Three things to get your team to ‘buy in’

I think that the pandemic has taught us a couple of things.

One is certainly the power and importance of human connection. The value of reaching out and connecting with other people.

The second is that distance is no longer an impediment. With programs like Zoom, we can communicate with friends and loved ones across the country or across the world as if they were sitting in the chair opposite us.

I meant there is probably no replacement for physical connection and being able to sit face-to-face with somebody but in the situation, we find ourselves in we must make the most. Of what we have

With those two thoughts in mind, Caroline and I caught up on zoom with some fellow coaches with who we had developed a friendship a couple of years ago and who we had spoken to for probably 12 months.

They are in another state and so our catch-up was via zoom.

There were lots of general catch-up talk over a glass of wine and sharing a few wine stories but then we got into talking about business and how our respective coaching businesses were faring during the Pandemic.

Jane made an interesting comment. As she described how things had blossomed for her in the last 3 to 4 months, I asked her what she believed was the turning point. What was it that took her business to that next level of contentment, happiness, and revenue?

“That simple,” she replied. “I finally have the right team around me”.

It’s a comment that we hear regularly from our Mastermind members. “If only I could get the right people” or “if only I could get my team to treat the business the way I do”.

It’s probably simpler than you think.

In a recent Hot Seat presentation to our Mastermind Tribe, I spoke about three very simple principles to get your team on board.

It’s probably worth remembering now that when I talk about the word “team” it doesn’t just mean the people who are working for you in your business.

You see, the team is your immediate staff, your contractors and subcontractors, your referral and alliance partners, and anyone that you do business with anyone who through their relationship with you helps you provide your products and services.

So, these principles that were about to talk about apply equally to each of those definitions of “team”.

Here they are:

1. Share your business targets. If you want it will ‘buy-in’ from your team then you need to make clear what they are buying into.

Having targets that you’ve set in that you’re chasing is great but if your team doesn’t know and the game you can’t really expect them to have that full buy-in. The simple analogy I always use is this. If I asked you to jump in my car, one of the first questions you would ask me would be “where are we going?”.

Imagine doing that for your team every day? Imagine expecting them to jump in your car (your business) without telling them the ultimate destination? It’s little wonder you might be struggling to get them to ‘buy in’.

2. Tell them why! Getting an attempt to understand what you do or how you do it is fantastic but if you explain to them why you do it then again asking them to buy into something without understanding the fundamental purpose is bound to fail.

Maybe this is a great time to re-examine your ‘why’. Once you have some clarity on your ‘why’ then share it with the team. Make them feel part of it.

There was some research that came out of Harvard University in the 1970s where people asked to cut into a line-up of students waiting to use a photocopier. The percentage of people agreeing to that request almost double if the reason was given even if the reason didn’t completely make sense or didn’t appear to be a compelling one.

It just goes to show the power of having a reason and therefore understanding why you want your team to do what you need them to do.

3. As a concept called Commanders Intent. Essentially this means that what you want to do is tell your team what needs to be done but not how.

Obviously, this can be times that revolve around legislative restrictions workplace safety requirements aside from sharing with your team what needs to be done beginning in the autonomy to do it their way is a great way to ensure that they really have bought into the process.

Of course, the other thing about that is you may very well find that got some better ideas than you. How they go about achieving the objective might be different from yours may very well be better

Following these three simple rules for the team, engagement is going to help you to get the very best out of the people around you.

As Jane discovered, having the right people around you doing the right things at the right times will propel your business not just in terms of revenue generation also in terms of personal satisfaction for you.