As I sat there across from the owner of the company, the directive he was giving me was to push the team to close more deals. We were behind on sales at that point in the month, and the forecasting showed it wouldn’t end well if we didn’t do something right away. The mission was clear.

When I walked out of his office and headed back to mine, I thought about what could be done to increase results. Run a contest with a prize attached? Basically bribing them to work harder. But what would work for everyone, since only a few of the reps do well and typically win most of the contests, which then leaves the others feeling even worse about their performance? Contest was out; that would only help short term.

Identifying the Problem

We needed the team to focus on each call, enroll each opportunity possible, and actually make their follow-up calls. In listening to calls, most of the team (minus the top few reps who were solid) weren’t doing everything they knew they should be doing.

It’s like they had it, but lost it.

Traditional Management Tactics

Default management mode and directives are to push the team. To do some combination of bribe (contest/spiff), motivate (hype speech like in the beginning of Gladiator or the one from Brave Heart), or threaten (“You all better get your _____together and close some more deals or we are shutting off the leads.”).

Again, that doesn’t work long term…good for a short-term activity burst and maybe results. But people get used to it, both the threats and the bribes.

The Shift: From Pushing to Pulling

Here is the key – stop pushing, start pulling.

Know what people don’t like about their manager? When they feel “micromanaged.” They feel that someone is nagging them, picking at them, holding them accountable for potentially unreasonable activities or deliverables, on a timeline that seems impossible. “No, I haven’t called that person back yet, I am still doing the six other things you told me to do right away.”

The Difference Between Managing and Leading

The issue? The role of managing something is about pushing it forward. About controlling it through directing its actions. Think about how we “manage” a river – we direct it how we want, we put in a dam so we can generate some energy, we divert water from it to help with agriculture.

When we manage our children, we tell them what to do and when. We direct them to take the actions we see as best, or wear what we expect them to, or clean themselves or their room.

When we manage, we are trying to exert our will, most of the time through force of action, to get the result that we want.

Now, let’s compare that to leadership. When you lead someone or something (like a group), you are pulling them along. You set a direction, and they follow you.

A Leadership Approach

There is a lot to being a great leader, but for now, I want you to understand the fundamental difference. You want to be pulling your team along with you (leadership) instead of pushing them forward (management).

Like Sisyphus, pushing the rock up the hill, the challenge with pushing (management) is that as soon as you stop pushing, the rock is going to roll over the top of you on its way back down to where it would rather be.

Taking Action

That day, instead of walking back to my office, I called a meeting with the team as soon as everyone was available to meet me in the conference room.

I shared with them the situation. Our goal, our current status. Like a half-time speech, I shared that we were getting our butts kicked out there and we needed to turn things around or we were going to lose.

I then asked for their feedback. What they were seeing. What they were struggling with. Why they thought they weren’t closing more deals. This can be a dangerous can of deadly worms to open because it can turn into a complaining, finger-pointing, victim fest.

Collaborative Problem-Solving

In this case, the team knew that I valued their opinions, and they also knew I never asked that question without having my own research and insights of the factors causing low enrollments.

Some of their comments I rebutted with insights from their calls. Some parts they were right about. There was something going on with the leads, but they also needed to work harder on each call.

I set the direction of where I wanted them to go, which is where we had all agreed we wanted to be for the month.

I asked them, one at a time, to share what they were going to do differently to help with their game, so that I and the team could hold them accountable.

Then they went back to work.

The Outcome

We didn’t instantly win the game after that meeting, but we did recover and hit our goal (barely) for the month.

Reflection: Managing vs. Leading

Where can you shift from managing the team to leading the team? From pushing to pulling?

Conclusion: The Balance Between Managing and Leading

Note: To be clear, there are times when you have to manage and not lead. When pushing is required. When someone isn’t doing what needs to be done, or they don’t know what is best, you have to push them. But make sure your goal is to push short term and look for how you can switch that dynamic to pulling long term.