Boosting Performance without the Whip…
Click on the image above to watch Daniel’s video on Boosting Performance without the Whip
By Daniel Murray, Speaker
My people are tired… but I need them to finish the year strong. Help!”
This was the start of a conversation I had recently with a senior leader and a sentiment I hear all too often as we enter the last quarter of the year. With tough conditions on the forecast and demands higher than ever, most organisations can’t afford to slow down.
At the same time, changes like the new right-to-disconnect laws and work-from-home norms are seeming to make it more challenging for leaders to really drive performance. One senior executive told me: “In the past, we’d just crack the whip. Nowadays, we can’t do that anymore and some leaders are scared to say anything at all.”
So, what to do? If feels like a pressure to perform from above and fear of revolt from below are putting a squeeze on leaders. How can leaders drive performance and productivity without creating a revolt? To manage people, we first need to understand what drives them. Why do people do what they do? This is at the heart of leading with empathy, but it is less touchy-feely and far more understanding the way the brain works.
Inside the brains of everyone is essentially 2 characters. Imagine there is an elephant with a small man riding on his back. The rider is the conscious brain, with all its incredible complexity of thought, computation, self-control and rationality. The rider provides humans with our complex language and communication skills, ability to develop and share complex information, conduct long-term strategic planning and forecasting, and navigate complexity like no other animal on the planet. The rider is amazing and generally the rider thinks he is in full control.
The elephant in this metaphor is your subconscious brain. The subconscious brain actually takes care of almost all the things that keep you alive. Our conscious brain doesn’t control our heart beat, blood flow, digestion nor many of the systems that keep us alive. But it also heavily influences many of the decisions we make and actions we take. While the rider may think he is in control, when the elephant is angry and wants to charge, we quickly discover just how little control the rider actually has. If you have ever said something in anger you regret later, have made a decision that in hindsight you thought was impulsive and wrong, or, went with your gut instead of your head, then you have felt the power of the elephant.
Too often I hear leaders tell people to “leave their emotions at the door”. This is both almost impossible and a terrible idea. The elephant drives many fear based and destructive reactions, but it is also the centre for passion, care, purpose and discretionary effort. Ignoring the elephant is a path to apathetic compliance at best and frustrated disengagement at worst! Leaders must learn to understand the factors that drive the elephants in their teams.
This is why I talk about empathy as: Understanding why people do what they do. It is getting past the surface level factors and caring about what makes people tick. If you want the best from them, if you want the discretionary effort, you have to care about them. If you want more, you need to care more!
In my work with leaders, I unpack how to do this without the woo-woo. We debunk the misconceptions that some people can’t do empathy and instead give leaders the tools and motivation to understand the elephants and become a leader worth following. Wouldn’t you rather work with leaders like that? That is what helps teams drive performance through the end of year slump. Let’s help all people to lead with empathy.