The Strong Leadership Choice

“These people are my friends; I don’t want to put any strain on those relationships.” 

“Dealing with conflict and making demands is not one of my strong suits.” 

"I don’t want to be a micro-manager.”

If you are a leader, there is a pretty good chance one of those statements has floated around in your brain before. But guess what? Your job is not to be friends with your team, your job is not to avoid conflict or cozy up to suggestive leadership instead of making strong demands. Worried about being a micro-manager? Well, if you lead your team effectively, you won’t have to micromanage them. Great leaders create teams who fight to have positive attitudes, take ownership of their shortcomings and learn from them. Great teams lift each other up, prepare, practice, persevere and strive to be exceptional 100% of the time. Great teams don’t require a micromanagement approach because they are…GREAT!

Now, great leaders have probably read millions of words in leadership books, blogs, etc., but I only have about 700 included here, so let’s focus on one small change you can make.

Stop suggesting change. Start directing it.

I was recently running a training session, and we were focusing on helping salespeople practice overcoming objections and we were doing this in a role practice format. It went great! People made bold choices, people made mistakes and everyone learned something new.

At the end of the session a leader came off mute and said the following:

“If anyone wants to ever role practice with me to get better, don’t hesitate to reach out.”

That seems like the right thing to say, right? 

Well, the intent was right but not the directive. In fact, it wasn’t a directive, it was a suggestion, which means it was optional. Very few team members will go out of their way to do what they perceive as optional. Why? Because that takes extra work.

The correct response should have been:

“I think we can all agree that this was incredibly valuable and starting next week, I and the rest of our leadership team will be hosting a weekly role practice so we can continue to get better.”

Now we’re cooking. Things are going to happen, people are going to practice and get better, and client objections will be handled more effectively thus leading to more meetings and more business.

Need other examples of suggestive leadership?

1. “Try to increase your outreach this week if you can.”

2. “Feel free to shadow me if you want to sharpen your candidate interviews.”

3. “If you want help prepping for client meetings, my door is open.”

4. “If you want sourcing tips, I can send you some.”

5. “Let’s try to follow up faster with clients and candidates.”

6. “Feel free to take any training courses you’re interested in.”

7. “Let’s all try to be more positive around here.”

“Ok, thanks boss, but…nope.”

BTW that’s what your team is thinking after each of those statements. Now, you might have one super-star who takes you up on those suggestions and that’s why they are a super-star, but the reality is that your team is not going to be 100% super stars. In fact, most will be pretty good. Pretty good team members aren’t going to volunteer to go the extra mile, which is why they need a strong leader. 

Do I have the “strong choice” example for each of those seven statements? You bet I do but I am only going to give you one. You have to build out your own “strong choice” versions of those statements. Why? Because if I give you all the answers, how are you going to grow as a leader?

Let’s tackle the first one.

Weak Choice: “Try to increase your outreach this week if you can.”

Strong Choice: “We’re implementing a daily outreach minimum and tracking it together at 4:30 PM.”

Now, go through the rest and come up with your own “strong choice.”

You have your orders. I want you to create “strong choice” example statements for each of the remaining examples and I want that done by the end of the day today.

…see what I did there?

Strong leadership isn’t about being harsh; it’s about being clear, consistent, and committed to your team’s growth. When you choose direct, specific expectations over “if you want to” suggestions, you give your people the structure they need to excel. If you’d like support in building more “strong choice” habits across your organization, Butler Street can help you develop the leaders and teams that consistently rise to the challenge. Contact us to get started.