When I look at my life, I look at what helped me form my internal motivation. Growing up, I was a shy and quiet kid, but I learned to latch onto ideas that moved me forward, especially when, as a teen, times were sometimes emotionally challenging. Over the years, I have found many great mentors and role models, but I learned the importance of driving myself internally to move forward. I have often been inspired by studying success stories and inspirational quotes that helped me push myself to higher levels of achievement. I have a personal library of inspirational sayings that I review regularly so I can better inspire myself and others who might need an emotional boost or a kick in the pants to help them through challenging days. When I was teaching martial arts, I often shared a story to help students learn life-enhancing success principles. I knew you might not always remember a quote, but the message from an emotionally charged story will stay with you for a long time.
Recently, a friend who is the chairperson of a group I am in asked me about leadership and asked me to give him feedback on how he was doing. Over the years, I have read countless books and philosophies about leadership. Still, first, I would define it to him: it’s the ability to inspire, guide, and influence others toward a shared vision or goal, collaborating together while making powerful choices for success. I thought about all the basic descriptives I have used to describe leadership and decided this inspirational concept would best communicate my message.
I have often referenced this simple story by Dwight Eisenhower (World War II General and 34th President of the United States).
When Eisenhower was President, he spoke to a reporter about all his accomplishments as the Allied commander in World War 2, head of NATO after the war, and then President of the United States. After the interview, the reporter had one last question to ask. What makes you such an accomplished and great leader?
He put a shoelace on his desk and extended it to its entire length. He asked the reporter to push the lace from behind. The string got bunched up and moved nowhere. Eisenhower then pulled the piece of string from the front, and it moved forward easily.
The President then passed on these words of wisdom-. "Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all".
A leader who uses anger, fear, threats, harassment, and intimidation is using the push method. This person thinks people need to be pushed to get them moving and perform up to their standards. This bullying technique of the push method will gain results, but usually in the short term.
The pull method assumes the best about people. Lending a person your ear, connecting with them emotionally, and letting them feel like you walked in their shoes will help you build a relationship with someone on your team. I always assume team members are motivated to work, contribute, and make a difference. Speaking and listening to people as a team and leading the way by teaching people how to succeed is the hallmark of a pull leader. Setting goals, teaching perseverance, and a non-quitting attitude give people the emotional strength to achieve. The pulling leader inspires!
"You don't lead by hitting people on the head -
that's assault, not leadership."
Pushing from the back causes your shoelace and your team to bunch up with little progress. Members of a pushing team will always be worried about the leader jumping on them, criticizing them, and even competing against them rather than focusing on the group's goal. The outcome of push culture is keeping your head down and trying to stay out of trouble.
A leader using the pull method understands Eisenhower's quote and cultivates members' desire and buy-in by keeping the organization's vision clear, steady, focused, and always in sight. My best idea is to challenge people in a fun, mission-driven way that keeps morale high.
I have seen leaders employ both tactics, with varied levels of intensity and variations of style. However, all leaders tend to have a dominant style, and a push style and a pull style are definitely different. Both yield results but with different outcomes. Pull leaders inspire loyalty, while push leaders inspire fear. Remember, leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because a person wants to do it.
So try it: take a piece of string or yarn, push it, and teach this lesson to someone who might benefit from this wisdom. This incredible story affirms the premise of “lead from the front.” Ok leaders, remember “A rising tide lifts all boats”(one of JFK‘s favorite quotes)
Mike Bogdanski
Mike is an Anti-bully activist and martial arts Grandmaster.
