A Totally Committed Team
What is it going to take to get everyone totally committed?
I spent a recent Friday with a group of business leaders that I coach on how to maximize their lives across themselves, their families, their finances, their communities, and the world. On this day, we were mainly focused on some of the best approaches to our finances and ultimately how God would want us to give back to Him through others.
What was really eye-opening was a discussion that centered around these three words - Fear, Rewards, and Love. Now before you get mixed up with these terms, let me define for you what I mean. In the context of children, when they are young a healthy amount of fear is needed to prevent them from touching a hot stove, running into a busy street, or telling their siblings to stick a paper clip in the electrical socket (guilty…sorry Steve).
As kids develop, they shift from fear to rewards. In that parents start to offer ice cream for behavior, money for chores, privileges for grades, etc. Finally, as kids shift into adults, the best of them are no longer motivated by their parents’ rewards but observe the sacrifice their parents made and shift from "pay for play" to LOVE. In other words, they start to believe that the designed life their parents guided them through was really a work of love and their motivation shifts. They want to honor their parents’ sacrifices through how they, in turn, live their lives. I have seen this pattern play out in many different ethnic cultures as well, and it appears to translate time.
Shift from 'pay for play'...
This model translates to many scenarios, but our leadership is what I'm focused on here. See, I believe most start their work initially at a Rewards stage. Meaning as a professional or committed employee, people start under the agreement that the work will pay back. The work is not an effort in altruism. If there is no reward, why would we do it? Our task as leaders is to shift our organizations from simply an exchange of "pay for play" into a belief that the importance of the mission and the sacrifices the leaders are making compels "total commitment.” (continued below)
Free Healthy-High-Performing Team Plan
"Because I pay you well and provide fantastic benefits" is not enough to get the best performance we want from total commitment. Our work as leaders – in service of those whom we employ – is the 'x-factor' to getting them into a "Love" phase which is really another word for "Commitment.” We want totally committed employees (and/or volunteers). What does it take to see them wholly committed to our organizations?
Here is the secret...
As Leaders, we have to start with our own motivations. If our perspective of work is rewards based (which is fair), it is hardly enough to motivate those around us to buy in. We have to go deeper and be convinced of the reason why we are working, and we cannot wait for someone else to provide it. Even if you're in middle management, you can give yourself a reason "Why" that can drive you. Here's the secret. The reason "why" has to be bigger than you. It has to address an essential problem in the world, or it won't last.
Do this a lot...
Once you have that clarity of "Why," you've got to say it at every opportunity to the point where your organization will do impersonations of you saying it when you aren't there. At the beginning of each meeting, in an ad-hoc discussion, when you meet with your clients, this clarity should be spoken. Do it, and people will start to believe it. Do it a lot, and they will begin to live it.
Once you have that #1 point, the "clarity of why," you need three more elements:
Are you giving more than you are getting? If so, how does everyone know?
Are you providing the kind truth to keep accountability in place?
Does everyone know what success looks like?
Seem like a lot to think about? It is. I’ll revisit those three elements at a later time. The takeaway is that Great Leaders spend the majority of their time making their cultures stronger.
Great Leaders ensure the oxygen (aka "culture") provided for the organization is healthy and gets the best results.