What would you do if a colleague (let’s call him Joe) came to you with this problem? “I don’t know what to do. I was appointed to this new job as manager of eleven people and, in the beginning, everything was going well. However, it is now six months later and, I can see that the team is unmotivated and is putting in only the bare minimum effort to get our jobs done.”
“I have tried various carrot and stick methods to get them to work harder, but that has only led to short- term improvement. If this situation continues, I am afraid I may lose my job.”
The Metaphor That Solved the Problem and Saved a Job
Lucky for Joe, he shared his problem with Gurusha Raskar, a consultant at Deloitte in India, who shared his story with me.
First, Gurusha wanted to identify the core problem. She listened carefully to her colleague’s tale of woe and probed more deeply into his concerns, actions, and outcomes until she got to the heart of the issue: Joe had assumed his team members were motivated by money, just like him. He did not realize that his “one size fits all” approach was a losing strategy.
Gurusha said, “I knew I had to shift his thinking, to get him to see the problem and its solution in a totally different light, a bit of a challenge since Joe was convinced that everyone is primarily motivated by money or some other tangible reward.”
“Rather than parrot sterile textbook management advice which I thought would fall on deaf ears, I knew I needed a compelling metaphor to transform his thinking. One thing I knew about Joe was that he had several different thriving
plants in his office that he really liked, so I built a metaphorical argument around what he knew to be true about those plants to open his mind to what I had to recommend. Our conversation went roughly like this:
Me: “I know you really love the plants in your office and you know how difficult it is to keep your plants thriving-how each plant requires a different watering scheduling, some daily, some weekly, etc.
Joe: “That’s correct.”
Me: And how you often test the soil to see if they need water more or less often than your usual watering routine? And how you nourish them differently with different fertilizers to maximize their blooms?
Joe: “Yes that is true. What are you getting at?”
Me. “Well, think of your team members like your plants. They need individual care. Like the plants, they won’t tell you when they are thirsty or hungry. You have to anticipate their individual needs and nurture their growth to fit those needs. For some team members, the need is, indeed, money. For others, though, it may be further learning. For others, it may be more challenging work, etc. The only way to know those needs is to check in with each one periodically, align their personal interests with tasks, provide additional training where needed, and guide them on their challenges. Does that make sense?”
Joe: “That makes sense; now I see your point.”
Joe acted on Gurusha’s advice and, within a few weeks, his team became one of the top-performing groups in his section. On a recent call to Gurusha, she reports he chuckled and said, “Contrary to my designation, you helped me navigate and transform from being a manager to an effective leader. Big thanks!”
Notice What Gurusha Did
- First, she gathered all the facts and background of the challenge to understand the core problem: Joe’s assumption that everyone was motivated by what motivated him.
- Second, she sought a source for a metaphor (analogy) based on his world, not hers: his plants.
- Third, she crafted the connection between his plants and his team problem: how plants – and people – thrive.
- Fourth, she presented the metaphor linking his problem to the solution in a way that he could easily hear and accept.
Not only did she genuinely help Joe with his problem, but the metaphor, as opposed to a likely offf-putting lecture, reinforced their personal relationship as well.
Your Turn
Whose thinking do you need to shift to get the desired result that you want? What metaphor can you use to accomplish that?
Anne Miller
Make What You Say Pay! – with Metaphors!
P.S. Learn moree about Gurusha at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurushasbg
Photo by Kadarius Seegars on Unsplash
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