Your most important management responsibility is to achieve team goals. As you know, in this current business environment where team members regularly resign or call in sick, the organization frequently changes direction, or budgets are slashed without warning, achieving goals isn’t an easy task. And yet it must be done.
The most effective way to achieve team goals is to utilize the steps early in the Task Cycle, such as planning ahead, setting appropriate standards of performance, and providing motivating feedback. Unfortunately, some managers rely more on pressuring their teams to perform than they do on other techniques. Goal pressure may result in short-term performance gains, but it is not likely to be your best tool over the long term. Too much pressure results in burned-out team members, inconsistent results, and poor relationships.
On the other hand, pressure that is only applied occasionally could be quite effective. But it should be a rarely-used tool in your tool box. If you rely on it too much, you could be pushing, not leading. People might consider you to be abrasive or overly aggressive, and they might not want to work on your team. Conversely, if you never use this tool, you could be considered to be less than committed to the success of your project.
How can you achieve your goals without over-reliance on goal pressure? Here are a few suggestions.
Be careful not to overuse this skill. The pleasure that team members feel from accomplishing goals that have been planned for and executed appropriately will be very different from the relief they are likely to feel when success comes from pressure. And you will be happy to have a variety of tools in your toolbox from which to choose.
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