So I asked a large group of leaders, “How many of your organizations are interested in leadership development?” Nearly every hand in the room went up. Put your hands down. Then, I asked, “How many of your organizations are committed to developing leaders?” Some nervous rustling, but very few hands went up the second time. Here we go again.
Whenever I’ve posed these two questions, I’ve gotten virtually the same response – which leads me to believe there’s a huge difference between being interested in something … and being committed to it.
And if we’re going to be any good at leadership, we need to be committed. Totally committed. (No, not the “send me off to the psychiatric hospital” type of committed, but the “hey, I’ve kind of been cruisin’ along for a while, I better get with it” type of commitment.) A return to being “all in.”
Now’s the time. A new year is just on the other side of putting a face on a pumpkin, stuffing a turkey, and jingling some holiday bells. We need to get a jump on it by recommitting ourselves in three important areas:
Commitment to Accomplishment
Just pleasing the boss doesn’t mean you’re getting anything done.
Commitment to accomplishment makes you look at your daily activities through the lens of a finished product. Putting the period at the end of the sentence, so you can move forward on other things.
Commitment to accomplishment makes your work significant again. Gives you determination to overcome organizational impediments. Gives you goals to reach, mountains to climb, and the resilience to rise up. Most importantly, it gives you the grit to be great.
Commitment to Insight
Whereas accomplishment addresses what the organization wants, commitment to insight focuses on what the organization needs.
It means reawakening your thinking to possibilities – exploring, proposing, and offering creative solutions to problems. Thinking regularly about making improvements. Considering what you need to work toward – and what’s the best way to get there?
Advancement comes from insight which enables accomplishment.
Commitment to Growth
This is a 2-part commitment: to yourself, and to those you lead.
Personal growth is the only way we get better. There’s something about growth that reignites our spirits. Recommitting to growth is an acknowledgement that we can learn. We can change. We can adapt. And we can alter our future in a positive direction.
By making personal growth the objective, we open the door to better performance and results. We also increase our odds for personal satisfaction at work, and within ourselves. That goes for you, for me, and for everybody else.
Work with the End in Mind
Being interested is nice, but insufficient. Commitment is the beginning to achieving what we want.
Let’s go to work.
– Jerry Strom
Twitter: @JerryRStrom.
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This article is based on the *‘The Limiting Factors Leadership Study: A Critical Look at the Leadership Development Experience,’ copyright 2015, by Jerry Strom & Company, Inc. Find the Research Abstract, along with descriptions of many of our other research projects at http://www.jerrystrom.com/js_research.html . Find short insights on Twitter at #LimitingFactorsRPT