Guest Blogger Alex Judd shares:
Managers give people tasks to do.
Leaders give people outcomes to achieve.
Sure, handing out tasks is efficient. It’s also damaging. That’s because tasks minimize humanity. When you hand someone a task, you treat them like a unit of production.
People die a little bit on the inside when you tell them to:
Follow the sales script
Answer the phone like this…
Respond to the email like this…
Fill out the form like this
Solve the problem like this…
The reason why we all hate that is because we know a computer could do it…. and one day will. Let’s stop putting a chokehold on the greatest resource available: THE HUMAN RESOURCE.
What if, instead of the tasks above, we gave them outcomes:
You are responsible for:
Customer Relationships & Revenue
Friendly & Service-oriented Communication
Organized & Professional Documentation
Proactive and Growth-oriented Action
When we give people tasks, we are relying on their compliance. When we give people outcomes, we are betting on their creativity… their ingenuity… their humanity.
Sure, there will be mistakes, slip-ups, and misunderstandings. But isn’t that just part of being human? And the reward for all that risk? Well, you will look up and have a team of human beings that actually act like human beings. I’d say that’s worth it.
About the Author:
Alex Judd is the CEO + Founder of Path for Growth, which exists to help leaders, teams, and individuals define vision, take action, and get results.