If your team does not follow your directions- here’s what’s wrong!

 

Leadership is defined as the ability to get others to follow you. The key responsibility of a leader is to get the team to follow the path that he/she sets for them. The success of a leader depends on being able to build followers and getting them to deliver on the vision he/she has. All successful leaders are masters at this – getting the team to connect with their vision and owning it as their own.

 

However, not being able to get the team to follow the leader is a big challenge for many organisations today. Because of this, leaders, both new and experienced ones, struggle to deliver on assignments and targets. When this happens the logical deduction is that either the leader not communicating right or there is a problem with the team’s understanding. The organization may decide that the leader or the team needs evaluations, feedbacks and trainings.

All of these remedial approaches work well depending on the context that they are applied to. Yet again sometimes they don’t.

This is because this approach is based on the premise that if the communication is not working either the communicator or the recipient is at fault. What if it is neither? Even in teams where the leader and the employees are committed, hardworking and focused on results, this problem continually crops up.

Myth: If people understand they will follow

Reality: Understanding has nothing to do with people following. Ergo, I listen and understand does not mean I agree, neither does it mean I will follow.

Why teams and employees don’t follow:

1. Because they don’t believe they need to follow:

   1. They don’t believe that the leader’s way of doing things will work to get the outcomes aimed for. They may also believe that they have a better way of doing things. For a leader it is important to have a channel for people to be able to communicate this. The leader also needs to fairly evaluate and let people know why his/her method will work and be open to other people’s ideas. When a disagreement is sensed it is important to address it rather than ignore it.“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.‘ —General Dwight Eisenhower
   2. They don’t believe in the mission: They don’t believe the outcome you have set for them. If the team thinks that the target is unrealistic the battle is lost before it has even started. It is hence important for the leader to spend time building consensus and motivation to do the job.
   3. They believe something else is more important: They have something else they feel is more important than what the leader needs them to do. In a sales organisation the leadership team tried to implement a complicated CRM system that the sales reps refused to accept. Their reason, the new CRM took up so much time it took the sales guys away from their job of meeting customers. While the company felt they needed detailed notes on each customer the time consumption was too high and was impacting the reps’ productivity. Reducing the data to be filled by the reps in the tool and getting some admin staff to update the rest was a good resolution.

2. Because they are thinking of consequences

   1. Not doing what the leader wants has positive consequences: A customer support manager once told me that he wanted his team to spend quality time with his customers and give them a good experience on the call. Their incentives were however tied to the number of calls they handled. So the support reps were always focused on finishing the call and getting onto the next one quickly, sometime brushing off the customers concerns in the process. The rewards and targets need to be aligned to get the right results.
   2. Doing what you want has negative consequences: An organisation introduced a standard approach for customer complaint handling worldwide. The employees in many local countries did not follow it because they knew the new process would drive customers away with its painful procedures. Respecting the team’s expertise in the job they do is critical especially when decisions that are being taken impact the ground level.

 

 

What to do about it?

When someone doesn’t listen to you it is a strong indicator that they themselves are not feeling listened to. On a practical level it may seem impossible to listen to everyone . It is important to separate what needs to be addressed and what can be ignored. Often the size of the organisation does not allow the leader to reach out as much as he/she would want to. But the one place that any leader can start from is to check and address the two assumptions that they often work with:

• They think they know more than their team and hence the team should follow them. In today’s day and age this is often not true and the sooner leaders accept this the faster they will gain the acceptance of their teams. Before an employee follows your lead they need to feel respected for the value they bring to the table.
• They try and address the issue at a logical level where as the problem is often at an emotional level. David Rock Founder of the Neuroleadership institute states that” Emotional regulation of the team is one of the most important element for a manager’s success in today business environment.” Leaders need to be able to connect to the pulse of the team before they can expect their directions to be followed. For some this comes easily, for others it requires learning and practice.

 

When both rational and emotional needs are met, when leaders reach the head and heart, true alignment goes beyond enthusiasm, beyond agreement,  – From the book, Work of Leaders