【中英双语】善于推拉，才是管理者的最高境界

To Get Results, the Best Leaders Both Push and Pull Their Teams

有一项任务需要团队完成，你是“推动”他们去做，还是把他们“拉”过来，让他们在如何完成任务上有发言权，凭借激情和动力来实现目标？这两种方法截然不同，后者通常最理想，不过对于管理者和领导者而言，将两者结合是一项重要技能。

When you see a task that needs to be accomplished by your team, do you “push” them to get it done or do you “pull” them in, giving them a say in how they carry it out and using inspiration and motivation to get them going? These are two very different approaches to reach a goal, and the latter is often the best one, but knowing how to combine these two paths is an important skill for managers and leaders.

我们的一个客户，这家客户关于环境及可持续政策的讨论已经持续了一段时间，CEO允许辩论，鼓励每个人各抒己见；也强烈赞同有必要做出改变，但给出了充分的时间进行讨论（“拉动”）。然而，高管团队有两位成员爱唱反调，对所有提案都不积极。无所作为的两个月过后，CEO向团队宣布，公司要实行两个项目，要求所有人参与（转为“推动”）。一位高管畏首畏尾，明确表示不会支持，于是CEO解雇了他（终极的推动手段）。

Take this example from a client of ours. There had been an ongoing discussion about the company’s policies around the environment and sustainability. The CEO had allowed debate and encouraged everyone to weigh in. The CEO strongly supported the need for change but allowed time for ample discussion (using the pull approach). However, two members of the executive team were naysayers and dragged their feet on enacting any of the proposed initiatives. After two months of inaction, the CEO announced to the team that the company was going to implement two initiatives and stated that everyone needed to get on board (moving to the push approach). One of the executives balked at this and made clear he wouldn’t support the initiatives. The CEO terminated him by the end of the week (using the ultimate push approach).

领导者希望努力吸引团队成员自愿参与，最终却诉诸强制手段，是综合“推”“拉”的好例子。强制手段过头会影响员工的工作满意度，但有时是必要的，特别是拉不动员工的时候。

Leaders who are willing to try hard with pulling but ultimately resort to a strong push provide a good example of the power of the combination of these two approaches. Pushing too hard can erode satisfaction but, at times, is needed, especially when pulling just doesn’t work.

我与杰克·曾格在研究中总结出了利用相反的方法达到同一目标的两种领导行为，一种叫“追求结果”（推），一种叫“激励和鼓舞他人”（拉）。下面解释详细的定义。

In our research, my colleague Jack Zenger and I identified two leadership behaviors directed at the same end goal but utilizing opposite approaches. We call one behavior “driving for results” (push), and the other “inspiring and motivating others” (pull). Let me define what I mean.

定义“推”与“拉”

Defining Pushing and Pulling

领导者找到一个希望达成的目标后，会有两种不同的实现方法。

When a leader identifies a goal that they want to accomplish, there are two distinct paths to get there.

“推”是给出方向，告诉员工要做什么，设置完成期限，明确问责。这种方法属于“威权式”的领导风格。

Pushing involves giving direction, telling people what to do, establishing a deadline, and generally holding others accountable. It is on the “authoritarian” end of the leadership style spectrum.

“拉”则是向下属描述需要完成的任务，解释原因，看看他们有什么好主意，问他们是否愿意做。还可以进一步解释这个项目对员工的发展有什么益处。理想状态下，领导者对目标的十足热情会感染员工。

Pulling, on the other hand, involves describing to a direct report a needed task, explaining the underlying reason for it, seeing what ideas they might have on how to best accomplish it, and asking if they are willing to take it on. The leader can further enhance the pull by describing what this project might do for the employee’s development. Ideally, the leader’s energy and enthusiasm for the goal are contagious.

我们通过360度评测收集了10万名领导者的数据，评估他们达成目标的方法，发现76%的领导者被同僚评价为更擅长“推”而非“拉”，只有22%被评价为更擅长“拉”，2%的人两项能力相当。

Gathering data from over 100,000 leaders through our 360-degree assessments, we measured both push and pull and found that 76% of the leaders were rated by their peers as more competent at pushing than pulling. Only 22% of the leaders were rated as better at pulling, and a mere 2% were rated as equal on both skills.

我们还询问给领导者打分的员工（超过160万人），领导者要在目前的工作上取得成功，哪项能力更重要。“拉”（激励别人）被评为最重要的能力，“推”（追求结果）则排名第五。

We also asked the people rating those leaders (over 1.6 million people) which skill was more important for a leader to do well to be successful in their current job. Pulling (inspiring others) was rated as the most important, while pushing (driving for results) was rated as fifth most important.

了解员工想要什么、需要什么

Understanding What People Want and Need

我们的数据表明，大部分领导者提升激励他人的能力会有好处，但从研究结果来看，“推”“拉”两项技能都擅长的领导者工作效果最好。

While our data is clear that most leaders could benefit from improving their ability to pull or inspire others, our research revealed that leaders who were effective at both pushing and pulling were ultimately the most effective.

我们收集了3875位领导者在新冠流行期间的360度评测数据，采用如下分析方式：

We gathered 360-degree assessment data on 3,875 leaders in the pandemic. In this analysis, we did the following:

· 由直接下属评价领导者在追求结果和激励他人两方面的效能。

· 询问直接下属对自己所在组织能达成战略目标的信心，以及自己对该组织的满意度。

· 将所有领导者按“推”“拉”能力排名，找到能力最差者（排名垫底的1/4）和最优者（前1/4）。

· The direct reports rated the leader’s effectiveness on both pushing (driving for results) and pulling (inspiring and motivating others).

· The direct reports were also asked to rate their confidence that the organization would achieve its strategic goals and their satisfaction with their organization as a place to work.

· We ranked leaders’ data on pushing and pulling into quartiles and identified those who were low (bottom quartile) and high (top quartile).

结果如下图。两项能力都差的领导者，下属信心和满意度都较低。擅长“推”而不擅长“拉”的领导者，下属信心和满意度都会高一些。擅长“拉”的领导者，下属满意度大大高于信心。两项能力都很强的领导者，下属的满意度和信心也都很高。（注：信心和满意度都很高，是指员工在满分为5分的量表中打出了5分，这个标准非常高。）

The results are captured in the chart below. When both push and pull are in the bottom quartile, both confidence and satisfaction of direct reports are low. When push is high and pull is low, both confidence and satisfaction increase. When pull is high, satisfaction increases to a level substantially above confidence. When both are high, then you see the most significant increase. (Note: High confidence and satisfaction were measured by the percentage of people who marked 5 on a 5-point scale. This is a very high bar for satisfaction.)

结合“推”与“拉”

Bringing Push and Pull Together

全世界有许多领导者苦于员工流失，想方设法防止自己的员工加入大辞职热潮。他们在思考几个难题：如何让员工留下？如何鼓励员工更加努力工作？员工对工作环境的欲求和需求是什么？

As many leaders across the globe grapple with retention and how to prevent their employees from joining the Great Resignation, they’re asking themselves hard questions. How do you motivate people to stay? How do you encourage them to increase their efforts? What is it they really want and need from their work environments?

过去几年一直呼吁领导者对员工不要太苛求，要多一些同理心。留住有才能的员工似乎需要多“拉”少“推”。感情上我认同这种观点，但数据也提醒领导者：努力增加同理心，不应当影响领导者在有需要时“推动”员工的能力。数据表明，“推”也是提升员工信心的一大要素。

Over the past few years, there has been a call for leaders to be less demanding and more empathetic toward individual employees. More pull, less push seemed to be what’s needed to retain talented employees. While I agree with this sentiment, this data also offers a clear warning. Your efforts to increase empathy shouldn’t diminish your ability to, on occasion, push when needed. As our data shows that it can be a strong force that builds confidence.

领导者的影响力源于根据具体任务、时间和对象判断采用哪种方法的能力。下次要完成重要目标的时候，思考一下你的团队需要的是“推”还是“拉”，或者需要两者兼备。

In fact, your influence as a leader comes from your ability to know when to use which approach, depending on the task, the timing, and the people. So next time you’re trying to accomplish a significant goal, consider whether your team really needs a good push, a big pull, or perhaps both.

关键词：领导力

约瑟夫·福尔克曼（Joseph Folkman）|文

约瑟夫·福尔克曼是领导力发展咨询公司Zenger/Folkman总裁，《哈佛商业评论》2011年10月刊文章《让自己不可或缺》作者之一，《新的非凡领导者：让好的管理者成为杰出领导者》（The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders，McGraw Hill出版社2019年出版）作者之一。

朔间|译  周强|编校