COVID has caused me to question everything, especially this time of year when we have a tendency to reflect on everything anyway. I’m focusing mostly on how governments at all levels could have improved messaging, cooperation and results. It reminds me of how running a team and governing a city, state and country can be similar.

The sales team I ran and senior management all wanted the same result: higher revenue. Hitting that goal put more money in their pocket and allowed management to report great things to senior leadership and company shareholders. As a young manager I wanted my team to win. Being inexperienced in management, I figured if I just told people to do something they would because “I was the boss!”

Putting a plan together, I implemented several processes and tasks with the goal of driving revenue. A quarter into the year, it wasn’t working. Not only were we behind in our goal, but the team seemed frustrated and unmotivated. As a young manager, I pressed harder. More control and push harder. “Trust the process!”, I would continuously tell my team. Little did I know, eyes were rolling in their heads. I turned up the heat with threats of firings and other measures. Mid-way through the second quarter, things weren’t turning around.

I discovered half the team was doing what I asked and the other half resisted. Put it all together, no one was hitting the goal of higher revenue, a goal we all wanted. One of the senior salespeople on the team asked me out for coffee to have an off-site talk. She was honest with me and told me much of the team felt micro-managed. No one had buy-in on the plan, because I just told them what to do. I didn’t seek advice from anyone on how to reach the goal. It was my plan and I knew best, frankly because I was the boss. It wasn’t working. Our goal was out of sight.

Tying this into our current covid situation in Nashua and more specifically, the mask mandate. If I asked a cross-section of people in the city about what they want to see happen with COVID, I think to the person many of them would say to end the pandemic. More specifically, lower hospitalzations, deaths, case count and by extension fear and anxiety.

But almost two years into this, we’re right back where we started. No better and in some instances, worse. In my experience, when a group of people don’t hit a goal they become demotivated and start attacking each other to find blame on who isn’t pulling their weight. Some think, “I’m doing everything I’m told!” and the other group think, “The people in charge have no idea what needs to be done, I’m just going to do it my way.” Both groups aren’t wrong because truthfully, nothing was happening.

Too add another team dynamic to this editorial, soldiers can be told what to do. If they don’t, they’re disciplined. If they continue to disobey, the whole company is punished. Team dynamics take over and the problem gets fixed. The U.S. Army is a team dynamic to the highest degree.

When a soldier in the U.S. Army is given an order, they follow it. A soldier’s hands and feet are engaged and activated and the order gets carried out to complete a mission.

The population of New Hampshire’s second largest city is not the US Army. As I outlined before, the dynamics and motivations are just too varied for everyone to fall in line. When this city has to come together to achieve a goal, how do we do it? Engaging hands and feet only works so far. In my journey along the way, motivating the hearts and mind is the key. By doing this individuals cooperate and participate in the mission when “no one is watching.”

When everyone is bought in, magic happens and goals are achieved.

As a young manager, I thought I could “boss” my way to achievement. What’s funny is it took a German co-worker in my company to tell me I was a control freak and work with the team to win more. What I did got the team to pull together and ultimately hit the common goal.

Here’s what I think leaders need to do to hit a common goal:

1. Be vulnerable and look in the mirror and admit the road you’re on isn’t going to get you there. Put your ego in a box, tape it up and ship it to the North Pole. Understand you are part of the problem. Be a leader and lead.

2. Talk to those people that are resisting. Understand they’re on the team too and if the mission is going to get accomplished, you’re going to need them to pull their weight. In the situation now, has anyone from the BOA or BOH reached out to those vaccine resistant/anti-mask folks to find out WHY they hold that position or do they just think they know better or are flat out crazy!

3. Listen, REALLY listen. Don’t talk. Don’t make promises. Just listen and ask questions with genuine curiosity.

4. Take it all in and layout the goal and what everyone can do to the achieve the mission.

5. Continuously remind them of WHY they’re doing what they’re doing and what it will look like after the goal is achieved.

6. Educate! With a sales team, I educated on the product to help them sell it. With a virus, educate people on how it’s spread, what measures can be taken to avoid infection and/or how to get through a positive exposure without going to the hospital.

7. Constantly communicate on progress and recognize small wins. People don’t want to only hear bad news. I found that’s the quickest way for people to tune you out. All we hear about is how full hospitals are, increasing case counts and an overall sense of heightened anxiety. When reports from Europe on omicron show it’s milder, it’s a wait and see approach. I can almost guarantee if it were as bad or worse we’d hear about that without hesitation.

8. Build trust! If people don’t trust you, you will never win because not everyone will have buy-in on what needs to be done.

Unfortunately, many leaders across this country are leaders in title only. Many just think because they’re in a position of authority at the top of the hierarchy, people will do what you tell them to do. I think it’s fair to say we haven’t been doing a lot of winning lately. Let’s engage the hearts and minds of every Nashuan to get this mission accomplished.

If you’re leading and find there’s resistance, meet it head on with humility and genuine curiosity. Too often during this pandemic leaders take sides, close their ears to contrarian thinking and believe the only way to get it done is “their way.” Pause. Maybe people are tired of being micromanaged. All they’ve heard is bad news. Too many people in the past two years have lost loved ones, jobs, dreams, ambitions and even their sanity. Maybe there is something to their frustration. Find out, that’s your job. We won’t win if only half of the team is engaged.

As a leader, your job is to get results, not notch a win for “your side.”

Peace to you in this New Year!