By way of reminder from 5 years ago.
Another great week at BUILT TO LEAD. Hope the same has been true for you. Here’s a quick tip for those of you that are leading teams. If you want to improve the performance of your individuals, teams, and leaders create more “do or die” situations!! It works. Performance will improve. You and the team will get a “rush of blood to the head” that will have you both running through walls and over people to achieve your big push. This is fear based motivation. This works…for a season.
During one of our “practice sessions” this week, with a very strong team that is getting stronger, this approach was mentioned by one of the attendees. The problem with this one is coming up with enough compelling “do or die” scenerios. Hmmm. That is a good point. What happens when people keep surviving these simulated, sabre tooth tiger encounters? Does their fear lessen? Most likely the answer is yes. At a minimum it is now less motivating!
As a leader your option is to fabricate more “life like encounters” for you and your team to “do or die”, and simultaneously fabricate compensation schemes that appear to be in reach, but really are a “stretch goal” for all but the 24/7 crowd. Another problem… The 24/7 crowd is shrinking. Seems some of them burned the candle at both ends for so long that they simply melted in the middle. Guess that one’s called “do,do and die.”
My blog humor may not be very good but this message is. Just change one word and this becomes the recipe for building sustainable high performance in work and life.
You want this recipe?
This one requires all the hard work up front and then life gets easier. Here it is….DREAM and DO! Strong, CORE centered leaders DREAM and DO. Their CORE is their guide and acts like an internal GPS mechanism with the destination clearly in sight. Fear is dead. Fake is too. These authentic leaders get our best. We bring it early and often. We go home too. Energy is everywhere.
Stop the fear based leading. Please. Yes it does work. Yes it is easier. Yet it comes at a high price with a very limited warranty. It only works for awhile. Remember, fear is seasonal; inspiration sustains.
Get real. DREAM and DO. It’s only one word away from normal. One word can make a world of difference. Go on…dream and do. We won’t let you down. Surprisingly, we’ll CARRY you.
Want to get inspired by companies around the world doing just that? Read “Purpose” , by Nikos Mourkogiannis or “The End of Poverty, by Jeffrey Sachs with a foreward by Bono. Both great reads. Talk about dreaming big.
BUILT TO LEAD 
that’s good stuff chester. It seems like almost all the companies (the few) i have been around like the fear technique and fail to reach further.
My first year of college I went to a small liberal arts college in Northern PA. Some upperclassmen sought to welcome (initiate) us by taking us quary diving.
What made it difficult, moreso than your typical quary, was that it was not a shear drop. You had to run down a 45 degree slope for about 9 feet and immediately jump off. If you fail to jump off you would tear your body sliding down the rocks for 45 feet before you hit the water. When I have to start something new (and scary) I always remember quarry jumping in Beaver Falls PA. Sometimes you just gotta start running so your forced to jump.
(It was quite a rush the 4 times I did it, and I lived to tell. Hope my kids don’t find out how irresponsible I was.)
I won’t tell your kids that story. But I do love your melody line. Action is the antidote to big fear!
I hope it was the first day of class.
Hey Chet,
As the participant in the B2L session who came up with the comment about “Do or Die” situations, I feel obligated to weigh in with a short note and *A QUESTION*! (I CAN be taught!).
First, let me acknowledge your righteous re-centering of the motivating force in “Do or Die” (DOD) to “Dream and Do” (DAD). Of the two great motivators of human action, fear and desire, fear motivates for a season; desire for a lifetime. The distinction drawn compares “burnout” to being “on fire.”
That said, some pretty powerful stuff is unleashed, at least for me, when the chips are down and success rests on the right actions and skill of a team to pull off a tough project. Fear may be present, but it doesn’t have to be the focus or even a secondary consideration. There’s a certain thrill in contributing to or leading a mission with a fairly black and white outcome–succeed or not.
So, my question: Can the leader put “an edge” on the dream without falling into the fear trap? Any advice for a guy who may be a bit of an adrenaline junky?
Jim,
Thanks for weighing in…I think your adreline rush is right on target. Just remember that the adreline rush comes just as fast and furious when we do what we love as when we “fight or flee.” I love being in flow…I loathe being in fear. Experience the high that comes when you meet the challenge because it’s your dream not your dread.
See you soon…
Chet