You can’t control people. You can’t manage them either.
You can manage a process or a system that people are involved in but you can’t manage the people. The fact is you can only lead people. 
The definition of leadership is, “The ability to get a predetermined objective accomplish through the voluntary efforts of others.”
The key word here is voluntary. That means the way to get people on board with your objectives is to make your objectives become their objectives. The real trick to leading people is: don’t work on their behavior, work on their thinking and the behavior will fall in line.
“All meaningful and lasting change starts on the inside and works its way out”
Below are the ultimate tools to help you work on a person’s thinking and get the results you are looking for.
- BELIEF: All organizations have processes and systems. Your belief in the system motivates the people you lead.
- EXAMPLE: Your example creates confidence that the system works. You cannot lead where you will not go and, you cannot teach what you do not know.
- VISION: If the people you lead don’t know where they are going they can’t put up with the daily grind.
- PAY VALUE: Pay value is not always money or things. Real pay value is “esteem value”; elevating a person’s esteem motivates.
- TRAINING: Train for results and knowledge will follow. Training creates confidence.
- SUCCESS: See to it that the people you lead succeed early. Getting their “nose blooded” creates fear instead of confidence. Fear causes creative avoidance.
- EXPECTATION: The people you lead won’t give you any more than you expect. Expect them to succeed. Expect effort. Expect results.
- STANDARDS: Standards create pride in the organization. A “not just anyone can work here” attitude gives pride. The difference between a manager and a leader is the leader gets people to “want” to meet the standards. The manager pushes people around with the standards.
- OBJECTIVES: If I was going to help someone go somewhere but I didn’t know where they were going, how would I know when they got there?
- WRITTEN GOALS: What is the difference between a goal and a wish? A written plan!
- MEASUREMENT: Daily measurement causes the person you lead to decide daily to work the plan which creates good habits.
- CONFRONTATION: Confrontation is not threats and ultimatums. Threats and ultimatums have never worked. Confrontation is showing a person what is keeping them from succeeding.
Talk to us about how Career Development Partners can partner with you to implement these tools and develop leadership!
Mike Duke: President, Recruiting Practice Leader
Mike is a Certified Personnel Consultant and President of Professional Search for Career Development Partners. Mike is a successful entrepreneur and people developer.
For over twenty years Mike has been bringing positive change to corporate leaders in the area of hiring, training, and developing people. He says, “You can boil any business down to three basic strategies: Products, Profits and People. Out of these, the people strategy is the most important. If you don’t hire the right people, none of the other strategies will work.”
Email: mike@cdpartnersinc.com
