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“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”  ~Henry Ford

Successful leaders don’t pressure direct reports to follow the manager’s vision. They empower their people to create and follow their own vision! You can manipulate and coerce…or you can encourage and resource. It’s your choice, but only one path leads to a loyal, highly productive team.

As this year comes to a close, it’s the ideal time to jump-start the visioneering process for your team. While November is ideal; December will also work. But the window closes fast after that. Let’s look at some of the crucial dynamics that lead to the kind of results you most want to see at the end of next year.

Lead by Serving. If your direct reports’ vision is not in alignment with yours, then the team will fail. Bottom line: you cannot achieve the results that matter most by motivating people to do what you want. That ship has sailed…and sunk. Servant leaders find out what their people want—and then measure it against the larger vision. If it doesn’t match, then you have the wrong person on your team; if it matches, then you become the coach—resourcing your people to achieve the goals they’ve already said they want. Feel the difference?

Begin with the End. Meaningful annual goals don’t appear out of thin air; they arise out of a larger vision. Encourage your team members to create their own five-year and one-year visions, with emphasis on both personal and professional aims. You may even want put some skin in the game by giving them a morning or afternoon off to work on this exercise. If you’re not sure what this exercise looks like, read our article on visioneering. Then take the time to meet with each team member and understand their vision. Look for those aspects of their vision that align with your organization’s goals. Invite conversation around the process of bridging the gap between where your team members are now and where they want to be. Then reverse-engineer the process to arrive at three or four key objectives. For example, if your direct report’s goal is to be promoted, one objective may be to increase the gross margins in their business unit by $500,000 by end of year.

Understand the “Why”.  A common mistake managers make is assuming that their team members are motivated by the exact same needs they are. Goals which are not connected to a compelling emotional underpinning are impotent. Try to uncover your individual team member’s “compelling why”. While money may be a surface motivation for many, there is usually a deeper motivation tied to how we want to see ourselves or to our emotional needs.

Look at Precedents. Before your team members can translate their objectives into effective goals, they have to understand the connection between their daily activities and the larger results they’re after. Historical precedents give you this data. For example, your plan for the year may include increasing census in your community to 95%. In order to create a roadmap one must know current census, historical attrition, number of move-ins needed, etc. Then, it will be necessary to look at historical metrics such as outbound calls-to-tours, tours-to-deposits and deposits-to-move-ins. In this way, goal-setting becomes the predictable science of hitting the right numbers in the right activities that lead to the results you want.

Get SMART. Once you’ve looked at the big picture and connected the dots to the specific daily and weekly activities that move your team members tangibly toward their vision, it’s time to break those activities into quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals which focus on the activities necessary for success as well as the outcomes. Then make those goals SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. You know this—you just may not do it. As you make these goals measurable, use the most basic unit of measure as your metrics.

Measure and Recalibrate. Once your goals are set for 2015, it’s time to institute (or refine) a simple system for regular measurement, evaluation, and mid-course corrections. This is often done quarterly, but may be more effective if it is undertaken on a monthly or even weekly basis. Both you and your direct report have their metrics now, so it’s fairly simple to look at what’s being done and what’s not. You can measure your team’s progress toward the key objectives and adjust your activities to leverage what’s working best. The key is that these measurements should not be seen as being for your benefit, but rather should be seen to be in service of your team member’s stated goals and objectives. Similarly you should see yourself as less the autocratic ruler and more the coach.

This kind of servant leadership not only serves to empower your people, it also accomplishes several vital things across your team: 1) it activates your reports’ ownership of the goals, 2) it communicates your belief in your team, 3) it reveals anyone on your team who isn’t aligned with your organization’s goals, and 4) it positions the entire team for maximum productivity. When leaders resource their teams instead of manipulate them, they build an enduring loyalty from men and women who will go to bat for them every time.