Editor’s note:
This post is inspired by a discussion that happened on the Leader’s Cafe Foundation Forum in LinkedIn. The forum can be found here: Link To LinkedIn Forum. And the specific discussion can be found here: Specific Discussion.
Dear Managers and Leaders!
In my three previous posts, I listed 6 symptoms that leaders should take really seriously and analyzed the first two symptoms: "A team member does not produce what the leader was expecting" and "Team members are not coming up with new ideas". Today, we will continue our analysis and tackle the third symptom: Team members are unwilling to push their boundaries.
As a leader, it is really important to grow your team. If you don’t, then your team will become stale and you will not be able to grow your vision, aspire for better things for your team. A dynamic team, just like a dynamic individual, is a team that grows!
You can grow your team by bringing in more people. The new people will bring fresh ideas and energy on to the table and will help expand your team further. But bringing in new people is not always possible due to political or economical reasons.
Another way of growing your team is by growing your team members. As a leader, you need to ensure that the people on your team are challenged and involved in a constant learning process. You have to give stretch objectives to your people that will help them go beyond what they have accomplished up until now. This will keep them interested, focused, and challenged. Also, it will allow your team to tackle more and more difficult tasks and thus take more and more space in the larger organization.
But what do you do when someone on your team does not want to grow anymore? What if someone constantly refused your stretch assignments and only wanted to be confined in the same tasks over and over again? That person comes in, does his job, and leaves, without showing a desire to succeed and to go beyond what was accomplished yesterday.
As this person’s leader, you need to have a serious discussion with him to understand why he is not willing to go beyond his boundaries. It may very well be caused by personal reasons (divorce, illness, ...) and you may have to accept the current situation while the personal conditions persist. If personal reasons are not causing the situation, I would next explore these environmental conditions as potential factors.
- Compelling vision for the team - When the team spirit is really low and when people don’t feel they are part of a real team, when people do not share a common compelling vision, people will not feel like going the extra mile and pushing their limits. If you feel your team is not pushing hard, look at how people perceive their team and how motivated they are to make the team succeed. To accept to grow, people need to feel they are part of a bigger something that becomes more important than their own comfort.
- Accept mistakes - Pushing our own limit means taking risks. It means going beyond what we have accomplished so far, with no proof that we can actually do it right the first time. For people to accept to go beyond their boundaries, they need to feel they are in a safe environment where mistakes are allowed. Safety is at the second level of Maslow’s pyramid. Most people will not take risks if they do not feel it is safe. So, support people you have stretched by accepting their mistakes.
- Incentives and rewards - People need to have a reason to grow, to go out of their comfort zone. You must make sure people understand why you are asking them to achieve these stretch objectives. You need to explain why these goals are essential for them, for the team, for the larger organization. You can even explain the process of growing and why you are asking them to grow. Also, you need to celebrate growing successes more than any other accomplishments. Do not forget awards and public recognition of your people’s successes. This is very important.
- Realistic stretch - People will follow you and work on your stretch objectives as long as they believe they are attainable. If they feel they will fail even before they start, motivation will not be there, people will not feel safe, and they are then likely to give up before they start. Your first job as a leader is to carefully choose assignments so people will be able to achieve them. Your second job is to convince your people that they can and will achieve their stretch objectives.
- Coaching them to success - Once you give a stretch goal to someone on your team, you cannot leave him alone with it. You must feel responsible for his success. You need to follow what he is doing and help him along the way. Not that you should do the job for him, but you must support him and guide him towards success. If someone on your team fails a stretch objective, he will be less likely to tackle your next stretch assignment with enthusiasm and could soon become one who refuses to push his boundaries.
What about you dear leader, have you ever met people who did not want to go beyond their boundaries? Have you ever felt like not going beyond your boundaries? Please help me complete the picture by adding your comments!
Until next time,
Remi Cote
PS: If you find these postings interesting and would like to learn more about what I can do for you and your team, then please visit www.innovachron.com or contact me directly at remi@innovachron.com.
