The Pixie Dust which Unlocks Willingness

A central question concerning many bosses is the question: “How do I get my people to do what I want them to do?” Broadly speaking, there are two main techniques that a boss can use in order to get his subordinates to do their job.

Coercion is one such technique used to get people to do what you want. Coercion however is limited. This is because people will do what you tell them to only out of fear rather than them doing it out of willingness. Persuasion is the other technique one can use to get people to do what you want them to do. However, just as with coercion, persuasion is limited because getting people to do what you want by using persuasion is appealing to their sense of greed rather than their willingness to contribute.

This is the typical carrot and stick debate, do we play on their fear or do we play on their greed in order to get them to do their jobs? Both methods will give you results, as the subordinate will perform in order to avoid the punishment/pain that may come as a result of the coercive manager, or alternatively to receive the reward that might come from the persuasive manager. But, what it is absolutely essential to remember is that both coercion and persuasion as discussed above do NOT solicit a true sense of a willingness to contribute in the subordinate. Neither of these techniques will get the subordinate to care about doing their job well, all they will care about is avoiding punishment or being rewarded. The effectiveness of both the carrot and stick then is severely limited because it does not engage the willingness of the subordinate.

Now, here at Schuitema Associates we believe that the carrot and stick debate is missing the point to a significant degree. What we say in the Leadership Excellence work we teach, is that in fact its not the behavior of the boss (whether it is coercive OR persuasive) that elicits willingness, but the Intent. Coercion and persuasion do not make the person care about doing his job well, it is the Intent of the boss that does that. It is what sits behind the bosses eyes that truly engages the motive of the employee.

In order to illustrate this we refer to the “Have To” boss and the “Want To” boss. The “Have To” boss is the guy you work for because you have to. You could quite conceivably do competent work for him but you would not go the extra mile for him, you would do the bare minimum. The “Want To” boss on the other hand is the guy you would move to Timbuktu to work for and would go the extra mile for. We say that when you have a boss that Cares for and Grows his staff (i.e. has the best interests of his staff at heart), that this is the magic (pixie dust as Miles Crisp likes to call it) that elicits the will in people to work for you because they want to, to give more than they take and to contribute willingly to the organisation.

In our workshops, we discuss a scenario which illustrates the intent of the “Have To” boss and the “Want To” boss. First we are to imagine a scenario where the “Want To” boss, gives a subordinate a pen, because he needs a pen. (His behavior is giving the person a pen, and his intent is to help the subordinate because he needed a pen)

The “Have To” boss is different. He gives a subordinate a pen, but in 2 weeks time he comes back to that same subordinate and says “Remember the pen I gave you 2 weeks ago? Well now you owe me a favour and I need you to do something for me.” (His behavior is identical – it is one person giving another a pen, but his intent is completely different)

We say therefore that it cannot be the behavior that explains the difference between “Have To” and “Want To” bosses. Both individuals can behave in exactly the same way – in fact both individuals are capable of behaving in both a coercive or a persuasive way, yet is not the behavior that elicits the willingness in the subordinate – it is the intent of the boss (or the person executing the behavior) that determines whether the subordinate will execute the task willingly or not.

And so you may ask yourself – “Why should I care if my staff do the job willingly instead of out of a sense of fear or greed? Surely it is only important that they do the job and achieve the results?”

While it may be true that people will execute a job effectively through coercion or persuasion, they will not likely go the extra mile. They will do the bare minimum required to avoid the punishment or to receive the reward. And although they may achieve results – going the extra mile requires a willingness to give more than I get, a generosity of spirit and an unconditional commitment to  contribute to the organisation. This is the “pixie dust” that allows individuals and teams to do extraordinary things.

So the real question bosses should be asking themselves is not “How do I get my people to do what I want them to do?” The question they should be asking is “How do I become the boss that people work for because they want to.” When you become the “Want To” boss, you can finally discard both the carrot and the stick as you literally sprinkle the “pixie dust” everywhere you go and your staff do what you want them to do – willingly. 

Schuitema offers a 1 Day Open Programme on the Care and Growth Leadership Excellence Thematic with a view to provide management with an understanding of the fundamentals of the Care and Growth Leadership Model. What we refer to as “modern” management was established in the early years of the 20th Century and has remained unchanged for the last 100 years. Management as a technology has largely stopped evolving. It is time to reinvent management; to challenge the basic beliefs and assumptions on which “modern” management is based.
To find out more about becoming a “Want To” boss, or to enroll on the Open Programme, click here for further details.