Want to get your staff behind your vision? Having problems implementing change?
Why you need “heart” not “head”; “emotion”, not “logic”.

Are you like many organisations I seem to be meeting recently, who are struggling to get their staff behind changes you’re trying to implement?

Do you have a vision of where you want the organisation to go, but find you’re meeting with resistance, apathy and plummeting performance?

Let me ask you a question: Do you have the hearts of those you manage?

“What sort of crazy question is that?” you may be asking. “The workplace isn’t about hearts! This is not about emotion – this is about getting a job done and meeting targets. This is about changing the way we do things so we can survive and thrive! Don’t staff understand that? Don’t they understand if we don’t adapt, we die – and they may have no job to complain about at all?  Leave the heart stuff to people’s love lives!”

Well, I’d like to suggest that winning the hearts of those you manage may be the single most powerful thing you can do in the next few weeks or months, to transform apathy to enthusiasm, resistance to co-operation and plummeting performance into excellence.

I’d also like to suggest that if you don’t, you will continue to feel like you’re pushing water uphill!

This month’s article almost wrote itself after what seems to have been a number of weeks recently where I’ve been working with clients who are struggling with apathy, dissent and/or downright resistance from staff in their teams or wider groups.

It’s frustrating!

What’s frustrating?

Well – it’s frustrating that I sometimes see quite significant amounts of energy and passion being channelled into negativity – energy and passion which could be helping provide innovative solutions to challenges and strengthening, instead of weakening working relationships.

It’s frustrating that employees are engaged in recriminations, resistance, blame or “us versus them” behaviours, rather than engaged in stimulating, purposeful tasks which allow them to play to their strengths.

What exactly IS employee engagement?

I looked up the dictionary definition of “engagement” recently and this is what it said:

• To involve (a person or his attention) intensely
• To attract (the affection of) a person
• To draw (somebody) into conversation
• To take part
• To promise (to do something)

Notice words such as “attract”, “affection” and “intensely”. Quite emotive  words: words which imply the need to communicate at a level which goes deeper than making a logical argument for something.

And this is where I’d like to suggest that, as leaders and managers, when we face challenges which require the support and buy-in from our staff we need to become more aware of how we can communicate at this emotional level with them, in order to galvanise them from within, rather than impose “stuff” on them from outside. 

So – we need to recognise employee engagement begins and ends

at an emotional level

The truth is, human beings are, first and foremost, emotional beings. We may like to think we are logical (and indeed we are, and we do use our logical brain to help us think through decisions) but even for the most rational or logical of us, our initial and final responses within the decision making process come from our intuitive sense of “what FEELS right” for us at that moment.

What does that mean for those of us who lead or manage others?

It means that those leaders and managers who think about how they can appeal to peoples’ hearts  will be more successful in gaining buy in for new initiatives as well as developing staff who think, feel and behave much more positively, even in challenging situations.

“But how does this work in practice though?” I hear you say. “How do we appeal to peoples’ hearts?”

Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why”. talks about what he calls the “Golden Circle” which truly successful organisations utilise to help capture the hearts of not only their clients or customers, but all their employees, suppliers or other key stakeholders. It looks like this:

He argues that when leaders try to “sell” something to others they mostly use logical language – so, in the case of a vision for example they’ll talk about what they need to do and how they’re going to do it and stop there. (Not only that, but sometimes that logical language is also jargon ridden or formal.)

The trouble is people aren’t galvanised into action by formality or logic.

People are galvanised into following you or buying into your vision because of emotion: because they feel something – and because, as Simon Sinek suggests, “they believe what you believe”.

If they take action to resist the vision you have for the organisation going forward, it’s because they don’t believe what you believe; you haven’t convinced them or they don’t trust you.  

Did you know the word “emotion” comes from the Latin “emovere” meaning “to disturb”, “to move”?

Human beings, no matter what their origin, are moved to take action when they believe it is the right thing to do.

And appealing to people’s hearts requires leaders focus less on the “what” and the “how” and more on the “why”.

So what does this mean for you, as a manager or leader, trying to implement changes which you believe are for the benefit of the organisation?

It means in your communication with those you need to persuade you need to focus less on the “what” and the “how” of the changes, and more on the “why”. It means, instead of using formal  or jargon ridden language, or clichés, you use stories; you make it “personal”  and aspirational.

Is it possible to get people to follow your vision? Martin Luther King, Ghandhi and other great leaders like them showed just how much it was possible to tap into the hearts of others. They didn’t focus on the “what” or “how” – they focused on the “why” – on their dream of something better; and of the opportunities the realisation of their dream would give to others.

So ditch the formality the next time you want to get your staff to buy into your vision.

Think of how you can tap into their hearts – and you’ll find an energy, passion and enthusiasm to get behind you like you never thought possible.

(And if you’d like to see Simon Sinek explain his “Golden Circle” a little more, visit my blog where you’ll find a video of one of his talks : http://increasingmanagerialsuccess.com/why-understanding-emotions-can-help-us-be-better-managers/