Yesterday, we discussed Secret number one in our Eight Secrets of Inspirational Leadership, Everyone Wants to be part of something bigger than themselves in the context of creating the right FEELING and understanding the impact of emotional buy in on our ability to create a high performance team. So, today, let’s start the process of understanding HOW to create that environment. First is the recognition of what you are trying to create and second is the understanding that YOU have the power to create any environment you want. You may think that the outside world has all the control over your environment. That is not true. In fact, there are an unbelievable number of influences that impinge upon our everyday lives from the outside world. We acknowledge that. In MOST cases, however, what you choose to allow to influence you is well within your control.
From a practical standpoint, let’s look at you as a middle manager. In the course of the last 15 years in this business, the NUMBER ONE question that I have been asked is “How do I create the proper environment, or at least the environment I want, when my boss or my organization is so negative, or different?” It is a legitimate question. My answer has always been, and continues to be, that you cannot control the outside environment. You can only control your immediate environment, and that imperfectly. But, you CAN control the attitude within that environment by your actions and your own attitude, no matter WHAT is happening outside. YOU have the power. Don’t give it up to anyone else.
Now that we know that everyone wants to be part of something bigger, take advantage of that FUNDAMENTAL RULE OF HUMAN NATURE. Resolve that YOU are going to create the environment where everyone wants to be part of. Everyone is going to want to play in YOUR sandbox. Everyone who is not on your team is going to look from the outside and say “what have they got going on there?” and “How can I be part of that?. They look so, confident, self assured, happy, prosperous, purposeful, excited (and so on and so forth).” YOU are going to create the new paradigm. Why not? Why let someone else dictate to YOU what environment is best? There is no reason for it.
So now, how to do it? Well, first, let’s look at a little history and current events. People want to rally around something that has inherent meaning to them. They want something that is going to help give their lives purpose, direction and power. They want to feel both valued AND safe. All people do not want to feel valued and safe in the same way, but we’ll get to that later. The most important point is that the ideology is not necessarily important, the philosophy is not necessarily important, the product or service is not necessarily important. It is the feeling we get when we feel purpose, direction, power, value, and safety that is important. And all of those things come about when we COMMIT to a course of action or a cause, or a thought that a lot of other people feel is important as well.
We’ll talk more about how to make that happen when we get to secrets three and four, SET THE HIGH PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE and ENNOBLE THE EFFORT. For now, let’s talk a little about what I call the “ties that bind”, or “bonding mechanisms”. Throughout history, people have felt most comfortable when they feel the most commonalities between themselves. The more we have in common with our fellow traveler through life, the more comfortable we feel. So, it is obviously important that we create more and more commonalities between each other. These are bonding mechanisms. I look at them as “bungee cords” that tie us together. They are represented most identifiably as religious affiliation, ethnicity, race, country of origin, and so forth, but also include clubs and societies we belong to, schools, sports we like, music we like, places we like to go, and so on and so forth. In fact, the first thing we try to do on a regular basis when meeting someone else is to establish common bonds. “Where did you go to school? Where are you from? Do you know Bob?” Anything where we can feel comfortable.
Knowing that, our first mission as a team leader and an inspirational leader, is to try and develop as many “bonding mechanisms” as we can. Tomorrow, we’ll look at a few historical examples to illustrate the point and give some practical ideas for moving forward on your own team!
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