Whether you’re doing corporate work or domestic work, there’ll be times when you’ll have to step up your game and take the lead in certain situations. However, leadership is not an easy task; it requires skill, patience, and a whole lot of motivation that you need to instill in your team to achieve the goals. You’ll be in positions where you’ll have to make sure that your teams pull through in terms of results. But, how do you do that? Do you push them to get the work done? Or, do you pull them in and discuss their approach to getting a good result? Generally speaking, both of these methods are great but a true leader knows when to use which technique.
If you’re interested in learning more about it, keep on reading!
Let’s suppose that there’s a CEO and he has a team. When faced with a challenge, the CEO invites his team, opens the floor for suggestions, and encourages every team member to take part in the discussion. This discussion takes its time and makes way for different suggestions coming from different perspectives. This is called the pull approach.
However, during the discussions, the CEO meets with some naysayers as well. After the whole discussion, the CEO decides that it’s time to implement those suggestions by setting a deadline and KPIs that allow the team to see their progress. Anyone who resists the initiative is removed from the project completely. This is a perfect example of how a team leader pulls their weights and understands the gravity of the situation.
Pushing is when the leader understands the time sensitivity of the project. When there’s less time, the leader will create tasks, assign work, and provide a set of deadlines for the team to follow. Some people may consider this method to be authoritarian. But, the reality is, that it’s always about the nature of the task at hand.
Pulling consists of research, creativity, suggestions, and ideas. The leader will take into account the suggestions or may even suggest something themselves. This motivates the team knowing that they’re being given the chance to explain and bring their ideas to the table.
While you might think that pulling is the best way to engage with the team, research says that pushing is just as important as pulling! People have been inclined towards opting for a more empathic approach like pull, which gives people room to relax. However, there are times when pushing is the best technique. It all depends on the main goal as well as the desired outcomes!
Goes to show that you can’t be too lenient or too harsh.
