Mac's Blog

Equipping Leaders To Multiply

My Team isn’t Doing What I Ask Them to Do!

As I browsed through the Business Leadership section at a Barnes & Noble Bookstore, a book title caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks. “Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to Do and What to do About It” by Ferdinand Fournies. I was a 29-year-old leader who only had volunteer leaders reporting to me, but the book title described the pain I was feeling. I immediately bought the book, took it home, and devoured the lessons it contained.  

When I finished reading the chapters that described 16 reasons why people don’t do what you want them to do, I photocopied the table of contents and posted it on the wall beside my desk.  

For the first time, I realized that when people are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, it is often my fault, not theirs! That hurt, but it was a necessary wake-up call. 

Placing blame on those we lead is like a built-in default mode for most of us. When a leader’s performance is off, we can find ourselves complaining, criticizing, or reprimanding without stopping to think about the why. Fournies’ book gave me a tool to help assess poor performance. This, in turn, helped me take appropriate steps to help those I lead.  

If you’re curious about the 16 reasons, here they are:

  1. They don’t know why they should do it
  2. They don’t know how to do it
  3. They don’t know what they are supposed to do
  4. They think your way will not work
  5. They think their way is better
  6. They think something else is more important
  7. There is no positive consequence to them for doing it
  8. They think they are doing it
  9. They are rewarded for not doing it
  10. They are punished for doing what they are supposed to do
  11. They anticipate a negative consequence for doing it
  12. There is no negative consequence to them for poor performance
  13. Obstacles beyond their control
  14. Their personal limits prevent them from performing
  15. Personal problems
  16. No one could do it

It’s easy to point the finger and blame, but I promise you’ll get better results from your team if you take the time and effort to get to the root of the issue and help coach them towards higher performance.