10 Reasons You’re Always Pushing People
Slackers want something for nothing.
Talent yearns for opportunity.
In between, discouraged middlers slave away.
Push slackers and they’ll despise you. Push talent and they’ll thank you. Middlers are development opportunities.
10 reasons you’re always pushing people:
#1. High expectations drive you. It’s your nature. You always push yourself and you push others. The dark side drive is constant dissatisfaction.
What others want for themselves is more important than what you want for them.
#2. Fear of failure growls from the shadows. You run from the darkness and run over people. It’s better to “run toward” than to “run from”.
“Running from” is fear. “Running toward” is drive.
#3. Over or under involvement drains drive. Over-involvement suggests lack of trust. Under-involvement suggests the work doesn’t matter.
#4. You scare people into conformity. Intimidation hears yes, but ends up pushing people.
Intimidation is a short-term strategy.
#5. Skillsets are deficient.
People give up when results aren’t good enough and improvement seems unlikely.
#6. They don’t like their job, but can’t get out.
- Redesign their job.
- Reassign their responsibilities.
- Manage them out with kindness.
#7. Priorities are blurry. They don’t know what you want. Worse yet, they don’t know what they want for themselves.
Ask, “Where does this fall on our list of daily priorities?”
Don’t use the distant future to motive present performance.
#8. Blind spots block growth. They don’t see what’s holding them back.
- Turn conversations back to them, when you hear blame.
- Stop repeating “good” behaviors that produce poor results. If it isn’t working, it isn’t working.
- Perform a 360 degree assessment. When people can’t see themselves, the voice of others may help.
#9. Commitment levels are misaligned.
How committed, on a scale of 1 to 10, are you to this task, project, or initiative?
#10. Silence validated poor performance. No one invited the elephant to dance. Or, there was talk without follow through.
What causes leaders to feel they are constantly pushing people?
What should leaders do when they see themselves constantly pushing people?
this is a good one. middlers, as you call them, belong to the forgotten set of people, and are often the most discouraged. they are also the most vital, in the sense, that they are the receptionists, bank tellers etc. their demotivation can have a telling effect on a company’s reputation
Thanks Rajiv. I appreciate your focus on middlers. They make the machine run.
If I may, I’ll expand the definition of middler to include people who could do better but feel discouraged, where ever they are in the organization. (Top, bottom, or the middle.) As I type this, using middle in two different ways seems confusing.
Cheers
“What others desire..” When you can help people connect to their purpose and let them know they are valued, they become more engaged. As a leader, it is up to you to find way to connect their core purpose to the company’s purpose. And thank you for saying we need to manage out with kindness. Just because someone it not a good fit in one company, doesn’t mean they can’t succeed in another. Leaders become a lot less effective when they aren’t strong enough to be kind.
Thanks Mim. The strength of kindness is a fascinating concept. I’m taking that one with me. 🙂
Dan – Another great post. I’ve said that, on any team, slackers annoy hustlers, and hustlers annoy slackers… and you know which one you are by which one annoys you ; )
That said, I think you can turn a slacker into a hustler if you recognize the impact of your 1st italicized point!
Thanks Sean. Brilliant expression. We better see who we are by the people who irritate us.
Push slackers and they’ll despise you. Push talent and they’ll thank you. Middlers are development opportunities.
Strong word Dan.
Yikes, this hit close to home. Thanks for the challenge.
I love the sixth point. I work mostly with volunteers, but it’s just as important to get people in the right spot and make their work meaningful and rewarding. It really goes hand-in-hand with Jim Collins’ getting-the-right-people-on-the-bus-and-in-the-right-seat concept.
Great post! I feel the exact same way that I’m always pushing people to do their best.