Push or Pull - You Decide!
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
By B. Scott Binion
I’ve been in companies that push their employees. Push them to do more with fewer resources. Push them to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Sounds good for the bottom line, doesn’t it? Maybe on the surface, but not in the long-run.
Doing more with fewer resources does help the bottom line. Doing whatever it takes can drive customer service to a new level. But at what cost?
In reading a recent leadership book, an example was given on what you get with pushing versus pulling. If you take a string, lay it on your desk, and try to push it in one direction, what happens? You move it, but very slowly and without much force. But if you turn it around and pull it, you can do so much more. You can pull so many different things to get the job done.
Apply this to your company. If you are pushing your employees, there will be substantial resistance from most of them. No one likes to be pushing in a direction they are not already leaning toward. If you pull them along with you in driving the organization, their performance will skyrocket.
Managers sometimes need to push to get things done, but likely are very tired in the process. True leaders need to pull everyone alongside them. Try pulling for a change and see what happens.