CEO Adviser: Giving vs. Getting

I work with a lot of leaders and one common refrain I hear in virtually every industry is this: I dont know how to get buy-in from my team.

Does this remark sound familiar? Maybe its a new policy youd like to initiate, or maybe its a great new idea that you read about here in Seattle Business that youd like to implement with your team. But the buy-in is getting push-back.

For 15 years, I was the executive producer of Seattles Almost Live! TV show. Having led that team of insanely talented and creative individuals, I feel your pain. And I think I have an answer.

The problem lies in the very term buy-in. If youre trying to get someone to buy in, the implication is that youre trying to sell them something. And nobody likes to be sold. In fact, if we feel as if were being sold something, our instinctive reaction is to resist, right? Nobody likes to be sold.

So why are you trying to sell your team? The more you try to sell them, the more they resist and the less buy-in youre going to get.

Theres a better way.

Instead of trying to get buy-in from your team, focus on giving ownership. See the difference? In the first case, youre trying to get something. In the second, youre trying to give something. Which of these do you think your teams going to find more attractive? Which would you find more attractive?

So how do you give ownership? By asking for input. By asking for opinions. By asking your team to become active participants in the idea.

Let me take you behind the scenes of Almost Live! Each week, wed have a pitch meeting where wed read our new sketch-comedy material, hoping to get it onto the show. As executive producer, the ultimate decision was mine, but it was actually a pretty democratic process. If we laughed at something, it had a good chance; if we didnt, it was out. Some pieces were clear winners or losers, but most fell in the middle. Of those pieces that fell in the middle, the ones that were most likely to succeed were the ones that earned ownership from the rest of the team.

Heres what it looked like: One of our writers, lets say Nancy Guppy, would pitch a piece. The piece would be pretty good, but not a shoo-in. Id be debating it in my mind when Id hear Tracey Conway say, Nancy, your character could wear that blonde wig. Then Pat Cashman would say, I can do an Irish accent; what if the uncle were Irish? Ralph Bevins, our cameraman, would then say, I could shoot the opening with a wide-angle lens for a bit of distortion. And all of a sudden the entire table would be engaged, each person adding his or her own thoughts. Thats what ownership looks like. Notice its still Nancys sketch, but the other members of the team now feel they have an investment in the process. They have skin in the game. This is a good thing.

Unfortunately, some leaders feel threatened by this approach. They think that by giving up some of the ownership, theyre giving up control. Theyd rather say, No, Im not wearing the blonde wig, the uncle is not Irish and were not using the wide-angle lens. Were doing the sketch exactly as I wrote it or were not doing it at all! Have you ever worked with someone like that?

Yes, ownership means giving up a bit of control. But the
tradeoff is that you get ideas and perspectives that wouldnt have occurred to you.

My experience is that when people feel as if they are active participants in an idea, they will actually begin to defend that idea. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine your team members actually defending a new idea? Promoting it instead of resisting it? Even lobbying for it?

If you want to see results like these, stop trying to get something from your team. Stop selling them. Try giving them something instead.

Try giving them ownership.

Bill Stainton led his Almost Live! team to more than 100 Emmy Awards and 10 years of No. 1 ratings. Today, he helps leaders achieve similar results with their teams. Download his free leadership resource The Most Useful 1-Page Tool Ever for Overwhelmed Leaders at BillStainton.com/overwhelmed-leaders-tool.