In the past two blog posts regarding this topic we explored the problem of lack of commitment and looked at two case studies. In this post we examine what to do if you want to tackle your commitment problem. Where do you begin? What are the most effective ways to assess if and where there are commitment problems? Here’s a list of some observable indicators:
1. People don’t speak up even when they know things aren’t being dealt with honestly and directly. This is relatively easy to spot, especially in meetings. Everyone knows important issues are not being addressed. Yet they fail to speak up because of fear or cynicism.
2. Missed commitments met with excuses, explanations, rationalizations and finger-pointing rather than a rigorous and energetic desire to get to the source of the problems, get back on track and take ownership for what went wrong.
3. Problems discussed and debated endlessly, with little lasting improvement from repeated attempts at resolution.
4. Initiatives to improve organizational performance progressing slowly or stalling altogether, despite sizable investments in resources and technology.
5. “Hallway” conversations are also a good indicator and can be easily detected. For example, when people spend their time talking about how things are not their fault or how another department or organizational level is to blame for sub-optimal results, commitment is lacking.
6. When people complain about how busy they are rather than doing what needs to be done, or complain about the unreasonableness of leaders’ expectations, this too can be a good indicator that people are avoiding rather than taking responsibility.
These are the informal ways of discerning commitment problems. We suggest that CEOs who feel they may have such issues go beyond sensing to asking employees directly – the members of their executive team and workers up and down the organization. In diagnosing the state of commitment in dozens of organizations, we have found questions such as these to be revealing. To what degree do employees:
- Effectively address and resolve difficult issues around here?
- Take ownership for solving problems rather than make excuses or point fingers when things go wrong?
- Take risks and challenge the status quo?
- Have confidence in the leaders of this organization?
- Feel they can be honest with their leaders, including about negative or contentious issues?
- Feel connected with, and empowered by, their leaders?
- Communicate honestly and directly, without fear of retribution?
- Trust each other and work together effectively across departments?
- Come to work every day feeling that they make a critical difference to the future of the business?
- Feel enthusiastic about their work experience?
There are also proven assessment tools and surveys available to help gauge commitment and engagement, the Gallup Q12 being a particularly noteworthy one where a 0.2 improvement along a 5-point scale has been statistically proven to correlate with an improvement in employee productivity.
One word of caution: If trust is low and fear is present, employees will not be truthful about the poor state of commitment. They must feel safe to tell it like it is. They must believe executives are genuinely interested in hearing unvarnished views, and they must feel encouraged to speak up about the real state of things, and praised when they do. Otherwise they will pay lip service to the process and say only the things they believe are safe. Unfortunately, this kind of lip service is more the norm than the exception.
To significantly improve commitment, the CEO and his team must be completely honest about, fully aware of, and own the current reality, especially the aspects that are dysfunctional. Once they understand the size of the commitment problem and no longer take it personally, they can begin to transform the cynicism, resignation, apathy and complacency into an environment of passion, ownership and total support.
Next week will invite some other leadership experts to weigh in on the topic. In the meantime we would love to hear from you about other ways you have of identifying lack of commitment in your organization. Please email us or comment on this post.
