Rally Your People Around Results, Not Actions

If you, as a business owner, have a particular initiative for which you would like for your employees to take action, you are going to need to persuade them to do so.

Sometimes, businesses make the mistake of trying to get their employees to rally around the desired actions needed from their employees, rather than the results that will be realized as a result of taking these actions.

For example, let's say a business wants to launch an initiative in which its employees will make more calls to prospects and perform more customer service actions for the sake of increasing revenue and improving the way the company does business. The business doesn't want to just dictate from the top that employees do these things, but instead wishes to rally the employees behind the initiative so that they are motivated to take these actions on their own.

Attempting to rally these employees behind making more prospect calls or doing more for the customer should never be the initial focus for the employer. Rather, the employer needs to rally the employees behind the results (in this case, more money for the company and the employees, plus a better customer service experience).

Only once the employees have rallied around the desired results can they then get behind the necessary actions needed to achieve these goals.

It works the same way in politics. Democrats are not rallying behind raising taxes to pay for health care; they are rallying behind health coverage for all. Republicans are not rallying behind saving money; they are rallying behind more freedom of choice in health care and keeping their children and grandchildren out of debt.

By keeping your focus on rallying behind results, and not actions, you’ll greatly improve your chances of persuading your employees to believe the way you do.

Comments

[Joe Schmitter]

Excellent commentary Jason! I was so moved by your initial Facebook post that I wrote a blog post about this topic as well. It's taken me about a few days to get my thoughts in order, but I appreciate your insight. Thanks for providing a great topic to discuss!