Work for Their Success, Not Your Success

Mindset flip
As a manager, does your team work for you, or do you work for them?
Do they work to make you successful, or do you work to make them successful?
Do you ask people "what are you doing for me?" Or do you ask them "what can I do for you?"

Traditional management and leadership models promote a manager stereotype of a powerful, strong and decisive authority figure. "We're climbing the mountain, follow me!" Yet the most powerful kind of manager can let go of their ego and themselves, and is able to completely focus on making their people successful. After all, they're usually the ones doing the work and interacting with customers!

Making a bigger impact
As one person I am constrained in what I can do. I don't scale. But my impact on the organization is much bigger if I can make my 3, 10, 20 or 200 people more effective. The more people that I can make more successful...makes me more effective and successful!

Motivation
Most people aren't used to feeling that managers are truly there to support them and work for them. The true tests occur when the manager chooses between their own self-interests and their team's...such as giving or taking credit. Or in being happy for someone who's leaving the company for a better job, instead of trying to find ways to get them to stay in a job that isn't as a good a fit for that person.

It's amazingly motivating to your people once they understand you're there to support them, whatever they need.

Each person defines success differently
Your definition of success will vary from what success means to each person on the team. What does success mean for each individual? The #1 motivation for the best people is not money. What is it to them? Do they even know? This isn't a question you can answer at a team level, as it'll vary wildly by each person.

Walking the walk
As an example, pay attention to youself the next person that finds a job outside your team or company, one that really is a better fit for their personal goals. Will you celebrate their new opportunity wholeheartedly? Or will you feel resentful that they've created work for you to replace them, or perhaps rejected that they didn't want to stay with you?