Lockdown 2020 series: Help Drivers expand their influence
Image by Marius Masalar on Unsplash
At the end of week 3 of lockdown, here are some tips for keeping the momentum going with your Drivers. In my last post, I talked about giving them feedback that raises their self-awareness for how their approach:
encourages and excites others get on board; and
can also be so overwhelmingly persuasive that others just say yes so they can finish the conversation and get on with what they were doing.
As Drivers refine their approach and become better at connecting with others, matching with their energy levels, and walking that pace with them for a while, they’ll see more people truly get on board with the change you’re trying to achieve. We all progress through change at the pace that’s right for us.
For Drivers, it can feel really challenging to slow down a bit in order to get to the destination faster, but this is critical if they want to bring those who are less ready for this change with them.
Keep energising Drivers with stories of progress
If your Drivers have made the effort to be more aware of the preferred pace of others and have matched that pace to connect with them, start recognising them for it. It’s not easy for Drivers to dial back – they want results now. So if they are making the effort to genuinely connect and understand others, let them know you’ve seen it.
Despite maturing their approach, Drivers will still be hungry for progress. Find ways to illustrate that progress. It might be stories of what others in the team are doing that they haven’t before. It could be data that shows people are embracing the new way of working. In an experiment I get leaders to run in my Potent Leaders series, we play the Front Yard Game. That is, what three things are you going to do this week – that you are happy to advertise to the world from your front yard – that will help the team make progress on something? Everyone chooses their own three things, which means they are usually slightly stretchy but feel pretty safe to each person. They put them up for everyone else in the team to see – a Trello Board seems to work quite well for this. At the end of the week or the next team meeting, people confirm they have (or haven’t) completed the three items and reset themselves for the next week. It’s a no-blame game, but it raises accountability and helps everyone see that we’re all contributing. Something like the Front Yard Game can help Drivers see that everyone is playing their part, even if it isn’t as quick or energetic as your Drivers would love.
As Drivers see evidence of progress, I’ve found they start to develop more understanding and empathy for the states other team members are in. That tends to lead them to explore different ways to make progress on this change.
It expands their impact from being in-the-moment and requiring high energy, to more of a Cultivator state, connecting with a range of people and developing a style of influence in their relationships that is a slower burn, enduring beyond the present. We’ll get into Cultivators next week. For the end of this week though, reflect on the progress your team has made and the contribution your Drivers have made to that progress, and go share it with them.
Energise your Drivers – highlight progress, set a challenge
Recognising when your Drivers have contributed to the team’s progress, and challenging them to further refine their own approach sends messages that:
They belong in this team and their contribution really matters;
You understand how much they value progress and you want to support them to keep going; and
You know they’ve ‘got what it takes’ to nail this, so you’re challenging them to find ways to be even more effective.
If your Drivers have modified their approach to match one person’s energy levels this week, connected with someone they normally wouldn’t to help them out, or spent time contributing to or learning about something that’s outside their focused delivery schedule, they’re starting to expand their impact. Recognising and rewarding that behaviour builds Cultivator characteristics in your Drivers. It also gives them the injection of energy to keep going when the road feels tough and long.
To keep the momentum up, ask Drivers to identify a challenge that will keep growing their influence while contributing to the team moving forward on your change.
What’s next?
Like all the roles, moving from Driver to Cultivator is a shift that might take a while. In fact, many Drivers will be at their best in that state, and won’t move to a consistent Cultivator state. That’s okay I reckon. Drivers are firmly enrolled to this new way of working; your job is to keep them there and keep them energised. So give feedback, reflect on progress, get them to set challenges that look forward. When they get over-enthusiastic, be ready to give them the feedback they need to regulate their approach. Like I suggested in the intro post about Drivers though, give them some room to run. Reining in your Drivers too soon means they’ll lose heart and you’ll lose the opportunity to see how your change can be progressed in different ways.
My Drivers are still steamrolling people
If your Drivers are still overplaying their role and using urgency and hard persuasion with people, it probably means they aren’t seeing visible progress. Remember the two main things that are likely going on for Drivers:
I’m totally up for this – we should all be doing it; and
Everything we do should align with this new way of working
You might need to ramp up the time and space for recognising progress across the team. Being able to articulate how far we’ve come on the change journey means Drivers get less obsessed with speed, and lose the need for the urgent, sometimes frantic, pulling people along behaviour that happens.
One other area to think about is how well you are recognising the contribution they are making to the team’s progress. If your Drivers aren’t getting feedback from you, they might think they aren’t doing enough to create momentum. That can lead to overcompensating with frenzied action.
Remember to focus on what energises Drivers: Feedback about how they are going and the impact they are having on others; data that demonstrates overall progress; challenges to set their sights on.
What if I’m in the Driver state?
As always, you’ll find yourself here and in all the other states in various change scenarios. Depending on your team, you might feel like you are the Driver much of the time right now, and that can be exhausting. If Driver is the right state for you to be in at the moment, try these tips to keep you feeling balanced.
Check your own wellbeing. What habits do you need to start/continue/stop to help you feel healthy and in balance?
Carve out some time to reflect this week. Compared to where you and your team started on day 1 of lockdown, how far have you come? What great stories do you have as a team about what you’ve managed to do that you’ve never done before?
If previously planned work is still in play, what’s been achieved? How is that different compared to what you thought you could achieve back in the first few days of lockdown?
If you’ve got people who are making slower progress, take a look back at my Observer and Participant posts. If you reduce your speed and take a bit more time to connect with those people, could it change how things are going?
Ask for some feedback from your team about how they think things are going at the moment. Use the same questions as above – what do they think the team can start / continue / stop doing to make the best of lockdown? This moves them into a Participant space (and note – the question isn’t about being more productive!)
And that’s it for Drivers. Love the energy they bring, challenge them to match the energy of the people they interact with, keep injecting energy through feedback about the value of their contributions.
See you next week!
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.