Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of people who are highly motivated and driven to succeed “just don’t get it.” These highly productive people are focused on getting results and they expect others to be “doers” too. It seems that these go-getters have a hard time understanding why people don’t operate the same way they do. You see, they don’t need to be told more than once to get them to do something and they get frustrated when they have to repeatedly ask others to get things done.
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as simply telling someone what to do. Sure, it might work that way with you, but everyone is not like you. In this case, it looks like you’re on the “20 side” of Pareto’s 80/20 Principle.
Now, I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be that simple and easy. In fact, I think it should be … but it’s not. Like you, I wish we could always just tell people something one time and know that it would get done. But people aren’t that simple.
You see, if everyone responded that well to just telling, the world would be a completely different place.
Companies wouldn’t need as many supervisors … managers would just read a list of rules, policies and protocols to their employees on their first day of work and they would just follow these instructions.
Husbands and wives would seldom encounter conflict … they’d just tell each other what they expect and accommodate one another. There would be little need for police and the court system … people would just follow the laws as they’re written. We wouldn’t have to sit through countless commercials and political ads either … there would just be one simple commercial for each product and candidate and then we’d all take action.
And for all of you who don’t like dealing with salesmen … we would simply just tell you to buy what we are selling and you would. If only it were that easy!
The truth is we humans don’t like to be told what to do. It turns out that most of us need to be convinced to do something. Actually, that’s not true either. Ultimately, we need to convince ourselves that we should do it.
And I think that’s what makes all of us different and separates the 20 percent from the other 80 percent. While many people don’t appreciate how their actions determine their consequences, some of us are easily convinced to do what we know is logical and correct.
So how do you convince your people to do what you need? Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to that question. But here’s where you can start … show your employees that it’s in their best interest to help you achieve your objectives.
When your team realizes that everyone wins when they help you succeed, it’s a lot easier to convince them to do what you expect, without having to tell them twice. PD
Tom Wall
President
Dairy Interactive, LLC
