"Compliance or Commitment;
Which are You Asking of Your People?"
By Gary B. Minor
(For individual
use only, not to be reproduced or used in any way without permission)
In the world of work,
there are many ways that people can view their positions. The two opposite polls,
compliance or commitment have surfaced in several of the workshops that I have led
recently. If you think about these two, which would you rather get from your people? If
you think that compliance is what you are asking of them, then you will be satisfied with
the minimum effort required to meet minimum standards of performance.
However, don't be surprised
if your people seem bored with their jobs, act uninspired, and treat customers with a
casual attitude. Your best people will tend to leave you for other companies and you will
spend most of your time putting out fires and "cracking the whip", just to keep
them on the road to accomplish the minimum. Sound like your job? Sound like your people?
The other approach is to
strive for commitment from your people. In this mode, they are not satisfied with mere
minimum effort, nor are they satisfied with minimum results. They pursue excellence in all
things and work to do the best job they can within the time and resources available. They
don't leave for other jobs, as they are engaged in fulfilling work, that they believe
matters. They push for more responsibility and the benefits that come with it.
Consequently, you are free to look into the future, spending your time on where you want
to be, rather than always playing catch up and fireman.
Which one better describes
your shop? Is compliance what you are used to getting? Do you have to fight heavy
resistance just to get that? If so, chances are that you believe that you know what is
best for you people, and you tell them what, and how to do their job. You have to
constantly inspect their work. You have to continually tell them what to do. You have to
continually threaten or punish them to overcome the resistance.
If commitment is what you
are used to seeing, then you most likely see little resistance. This is because you tell
them what and why they need to do what they need to do, rather than what and how. You
collaborate with them on the how, so that they have a vested interest in the work itself.
You allow them to exercise their own initiate in planning their work, so that they can do
it their way at their pace, within stated deadlines.
The big differences between
the two approaches have to do with the mind set of management. Letting your people know
why things need to happen, gives them a sense of purpose by knowing where their work fits
into the larger scheme of things. Letting them select the methods by which they will
pursue stated goals or results allows them to use their own ideas to achieve a larger
purpose, giving them a sense of belonging to the organization.
Allowing them the
opportunity to have a stake in the end result of a process or project rather than merely
going through abstract steps, provides an incentive to see their own ideas come to
fruition, developing a sense of ownership in the result.
This process of fostering
commitment takes time. Too much time, you may think. As with any planning process, though,
minutes invested on the front end will save hours in execution on the back end. Do you
have the time to keep putting out fires and cracking the whip? I suggest that if you try
it, the time needed will actually prove to be a wise investment that pays dividends for
years to come.
If you want to build a high
level of commitment, I suggest these steps:
| 1. |
Tell your people what needs to
be done, and why. |
| 2. |
Coach them through the process
of discovering how to accomplish the task. |
| 3. |
Develop a sense of
collaboration on the project, that you are working together, to achieve this desired
result. |
| 4. |
Provide corrective feedback
when needed, and positive feedback when little wins are achieved along the way. |
By developing a spirit of
collaboration, you can spend more time with your eye and mind on the long term, rather
than putting out today's fires. You will be able to perform better, your people will
perform better, and the commitment process will build on itself for years to come. Who
knows; you may be able to put away you fireman's helmet.
Try It!
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