Results for you or despite you

In a recent experience I have come to find that outstanding results do not always imply everything is going great. As I began to meet my team there are some people who are clearly unhappy with the way the leadership has been recently. From a high level an outsider might look at the results and say everything must be going great they are doing outstanding. In actuality this might be a ticking time bomb that is ready to explode at any minute. So my question is why? My response is two fold which is people either drive results for you or despite you.

Lets start with driving results despite you, this can be achieved and will have short term success. This is very evident in most sales cultures as they are constantly looking toward the next month and not appreciating the performance that is taking place in the current month. The downside to this is that the performance will not last and slowly this approach will begin to deteriorate the teams morale. This traditionally leads to high attrition levels, low customer service scores and a constant help wanted sign in the front door. The leaders in these types of situations are usually viewed as selfish and concerned about their individual performance. Most employees in this approach do not feel appreciated, valued or even worse fulfilled. Needless to say this approach will drive short term results but when when you are promoted your team will say good reddens and not congratulations.

Driving results for you, is the second approach and the most effective for long term sustained success. The first step in gaining success in this approach is "know your team." Knowing your team does not mean knowing their names, it means knowing their life story, their career goals, who is important to them, and what really motivates them. This approach takes time and if done appropriately trust can be built very quickly. A best practice that I have found works well is sitting down with people individually and asking them about their personal life not goals or results. For some this is very hard to do, opening up to a perfect stranger is a challenge. However, this usually leads to talking about the challenges they might be having in their professional life as it is much easier and is common ground. On the other hand if you asked about challenges they are facing without any intention of getting to know them on a personal level they might not know what your true intentions are. Thus leading to a lack of trust and less willing to give the feedback that you ultimately want. Once you have established trust and a common goal they will begin to drive results for you. They need to understand you are working for them not against them. Furthermore once this has been achieved the team will begin to drive sustained results that they did not know they could achieve.