To change them, change yourself
by Miki SaxonI probably shouldn’t say this, but I am so tired of having managers ask how to get workers to think/do/work “outside-the-box.”
For over a decade they’ve been exploring a plethora of business books, articles, seminars, coaching, consulting, discussions, etc., on the subject—some good, some not so good—and are still searching for how to lead their workers out of that dreaded box.
I hear, “What should be changed [out there]?” “What incentives work best?”
What I don’t hear is “What do I need to change in me [to make it happen]?”
If you want your people to think/do/work outside-the-box then you need to manage outside-the-box and that usually means changing your MAP before you can expect them to change theirs. (Which is rarely what managers want to hear.)
I keep saying it, as do others, but many managers still don’t get it. So, I thought I’d say it in print, loudly and very publicly: You (there are no exceptions, none) manage/lead based on the way you think, what you think, how you think, and what you believe—in other words your MAP. No matter what you read, hear or talk, you will always walk your own MAP.
Which is why RampUp Solutions has two taglines:
To change what they do, change how you think!
Leadership: outside-the-box/inside your head.
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June 18th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
[...] I’ve always said that no one ever really thinks outside their box, they just keep enlarging it. Rather than reprinting these posts, please read three of them here. [...]