good changes. Changes that they were hired to bring about.
Q was met with “That’s not how we do it” and other objections.
(Don’t you just hate that? We know that’s not how you do it, that’s why we are asking you to do something new. We’ve thought about this, and we know what we are asking from you: to change. Ok, stepping off my soapbox now).
And key people inadvertently undermining team motivation and getting in the way. Listening, but just not getting it.
Q Spent so much time trying to get them onboard. Influence them. Persuade them. Having that hard talks about performance.
It was frustrating and distracting from the bigger vision and impact.
All necessary, but Q felt they were treading water, not getting anywhere. Having to put out fires instead of focusing on the right things.
And that’s such a common situation to find yourself in, isn’t it? Especially when you are a results person who tackles problems. When there are so many problems, you can end up only tackling individual problems that come alone like there’s a conveyor belt carrying them straight to your door.
But as a leader, you have that challenging task of making sure problems are dealt with AND leading people in that new direction where you don’t get so many problems in the first place.
It was an honour to work with Q. I got to help them get back to their zone of genius.
When we worked on:
Staying focused on the right things
What to do when people won’t follow
They got results they really wanted.
A team all pulling together towards one vision.
More energy to be able to have impact at work.
Enjoy the progress already made.
Support the team.
Handle the nay-sayers with confidence.
Spending less time on work.
More taking time for themselves and family.
Take a holiday and actually be able to switch off.
Sounds pretty good, huh?
It wouldn’t have been possible if Q hadn’t taken the bold action to face the fact that people aren’t just going to follow you because you are the leader, and had hired someone to help them stay in their zone of genius.
If you recognise this situation, then you know what bold action you need to take.
“What’s a leadership series? How’s it different from the thought series or coaching tips? Good questions.“ This series gives you tips to take your own leadership to the next level, and ways you can extend your own capabilities. Ready to take your skills to the next level, but aren’t sure where to start? Get in touch with me.
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