Whether leading your family, managing your team at work, or serving in a leadership capacity in your church, at some time have you ever thought to yourself, “These guys I'm leading aren’t committed enough?” How do effective leaders deal with unmotivated followers? Here is one proven idea:
Ralph Kelsey, a vice president of General Electric, one day explained to me the most profound principle of leadership he had discovered—the principle of the buy-in. He said, “Gary suppose I have an idea that is an 8 on a 10 point scale, but I only get a buy-in of 2. The value to my organization is 16. On the other hand, I could have an idea that is only a 5. But if I get a buy-in of 8, the value is 40.
Buy-in simply means that followers own the goal. What was the LEADER’S goal is now MY goal. The reason buy-in is so strategic is that we are naturally motivated to reach our own goals. If our followers aren’t committed to our plan or objective, it is usually because it is OUR goal, not THEIR goal. Successful leaders know how to get the buy-in of their followers.
I saw the effectiveness of this buy-in principle at work when we were given advice about launching a capital fundraising drive in one of the churches I planted. When we met with the consultant to plan this drive, I could not believe all the leadership positions that needed to be filled to conduct the campaign. I asked him why there were so many different slots to fill. He winked and said, “Your folks will give more to the campaign if it is THEIR campaign than if it is YOUR campaign.”
This principle has multiple applications. Kids are more enthusiastic about a vacation when they help to plan it. Good teachers will often begin their school year by guiding their students to adopt a set of classroom behavior principles (usually the very principles they were going to enforce all along). Men’s ministry events are better attended when a large enthusiastic core has been involved in choosing to put the event together. A wife is far more likely to respect her husband’s efforts to lead the family when he is regularly asking for her opinions. A church has much more committed members when they are involved in the leadership decisions about what ministries the church will pursue.
The key to getting buy-in is involving those under your care as early as you can in shaping the goal you are seeking to achieve. It is listening carefully to their viewpoint, and weighing heavily their suggestions. It is recognizing the validity of what they bring to the table—their experiences, wisdom, and strengths. It is having the humility to recognize that you can’t see the whole picture alone but that listening to what they say is a vital part of the process of hearing God’s voice. Involving them early in the process not only get’s them to “own” what you want to do but it provides you the added benefit of the wisdom you need to achieve your objective.
Leadership is tough. It is easy to blame our followers for not being committed enough. But often, that lack of commitment is the result of the leader’s failure to work hard enough to get the rest of the team to fully make HIS goals THEIR goals. Dwight Eisenhower once said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
