Quit Trying to Push a Rope
November 1, 2007 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
Eric Eggerston might have been talking about public relations when he said:
“People will not be led if they don’t want to be. If you can find a way to document the impact of inaction, they may be ready to change course six months from now. Maybe never.”
but think about this for your management life.
Are you trying to lead people that don’t want to be led, or trying to manage people that don’t want to be managed?
Might a better course of action be to start working with those who WANT to be led, who WANT your management, and finding a way to move those that aren’t interested in working with the team out of their position and into somewhere they want to be?
This past weekend I was in Indianapolis to talk with a group of local chapter leaders from HDI, a group that’s leading IT service and support, about how to better run their local chapters. In one of the breakouts I facilitated, we discussed one of the biggest challenges for leaders: moving ineffective people out of their current positions, maybe into another position, or maybe out of the organization.
What do you think we decided was the best way to get rid of the ineffective person?
Rip off the band-aid and cut your losses before you demoralize the rest of your team.
Easy to do?
Maybe, maybe not.
Think about this: Would you rather lose one person or 6?
Rip off the band-aid or fix the problem F-A-S-T or soon you’ll be managing your team or leading your organization alone.
After all, you can’t push a rope, so quit trying already!
[Phil Gerbyshak works with a variety of organizations and their people to uncover problems, find the solution, and implement those solutions. What problems do you have that you could use help with? Leave your question in the comments or use the contact form to have your question answered.]
Phil,
I like the don’t push the rope analogy. I want to be careful about being too fast. First I want to be sure that there is not something in me or the enviroment that is creating difficulites.
Over the years, as an employee assistance counsellor for Seagram Ltd., I have seen people go through many changes and sometimes the employee who seems so resistant or difficult can be transformed into your biggest booster.
Yet, great companies are not great for everyone. There needs to be a fit. So sometimes I think we want to keep our sense of humour about the situation and take the steps necessary to manage the situation and person.
I wonder, am I beginning to slow down and might that not make sense in some situations that have such a very important impact on people and their careers. Having said all this I do chuckle and appreciate the comment from one of Canada’s leading CEO’s who said: “you can’t polish a turd.”
David
Phil,
On your comment: Are you trying to lead people that don’t want to be led, or trying to manage people that don’t want to be managed?
I believe all people want to be led, but we want to be led by someone who adds value to our thinking. Our particular manager cannot always do that.
Resistors very often are people who need to be promoted, not “gotten rid of”. The reason why they resist is because they are being expected to submit to the leadership of someone who does not offer them a bigger picture view. I’ve lived this very experience.
This is a frequent occurence with young, high potentials or older high potentials who missed the promotion train early in their career and are now stuck working a in a role that is one or two layers below their capability level. Here’s an article about employees with attitude problems: http://www.peoplefit.com/downloads/whattodowithattitudeproblem.pdf
A designing a system for better matching employees to roles based on cognitive capacity, rather than blaming the employees for being insubordinate, would solve much of this issue. My blog is dedicated to a system’s based approach. My mantra is:
I”m OK. You’re OK. Let’s fix the system.
Regards,
Michelle
Thanks for your insights. David. Polishing turds is no good for anyone.
Michelle – Great points. So great I’m going to write an article about this soon.