If I had a dollar for each time a manager or supervisor said this to me, I would be a rich person. There isn’t just one answer to the question, there are at least “8” possible answers and likely more. Taking a few minutes to understand them, might just give you the reason as to why you are asking this question.
This particular blog post was inspired recently by a business owner who said, “They are just going to have to “crack the whip” to get things working, other managers have told me that they will impose “their will” come “hell or high water” on their associates.
Dale Carnegie wasn’t wrong when he said the best leaders rely on “willing cooperation” from their associates. In the short term you can bully, intimidate, and impose your will; however, yelling and blowing up rarely works, and if it does work, it won’t work for long. In addition, engaging in that kind of leadership will destroy morale and increase associate turnover.
You are better off to consider the following:
1. Your people don’t understand – You might think you have explained it well enough, but quite often if you ask for feedback from your associates, what you think you said and what they think you said; aren’t always the same thing. My suggestion is to have a few trusted associates critique new systems or procedures before you implement them. Ask them to proofread and “poke holes” in the new directive, this is an invaluable tool and also gets your people involved in the process, which always helps.
2. Your people haven’t been trained or trained well enough – I’ve had so many managers express their frustration at the failure of a new procedure or process, only to have me ask them to do it and find out they can’t do it either. My suggestion is to follow the instructions yourself, just like in (1), have people test new things prior to implementation at an organization level.
3. They are afraid of making a mistake – As a manager or owner, how do you react to mistakes? Are you understanding and encouraging or are you a person who doesn’t tolerate mistakes? Depending on your answer, “YOU” might be the reason why you are having issues. My suggestion is to take care with your reaction the next time one of your associates makes an error.
4. They think their way is better – This can happen when your associates have a great deal of experience and have been successful in the past and perhaps are continuing to be successful now. My suggestion is to be open to the consideration that they might be right, consider the reason for the change and try to explain the reasons for the change or the new procedure.
5. They don’t want to do it – Don’t be surprised that this might be the reason, if what you are asking is difficult or doesn’t offer any benefit to them, particularly if you are dealing with volunteers. Failure to take this into account when you are explaining the new system or procedure will likely result in failure for you. My suggestion is always to “sell” or explain the “benefits” to why things are changing and make sure you appreciate the importance of this point.
6. They don’t believe in what you are saying – Your associates for one or more reasons are not convinced that this is the way to go. You either haven’t convinced them that there is a need to change or that this is the right way to change. My suggestion is to ask and understand why they aren’t doing what you are asking to do. This is similar to (1) but there are differences.
7. You don’t have their respect – I once had a Manager who asked me to make his staff respect him; I couldn’t do that, that is something they had to earn themselves. Getting “willing cooperation” from people that do not respect you is virtually impossible. My suggestion for managers who find themselves in this position is to look at how you treat your people and also understand that there will always be people who are unhappy with you. Here are a few simple ways to earn respect from your associates:
a) You treat them with respect, listen to their points of view, listen to what they think the problems are;
b) Help them when they have problems regardless of how busy you might happen to be. If you are the only manager “on duty”, never close your door to them;
c) Appreciate the fact, they may have more knowledge than you do on this particular issue and make sure you acknowledge that to them;
d) Say “thank you” more times than you think you do;
e) Be aware of how many jobs you have already given them before you give them another;
f) Don’t complain to them about how busy you are;
g) Don’t have rules for them and other rules for yourself or other associates.
These are a just a few things you can do to start, if your people don’t respect you, it doesn’t matter what you do, you will always have trouble getting them to do things unless YOU CHANGE.
8. Find ways to have your associates want to do it. Some of these points will seem similar and perhaps if there is a common thread; it is that if you are having trouble getting your associates to do something, a primary reason is that you have not explained “what is in it for them?” My suggestion is to explain the benefits of the change in procedures so that they “see and understand” how the thing that you are asking them to do will benefit them, or the organization.
There is always a reason why people don’t do things, successful leaders try to anticipate problems, successful leaders already do many of the things that avoid this even becoming an issue; and one last point, whatever the behavior or attitude that is causing the problem can usually be found and rectified, if as a leader you have an open mind.