When team members are committed to a decision or task, they become energized. Their performance, judgment, and follow-through all get a boost.
Commitment is jet fuel for an increase in team and team member effort and focus. It’s the secret ingredient all leaders want more of.
The question is, How?
Academic research on increasing commitment confirms much of what leaders already know. The more a team or team member is involved in the formulation of the decision or task, the more commitment they are likely to have to it.
Team members who also believe they will be recognized for their effort and output during and after execution are more likely to commit fully to a decision or task.
But beyond that basic advice, most leaders are at a loss as to how to create more commitment. The key to hatching better strategies lies in the understanding that commitment is not a binary attitude.
Commitment exists along a continuum from compliance to identification. (Please read yesterday’s Field Note.) Leaders too often focus on strategies that work for lower levels of commitment and ignore the ultimate prize.
For good leaders, the end goal is not acceptance or agreement, but for people to take ownership and to identify with a decision or task.
With those ends in mind, several behaviors stand out for their ability to create more commitment.
The first idea to keep in mind is that people increase their commitment after they start moving.
Asking people to act quickly once an assignment is explained or a decision is made is one key to increasing commitment.
The faster people act initially, the more committed they become. Because commitment builds with progress and success, highlighting milestones when they have been achieved is paramount in maintaining the momentum of a fast start.
Far too often, leaders and teams reach a decision or plan a project and then let matters sit for days or weeks before executing. The lesson here is that taking initial actions and steps immediately galvanizes commitment in a way nothing else can.
Good leaders move quickly and ask people to demonstrate their commitment through specific action. In the popular adage of “disagree and commit,” good leaders add “act” to make it three steps.
To enhance responsibility and ownership for a decision or task, good leaders have also learned the power of public commitment.
The more public the commitment, the more ownership people feel for the process and the outcome.
Having team members openly convey their commitment to a decision in front of their peers can have an astounding effect on the resolve they feel.
From signing a pledge to publicly announcing their dedication to the end goal, leaders can get crafty as to how to make the team’s commitment more widely known to others.
But if the highest level of commitment is personal identification with the decision or task, then leaders typically have a powerful strategy at their disposal that is easily overlooked.
The best leaders make it a point to connect the task or decision to the vision and values of the organization.
They don’t just do this for the major decisions and initiatives. They raise the significance of every decision and task by directly aligning it with what the organization values and holds dear.
When team members connect the dots and see that vision and values depend upon the execution of the decision or task, they identify with it in a way that solidifies their commitment.
This is the reason so many good leaders take the time to explain the “why” behind every task, no matter how mundane or small it might seem.
How often do you make the case that the decision or task at hand is essential for the organization to succeed and to live its values?
The more often you make this connection, the more commitment you will create.
The deepest commitment is always one where a team member sees themselves holding hands with the organization’s vision and values through their actions.
