Inspire Your Team to Hit Their Goals

🎯 Inspire Your Team to Hit Their Goals

Leaders drive impact by enabling others to do their best work, but how do you get the most out of your team, and keep them motivated?

It might help to think about two different approaches to driving outcomes: compliance and commitment 👉

👮 Compliance

This approach means constantly maintaining authority and forcing your team to deliver results. It sounds like:

• This needs to get done today. • Why didn't you do it as I showed you? • That's what we decided, you're just going to have to trust me.

It’s clear who’s in control, it can sound like you’re pushing them forward against their will. That leads to apathy and resentment…and procrastination.

⚓ Commitment

When you give team members a chance to participate in decisions on how to get the work done, they feel personally accountable for delivering results. This sounds like:

• What can you get to me by today? • What do you think is the best way to approach this? • There are things I don't see, so I need you to tell me if I miss something.

Now their opinions and skills are valued and part of the process. This sparks more creativity and motivation because they see that you trust and rely on them.

👐 Trust in your team

It might feel scary to “give up” authority, but next time you’re setting a goal, involve your team early so they can respond with commitment instead of resistance.

As Steve Jobs said, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”