Leadership Success is achieved in simple practical business ways which we are afraid to follow. As leaders we believe its impossible to achieve success through simple techniques. Honestly success is within and reachable.
One of the simple detour to success is “Pulling out the Stops” . As Leaders you need to stop doing and in turn help your staff stop doing the things you don’t want them to do.
In the world of leadership, most of us grew up with the belief that when we want ourselves or our team to behave in a particular way , we must constinuously give all the advice and instructions of what they must do. We actually spend a lot of time teaching what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching our leaders and teams what to stop doing. More than half of the leaders I have worked with in my career, I will be honest, don’t need to learn what to do, they need to learn what to stop doing.
The next time you have an issue with your team member and want them to demonstrate certain skills or traits, follow the simple step of STOP and within few months you will see a wave of change.
Signal your mind on what you or the team members need to stop doing. For example, a very common challenge businesses face is effective communication. Instead of telling the employee all the things they should do to improve communication, talk to them of all the things they should stop doing which eventually lead to effective communication. This will give them a self-realization too.
Time is a key element here. We must be willing to give time to our team member to work on stopping what they are doing. Unless the issue is life threatening to the business, time and repeating this pattern will bring out the best in the staff. Not only will it resolve the problem from the root, it will also enable the staff to work on themselves in the future. It becomes a habit.
Open mind from the staff and leader is a requirement for this. Have you noticed that your team will always talk proudly about their work achievements in the week. Have you ever heard them willingly tell you about all the things they should have but could not achieve? Imagine, how productive the team would get if they talk with an open mind about what they should stop doing to enhance achievements.
Prize and promotion system in most businesses are geared towards acknowledging the things the employee does. Credit is given for something well done and we keep waiting for that moment when the employee will do the right thing. What about prize or recognition for cessation of a behaviors which ultimately led to the goal.
The success rate of having your team change and behave the way you want them to will be much greater when you follow the STOP method. As leaders we can start to practice it on our own self . Imagine within a few months what a positive wave of change you will see in your team. To start it off, take out your notepad and instead of your ‘To Do’ list start writing on “To Stop” list.
