Lockdown 2020 series: Got Drivers? Embrace the fizz!
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
This week, we’re focusing in on the third role in the Change Impact model – the Driver. Drivers are those people in your team who answer ‘very much’ to our two main questions:
How ready are they (or you) for this new way of working we are experiencing? and
How visible are they (or you) in bringing this way of working to life?
Drivers are fully enrolled in this new change and urging others to get in and have a go too.
Drivers have moved beyond the Participant state because they’ve tried enough things that line up with your new way of working and have had some good wins. They now have a head of steam up about what we’re all trying to achieve, and they want to amp up the part they play and get everyone else involved too.
Because Drivers are convinced we’re on the right track and are actively working in the new way, they want others to get on board now as well. They’ll be energetic and enthusiastic about the change and this often plays out as being able to persuade others about the benefits and get them to have a go.
They’ll also call out behaviour that diverges from the direction we’ve all agreed to take. This can cause discomfort but has the benefit of raising issues early so they can be explored and resolved.
One classic example of a Driver for me was Keith – the no-filters owner of the school I worked at in Japan. He was massively passionate about high quality education and outstanding levels of service to our customers – both the kids and their parents. The quality of teachers coming through from overseas ranged from incredibly dedicated and equally as passionate as Keith, to “I’m in Japan for a good time; this should cover my beer and ramen expenses”. Keith’s way of operating was incredibly energetic. He talked loudly, he made the same point many times, many different ways, he laughed with you, gave you a pat on the back, always had positive feedback to fire you up, and gave you little room for opting out. That worked most of the time, but – and this is where Drivers can lose their energy – his most frustrating times were when those less enthusiastic teachers nodded and said an eager yes, then went back to their classrooms and nothing changed. As a Driver, in the moment, people would go with Keith and get involved. But his approach had a limited influence and it meant he ran himself ragged trying endlessly to be everywhere, to energise everyone, to make sure all his customers were always happy.
Think of Drivers as a bit like Personal Trainers. If you’ve ever had one of those, you might be familiar with that feeling of being completely committed to smashing your fitness goal when that trainer is beside you, encouraging you, challenging you, espousing all the benefits of your fitness plan and progress. And then on Friday night, when nobody can be bothered cooking, and fish and chips with something carbonated in front of a movie marathon is the only game in town, that trainer’s voice fades a long way off into the background. Drivers can experience that same feeling - their influence lasts while they are there, everyone agrees and is eager, and then they find themselves at some later point with a feeling of restarting from three steps forward, two steps back. That can be frustrating for them, and your job is to help them keep their energy levels up, while also helping them extend their influence.
Drivers need to know that you’re with them
“How can I get others involved, and do I have your backing?” That’s the question your Drivers are asking. They’ve got momentum and now want others to join in the fun and experience the benefits of working this way. It means they’ll put some of their own flavour on working in the new way, so they need to know that, if they start to take the wheel more and work closely with others to get them onboard – and even make some tweaks to refine this new way – you’re beside them on that. The role of Driver also takes lots of energy. Given the influence is 1:1 or only while they are present, Drivers often feel like they are spread thin and constantly providing the energy for others. As their leader, they need you to:
Recognise the effort they are putting in
Be highly supportive of their efforts
Give them feedback that helps them build influence that lasts beyond their direct involvement
Help them look for situations where they can keep practising their influencing skills
Let them step back from playing the call to action role all the time.
Embrace the fizz
Drivers are the people in your team who will tell the stories about why this new way is working and how it’s successful. Sometimes, they’ll hijack your plan, and the energy shifts beyond your control. Embrace it, let it run, and notice the good about what’s playing out in front of you. A friend of mine was running a Zoom meeting last week where one participant pushed themselves forward, brought lots of humour, was chatting privately with other participants. The approach threatened to take my friend’s session off course, and he felt really challenged about what was playing out – this wasn’t the plan for the session! Then he noticed the mood of the group. With this person having started off by bringing humour, doing the equivalent of a floor-walk to check in with everyone, and talking candidly about their experience of lockdown to date, they had lifted the volume, participation, and overall mood of the session. People started opening up about their experiences and the group connected deeply, quickly. When your Drivers seem to be taking over, let them run and see what happens – it might just open up a new level of exploration for you and the team.
Drivers run out of steam if others don’t follow
Drivers feed off the energy of others. They want people to be part of this experience too – to taste the success they are having. And while their energy can be highly persuasive (like Keith) that influence fades when they aren’t there. They wonder why they have to keep getting people back on track and starting again. As their leader, rely on reflective feedback. Get them to look back at what happened, what they did to get people on board, and explore with them how they can:
Check, in the moment, that people are genuinely up for this and not just giving what Chris Voss, in Never Split the Difference, calls a counterfeit yes.
Lift their own level of self-awareness to identify when they are overplaying their energy to the point that others can’t say no.
Engage more empathically with others – this means that they aren’t looking for a ‘yes’ so much as understanding what others are experiencing in this change and helping those others make progress in a way that works for them.
Finally, Drivers will grow your Participant group. With their enthusiasm channelled right, they’ll help you by engaging with Observers and supporting Participants to ‘give it a go’; they’ll push energy into your change. Stoke that energy, set them free to bring their own flavour to the new way of working, and watch change accelerate.
This post is part of my 2020 Lockdown series. If you’ve found yourself thrust into new ways of working and you want some tips on helping your people navigate this unforeseen change, I’ll be providing ideas for leadership all the way through New Zealand’s lockdown. Check out the rest of the posts here.