The Crucial Role Of “Why”
Article | Accountability Insights
If you really want to inspire and energize your people—i.e., truly engage their hearts and minds in achieving desired results—you must provide compelling reasons for “why they need to do it”, “why they need to do it now” and “why they need to do it in the specific way(s) you propose.” As you communicate any of your key expectations, think about these SIX WAYS TO CRAFT A COMPELLING “WHY”:
| 1. | Adapt the “Why” to your specific audience. | |
| 2. | Make it short, simple, and clear. | |
| 3. | Be candid, honest, and forthcoming so people believe it is real, genuine and not just another company line. | |
| 4. | Make it a dialogue, not a monologue. | |
| 5. | Create the hook that quickly catches people’s attention and genuinely persuades them to buy in. | |
| 6. | Frame it in a strategic context (how the expectation fits into the big picture). | |
Communicating the “Why” does much more than merely clarify the reasoning behind a purpose or desired result; it shows people they are worth the time and effort it takes to enroll and engage them in the purpose or desired result, which will persuade them to Own It and make it happen. It sends people the unmistakable message that you respect and value them as key contributors in the process of making things happen.
A group of 120 leaders from a healthcare services company were meeting offsite to clarify and discuss the details of several new strategic initiatives that needed to be implemented with near flawless execution in the coming year, if the company expected to survive and thrive. To everyone’s surprise, the CEO and his direct reports spent the entire day talking about the “Why”: Why the strategic initiatives were important to the company, why they were important to the people sitting in the room, why they were important to every single employee, and why they were important to all of the company’s other stakeholders. Afterwards, participants were saying things like, “We knew we had to deliver on the strategic initiatives, but now we know why in more detail than ever before. Now we can do a much better job of helping our people understand why we need to make it happen. Really understanding why makes all the difference.”
When you effectively communicate the “Why”, morale, ownership and individual efforts become supercharged and help everyone achieve the desired results. Unfortunately, most leaders spend 95 percent of their effort on the “What-When” and only 5 percent on the “Why.” Reverse it, and spend the majority of your effort on the the “Why” and you’ll begin to see your teams aligning more completely around what they need to achieve. For more information on communicating the “Why” to build greater accountability for achieving results, join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review more accounts of teams and organizations that have actually done it.
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