In Leadership, The Critical Convergence Drives Great Results
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Word count: 566
Summary: Leaders can achieve more results if they create an
environment in which people are ardently committed to the
leaders' cause. A key factor in creating this environment is
developing a critical convergence, the joining of leaders'
enthusiasms and the people's into a single force for success.
In Leadership, The Critical Convergence Drives Great Results by
Brent Filson
The Leader's Fallacy lives! We subscribe to the Fallacy when we
believe our enthusiasm over a particular leadership challenge is
automatically reciprocated by the people we lead.
If ignorance is bliss then leaders going around blithely
adhering to the Leader's Fallacy have cornered the market on
happiness.
The truth is, it's more realistic to believe in INVERSE
RECIPROCITY: i.e., whatever motivates you, "DE-motivates" the
people.
That's especially so for leaders who are trying to motivate
people to meet extraordinary challenges.
You'll never know how good you are as a leader unless you are
motivating others to be better than they think they are. In that
endeavor, you'll inevitably get at least some of the people
angry.
Most people are settled into a comfortable status quo and resist
and resent being challenged to break out.
But if you aim to get great results, people not only have to be
pushed but more importantly, they must be challenged to push
themselves.
So, if you're not getting some people angry with you over the
pushing, you're doing something wrong as a leader, you're not
challenging people enough.
This doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't have the people share
in your enthusiasms. You must. That sharing is called CRITICAL
CONFLUENCE, the joining of your enthusiasms and theirs so they
are as enthusiastic as you about meeting the challenges you
face. Until a critical confluence happens, you can't get great
results consistently.
The Leader's Fallacy is an obstacle to the critical confluence.
Don't think the Critical Confluence will happen automatically.
Know instead that you must work hard to achieve it.
After all, you yourself must be motivated about those
challenges. If you're not motivated, you shouldn't be leading.
But your motivation is irrelevant simply because it's a given.
Here's what's relevant: Can you transfer your motivation to the
people so they are as motivated as you are? And can you
translate their motivation into action that achieves results?
Everyone has major needs that shape their thinking and their
actions day in and day out. If you want those people to take
ardent action for you, you must provide solutions to the
problems of those needs so the action you have them take brings
them closer to realizing those solutions.
By the way, the critical confluence is not "win/win". It's much
deeper and richer. Unlike "win/win", the critical confluence is
an on-going relationship process from which flow mutually
beneficial expectations and solutions.
Here are three steps you can take to help make a critical
confluence happen.
(1) Understand their needs.
(2) Turn their needs into problems.
(3) Have their commitment to your cause be a solution to their
problems.
To get the best out of people, we must embrace the best in them.
Whenever you need to lead people to tackle important challenges,
recall the Leader's Fallacy. Know that their commitment to your
cause doesn't come automatically. You have to earn it by
embracing the best of who they are. When you take the trouble to
build a critical convergence, you'll see a significant jump in
the results you have others achieve.
2005