12 Ways to Connect and Mobilize People

Young leaders often explain their aspirations in self-centered language. They focus on themselves and neglect others. Individual contributors are great, but leaders always connect and mobilize people. Leadership is about others.

12 ways to connect and mobilize:

1. Highlight need – explain why things can’t go on as they are.
2. Make them know they matter – show how they can help.
3. Include everyone in crafting vision – engage people if you expect them to be engaged.
4. Create channels for service – build organizational structure.
5. Call people to rise up – great work isn’t convenient. Disrupt established patterns.
6. Establish enabling relationships – build confidence by connecting the inexperience with the experience.
7. Honor effort – express gratitude along the way.
8. Rotate tasks and offer training.
9. Track results – tell everyone what’s getting done.
10. Point out more need – more to-do makes people matter more.
11. Celebrate success – dance because you’re making a difference.
12. Identify and leverage forward looking leaders.

Six roadblocks to success:

1. People tensions. Inexperienced leaders wrongly believe good causes and great needs solve interpersonal tensions. Connecting people, not completing projects, is the great challenge of leadership. Good people collide.
2. Power struggles.
3. Confusion. Begin with simple behaviors that express big vision.
4. Underutilized talent. People walk away when you waste their time and talent.
5. Diverse values and motivations. Accept that what’s important to one isn’t important to another.
6. Losing purpose. People lose motivation when they feel their efforts don’t make a difference.

How can leaders mobilize people?
What hinders effective mobilization?