Organizations: Leading vs. Pushing

I don’t have kids but I can imagine the virtual impossibilities of urging a son or a daughter to eat his/her vegetables. Even as adults, we hate being told what to do. When it feels like our own quest, however, we’re often more resilient, more willing to go above and beyond, and it often requires less energy from those providing the inspiration.

Organizations that have to pull and push their people along must be work horses, and even still it’s much less effective than inspiring independent action. In that way, hitting a proverbial parenting home run would look something like making eating vegetables cool. That way there’s no fight. They’ve created a self-propelled vegetable eating machine.

Our Coach’s Prep program is notorious for this. Hopeful coaches from far and wide enroll in our development program with the hopes of mastering their craft. What they learn quickly is that the program is an incredible resource for their development, but that its structure is just the bare minimum. In order to get what they want they’ll need to be inspired to do so on their own because, as leaders, we aren’t going to do it for them.

We, like many organizations, do this because we know that not only is pushing someone an inferior leadership tactic, it also can’t possibly produce top tier results.

If you’re a leader, search for ways you can captivate your audience to move forward. You’ll never be able to pull someone along as well as they can propel themselves to greatness. If you’re the student, let your leadership inspire you, but attaining your goals isn’t going to come without an inner fire. Find out why you’re doing what you’re doing and let it fuel you.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach