Getting a group behind your objective requires some patience and effort. Simply giving a directive won’t work in most circumstances, because they’ll want to understand the context. The rationale behind our efforts is ever more important to us these days. People want to know why they are being asked to do something.

This is a good thing.

You tell them why, they’ll tell you how

If you can articulate why the team needs to move in a certain direction – why a change is needed, and why this course of action is best – then they can tell you the best way to proceed. They can tell you the “how.”

And this is a good thing too.

A lot of time leaders feel like the “why” is obvious or already understood. But it’s not. People need to be brought up to speed. They need to be able to ask questions, contemplate, and maybe even challenge the “why” a bit before they can fully absorb it (and buy into it).

And a lot of times leaders feel like they need to tell the team exactly how to do things in order to meet the objective. But they don’t. People on the front lines often know better. And if you’ve got buy-in on the “why” they can best tell you “how” things should proceed. This also gives them some ownership over the idea and the plan – the opportunity to shape it and make it their own.

Photo credit: Shashi Bellamkhonda

Sometimes it helps to have someone new examine your situation. Someone who is not familiar with the context. Someone who doesn’t know the jargon or any of the “inside baseball” details and nuances.

First, you’ll need to bring them up to speed, which means you’ll need to translate a lot into simple, clear statements. That exercise alone can be very refreshing. It forces you to step back look at your situation from a broader perspective.

Then, you’ll hear questions and ideas that will help you to think about a lot of things differently. Some suggestions may not help at all, but many will. And the smallest, simplest one may actually have the biggest impact.

Photo credit: Kevin Dooley