There’s a scene in the movie Braveheart where William Wallace played by Mel Gibson stands in front of his men before battle. One of the men yells out that he isn’t as tall as the legend had it, at this William Wallace replies, “and nor do I fire thunderbolts from my asshole”.
Despite giving all he had, including his life, ironically, that still was not enough.
I believe we are increasingly asking too much of our leaders, viewing them as superhero figures that should be able to solve everything and inspire dedication with every move they make. I think it’s about time we turned a bit of heat towards team members to step up, become more accountable and demonstrate their commitment.
I know this is a controversial thing to say, particularly as I spend my time supporting organisations to improve their performance by developing culture and leadership.
Commitment trumps engagement all the time, every time.
This statement really resonates with me as it’s my view that commitment comes from within, whereas engagement is an external source of energy.
This is why we have to stop talking ‘engagement’ and start talking commitment. What if we stopped conducting engagement surveys and started employee commitment surveys? What if we started assessing an employee’s inner drive and willingness to be at their best?
I believe we should be challenging what our employees’ level of commitment is and not placing all accountability for engagement at the feet of our leaders. It needs to be a two-way street, where commitment is seen on both sides of the road. This mutual stance is not because the business has spent a ton of cash on a team building weekend either, rather because there is a job to do, work to be done and improvements to be made. This commitment should be a core value consistently demonstrated by our workforce.
It’s not that I’m not a fan of employee engagement, it is a great feedback tool for leaders on how an organisation’s heartbeat currently is, however, this is not all on the leaders. My view is that we haven’t measured the other side of the coin enough. The great JFK quote “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” stands true within the workplace as well. At the moment this in not in balance.
By saying all of this, I am not letting leaders off the hook. Leaders are totally accountable for creating an environment where team members can make this commitment. Failure to do so will result underperformance or worst still, an exodus of probably the more capable members from the team.
However, I am not convinced that any amount of engagement programs will truly reveal whether an individual has the right commitment levels to get the job done. Particularly, when it is the expectation that it is a leader’s role to magically fire thunderbolts of engagement employee’s way which will motivate, inspire and corral.
Commitment trumps engagement all the time, every time.
I recently was able to hear Peter Cook from Thought Leaders speak, he challenged the audience to question whether we were 99% or 100% in. I thought this was a great question and one that is not asked enough. We need to drive our people to be in the 100% gang without any hang ups that it may seem too keen and over assertive.
Peter’s question got me thinking of my experiences with clients and engagement programs. Why do we spend so much energy on employee engagement programs that clearly don’t deliver the results we want or stop so many employees still checking out?
According to a recent Deloitte survey, 79% of businesses are seriously worried about engagement and retention. Globally, only 13% of employees are highly engaged, says Gallup.
My question is, how much of this is really on the leader?
The problem is that many people are focused on the wrong things and getting too caught up on the need for an engagement readout at any one time.
Commitment rather than engagement will not be delivered by a silver bullet. Although saying that, the solution is a simple one and it’s that wonderful old tradition called bloody hard work. The hard work of the leader should be in creating the environment that allows team members to be at their best and drive a continued effort required to excel. The focus of the team members has to be on being better and developing further every day, getting the job done to a consistently high standard.
The benefit of employees making this choice is huge, to mental health, wellbeing and to the bottom line. Imagine the increased productivity when an employee makes the decision to commit to be at their best without having to constantly engage and incentivise them.
Commitment leads to effort, effort takes us forward and creates progress, effort and progress give us a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment.
As leaders, we need to drop the engagement programs and focus on removing the barriers and creating environments where employees can be at their best. We need to set standards for team members to make the commitment needed to achieve.
Commitment is a choice that is available to everyone, not just our leaders. We all should be asking the question, “am I 100% in?” and if not, we need to do something about it.