Years back during a meeting with a CEO of a bank, he was telling me how he taught that by promoting people and increasing salaries across board would radically improve performances. Much to his chagrin, his expectations were not met. He equally said to me – despite the skilled and experience people they have hired – that things are not still working the way they had anticipated. The reality is, organisations can have people with the right skills, required expertise, powerful experiences, and compelling qualifications, but if they lack what I like to see as a “game changer”, they might have a hard time delivering desired results. So, after listening to the CEO, I simply said to him that “people can comply and meet the targets in order to be promoted but they are not truly committed” and he quickly said – that is very (very) true, Uju.
From my experiencing working across industries, the number one key thing I have seen in a short supply in our workplaces of today and truly is a game changer is “commitment”. The sad news is that one can have all the skills in this world, all the education and experience but without “that one thing” – commitment – growth and performance will end up being impeded. I really like what Ken Blanchard said “There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient, but when you are committed to something, you accept no excuses – only results.” This is really true, when one is deeply committed to what he or she does, he or she moves away from convenience to dedication. This is pretty much akin to parenting, which all of us know sometimes could be inconveniencing, but every parent whether they like it or not are expected to be dedicated to raising their kids to be successful in life – and that is simply an act of commitment. organisations that will truly thrive will be those organisations that understand the need to build a commitment culture across board.
What I usually advice CEOs not to do is to heap the blame of not being committed to their employees alone. As a CEO first and foremost ask yourself, how much transparently committed are you in driving the organisation’s affairs? I strongly believe that CEOs should endeavour to create the culture of commitment first in their organisations. Like Edgar Schein rightly said, “leaders create culture, culture drives behaviour and behaviour produce results.” I think the right thing for organisational leaders to do is to exemplify commitment across board. As a leader, get to a point where people can say something like, “because my boss is committed, I have to take after him or after her”.
In today’s world, many people across the organisation give so many reasons and justifications for their poor performances. In the last 5 to 10 years employees’ productivity have gone down and may likely become worse in the future. When you listen to some workplace excuses and reasons for non-performance, it would be very easy to pick out the fact that the main cause of their non-performance is simply lack of commitment to their jobs. Let’s look at it, when one is not committed, he/she will never go the extra mile for his/her organisation, and such person will only do what is convenient to do. You will agree with me that with the current situation of businesses today across the world, no organisation anywhere can ever achieve sustainable results working with people that will only do what is convenient for them. Every organisation needs a collective workforce who are committed and are ready to deliver results regardless circumstances. The reality is – circumstances will always be there – but we have to move away from excuse to having results in mind! Remember, circumstances abound in all organisations, but through dedication (driven by commitment) we tend to deliver our best.
During the training I did for the Nigerian Navy on her 57th anniversary on “Attitudinal Change Transformation” years back, a personnel of an engineering department raised up a point that over the years has created a false impression on employees. He believed that without adequate resources, employees might not deliver expected results. This has been the thinking of so many people till today. The truth of the matter is that resources can never be enough. Employees must learn to make the most out of the available resources. Budgets can be reduced or cut down, but nobody can ever succeed in cutting down or reducing the flow of someone’s attitude. And commitment comes with having the right attitude.
The commitment gap in many organisations is continuously increasing. Many people are just earning salaries without justifying their pay. “Presenteeism” is now the order of the day. Presenteeism is really difficult to discover as opposed to absenteeism. It exists when employees are fully present in the office, but they are not working, not adding value, and not committed to their jobs. Someone might ask, is it possible for one to be in the office and not working? Yes, when one is present but not adding value to the organisation. A committed staff member is always adding value and will keep doing things differently in order to achieve a better result.
Points to ponder
Leaders and managers in your organisation should show commitments first. People do what they see others doing. Leaders and managers are expected to set the examples. It is much easier to lead others when you are committed.
Employees should focus less on things that are nice to do, but instead should focus more on things that matter most to the company.
For your business to grow, you need people who are committed. Without commitment, there would be no sustainable growth.
In conclusion, we must ensure we close up the growing commitment gap in our organisation as urgent as possible. Growth, progress and improved performance and profitability would be farfetched with non-committed people who are just getting by. We should always be guided by the fact that no amount of skills, expertise, exposure or education can take the place of commitment. As leaders, CEOs and managers, let us pass the message to our subordinates that nothing can cut short their level of commitment or attitude to achieve any result they want. Show me a man or woman who is committed and I will point to that same person as someone who has the key to their organisation’s growth. Importantly, the people at the top have tremendous role to play in helping their people to be committed and the starting point to me is “to be what you preach” because your people see what you do more than what you say.
Make commitment your organisation’s enduring advantage.
UJU ONWUZULIKE
