Driving Dedication During Change: Prove You're Dedicated to People

August 11, 2017

People won’t bust their tails for just anybody. They have their reasons—good ones--when they dedicate themselves to their work. Usually the relationship has a lot to do with it.

Dedication rarely comes without reciprocity--or some mutual benefit. You have to be invested in people if you want them to invest in their work.

That’s not always as easy as it sounds. For example, in today’s world of rapid change, you can’t promise job security. You can’t protect everyone from anxiety and job stress. You can’t keep from having to make hard moves that may derail or even harm their careers. Sometimes you have to do things at the expense of the individual for the good of the organization.

Still, you can be fiercely dedicated to helping people succeed in the jobs they face. You can commit yourself to support them and provide the resources they need. You can invest in their training, education, and overall employability. You can encourage them, believe in them, and back them up in their work.

Beyond that, you can dedicate yourself to honesty, to always being trustworthy and above board in your dealings with them. Unless they have experienced you as a colleague or manager in the past, their dedication will come cautiously if at all. Make it clear that they can count on you to do what’s possible on their behalf.

It always comes down to this: You’ve got to be caring and dedicated toward people for them to be caring and dedicated to their work. We play how we are coached.

The trust level typically drops during change. People grow wary. More self-protective. They interrupt unpopular events as solid evidence that the organization lacks commitment to employees.
And right or wrong, perceptions run the show.
This means you must provide generous proof to the contrary. Leave no doubt about your dedication to your people.
Commitment usually travels on a two-way street.

To perform well while under pressure, we need to develop habits to work more effectively. Making the right decisions, engaging with others effectively, learning to manage our own emotions takes practice.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Match People With Work They Love

August 10, 2017

Dedication comes naturally when our work is compelling. If people like what they are doing, they are more in tune with their tools and good at finding problems before they arise. They get absorbed by the day's challenges and time flies. When people like their work, they find focus. You don't need to turn up the heat; their internal fire is self-igniting.

Being compelled by our work means there's a good match between skills and interest. Therefore, the casting of employees is significant to a mission's success. Who goes where and who does what can make a world of difference in how your people apply themselves.

If you can position people so they get to spend their days doing what they love, you ensure dedication. They'll voluntarily put in extra time, and throw their hearts into the job as well.

Dedication feeds on work that's engaging. When we are compelled by our work, it captures the imagination toward creative solutions. Engaging work also provides energy rather than takes it away. This energy reserve is what perpetuates when the hours are long and significant challenges. There's another important benefit: people who consumed with their work invest more fully in the organization. The organization's mission becomes their mission. They give time. They give themselves--both heart and soul.

With more of themselves involved in their work, people will be more likely to protect that investment of time, knowledge, and expertise as it pertains to furthering the mission. They also need to share t it, widely. Logic dictates that we look out for our own best interests. When we care about our work we have a personal stake in the organization, and are more committed to the success of its mission.

People lose a degree of control over their work lives during change. Organizations get reshaped, resulting in some forced assignments and arbitrary placements of employees
Careers get compromised. Some folks settle for the jobs that are available, forsaking the sort of work they really want.
The payoff is that they get to stay employed. The problem is they feel no passion whatsoever.
More careful casting of people protects commitment. Give them assignments that stir their hearts, and they’ll work harder because they want to.
The workload always weighs less when you’ve got a job you love.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Outlaw Apathy

August 9, 2017

People live into our bias of them. Meaning, people have a peculiar way of confirming our beliefs about what they can and cannot do. Somehow our expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can use this unique psychology to your group's advantage and create high commitment--by giving people reputations to live up to instead of reputations to run from.

Begin by making it clear that dedication is a top priority trait expected from everyone. Using this lens immediately starts to shape the reality you live and the talent you seek.

Make sure you communicate a clear mission for the group, and everyone a clear goal in helping to achieve that mission. Be specific in explaining what dedication means in this group, what standards you want them to adhere to, and the expectations you have of them. Operational definitions for common understanding are essential to effective, constructive communication. There should be no confusion regarding what dedication looks like in the context of a particular group or organization toward its mission. People need to know precisely what you mean to perform.

Once you've achieved clarity with the mission and goals, show that your expectations are firm. Be intolerant of apathy. Weed out the uncommitted by creating consequences mediocre performance. Save the rewards for those who try the hardest, contribute the most, and continually go the extra mile. Everyone in the group should benefit in direct proportion to their efforts and to the results they produce.

Follow through on the clarity of the mission, relevancy of goals to the mission, and clear expectations make dedication count for something. All of a sudden, behavior starts to matter. Attitude starts to change. Individual performance begins to make a real dent in progress toward tangible results and momentum with the mission.

This approach might seem a little hardnosed. Looking at how change (reassignments, reorganizations, new leadership, etc.) has affected people, and you might start to feel apologetic. Maybe you put these decisions into action; maybe you didn't. Maybe you think the situation is unfair. Maybe you think you aren't justified in asking for high dedication among those you work with.

Just remember—anyone who passively tolerates mediocre work is as much involved in it as they who help to perpetuate it. Those who accept mediocre work without protest or speaking up against it is really cooperating with it. Benign neglect is not an act of kindness.

It could be that under these conditions you consider commitment to be a hopeless case.
Act otherwise.
Too much respect for problems can kill our faith in possibilities. There has to be balance between analysis and action.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Give People A Stake In The Outcome

August 9, 2017

People invest more into their work for a lot of reasons. First, their work has to be satisfying in some way (to them). Second, the incentives to do their job and do it well need to be fair--they need to get something out of the deal. Let people share in the outcomes, and see how their enthusiasm, interest, and dedication change.

We are most passionate about results when something is as stake. When we are personally invested in a our own or someone else's success, it's because we have something to lose or gain in the process. We will try harder to influence the results. Things at stake might be our pride, ability to learn, or our rank. So how do you make the results matter to everyone? Why should people's work matter to them? Why should we not allow ourselves to get by with doing just the minimum?

Help others make a meaningful connection between effort and rewards. They'll see little logic in trying harder unless they believe more energy is likely to bring them better returns. If you want more dedication from those around you, you should make sure they have a genuine vested interest in the results.

Maybe there's money that should be shared. Bonuses, profit-sharing, or communal tips. Compensation time or paid days off or some other kind of financial incentive. For sure, there are intangibles—psychological paychecks—deserved across the group. Give people their fair share of the recognition they earned. Determine the incentives most relevant to your team or organization. You can't expect to run a marathon on crumbs.

Figure out how to share the action across the group. Sharing implies ownership. Ownership is a core aspect of dedication.

Let’s deal with employees’ hot question: “What’s in it for me?
They can see that change carries quite a price tag. What’s harder for them to find are good reasons for giving it their best shot.
Their question is legitimate. You can’t afford to ignore it, and the logic in your answer must be solid.
People don’t put out extra effort unless there is some kind of special payback.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Invest in Rapport

August 8, 2017

Cohesiveness—the “we” spirit within the group—can wield heavy influence on commitment. The stronger the ties between the people, the more those personal bonds serve as a motor powering individual effort.

Sometimes this sense of family, community, or “teamness” comes about naturally over time as people work together during the regular workday. But sharing experiences outside of the daily routine often accelerates the process. Getting together after hours—for fun, maybe even for work—allows a unique and most valuable connective tissue to develop across the group.

Some people aren’t drawn to this sort of thing, of course, particularly if they’re already putting in long hours. So don’t force it. You can’t make camaraderie a job requirement. What you can do is encourage it and create a conducive environment that helps it to happen spontaneously.

Bonding that occurs beyond the boundaries of the job creates richer relationships. The relaxed atmosphere makes it easier for people to get to know one another on a personal basis. The feelings of unity take on more depth.

The payoff? Tightly knit groups make members want to try harder. We’re more committed to those we care for. We’ll pitch in to help them out. We’ll go further out of our way to make sure we measure up in their eyes. Call it peer pressure, group pride, or inspiration that comes from knowing your associates are cheering for you. Label it however you want, the force if formidable enough to drive personal commitment through the roof. You’ll see people push themselves to their absolute limits rather than let down their colleagues.

That cohesiveness is worth something. You can’t buy that kind of behavior. It’s born of feelings deep inside the human being, stirrings that develop out of purely personal ties. It’s commitment with a capital C.

Devotion to the job drops when working relationships get disturbed.
Personnel shakeups cause people to pull back psychologically. The social ties that connect employees carry a weaker emotional current, particularly if people end up working with others they hard know.
You should take time—make time—to rebuild relationships.
Commitment runs at a far higher voltage when people know and care for their coworkers.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Membership Matters

August 8, 2017

We are members in a lot of different ways--families, companies, gyms, softball teams, circles of friends, hobby clubs, unions, charitable organizations, and local religious congregations. Membership in social groups can boost our sense of identity because people take pride in and derive meaning from group memberships that are important to them.

There are some groups with a high barrier to entry. Where the harder we have to fight for something, the more precious it becomes. Somehow, in sacrificing, we prove to ourselves that what we're after is valuable. For example, golf clubs create a high barrier to entry by requiring high annual dues. Navy seal training creates a high barrier to entry by requiring mental and physical toughness.

Sacrifice is linked to membership. Making it through rigorous selection standards and working to prove their worthiness, people convince themselves that being a part of the group matters.

Some organizations abuse these ideas, dangling carrots off a long stick with no intention of making good on promises. They create a set of initiation rites building commitment to the group by making acceptance hard to come by--continually frustrating the process through underhanded practices.

When joining a group, the criterion should be clear. Joining any group can be something special--an achievement and a privilege--if the people entering and the people managing it don't lose themselves in the process.

Belonging (in any group) is when you feel safe and valued for embracing what makes you unique. It's natural to experience self-doubt at work. Converting that energy into further worry leaves people feeling more alienated and alone. Turning that worry into constructive work brings us back into feeling included. With effective membership, it’s incredibly important for people to be inspired by one another, to look one another in the eye and see goodness rather than merely an obstacle to our own agenda.

Initiating people into groups comes down to welcoming, mentoring, and sustaining progress toward challenging goals—always. It takes effort, energy and mental discipline. Moving from "me-ness" to "we-ness" comes from having shared everyday struggles, requiring us to be vulnerable with one another. This identification with the group feeds dedication.

Having a sense of belonging doesn't mean work will be easy—it means the normal ups and downs of your job won't cause you quite so much stress. Encourage people to share their experiences (good and bad) to help everyone realize that emotional ups and downs are part of the job and that you can go through painful periods but still belong.

People get shuffled. Repositioned. Assigned to different bosses and new work groups.
Many employees end up in jobs they didn’t apply for, and don’t really know that they want. Unsure about whether they even care to be part of the new scheme of things, they keep their dedication on hold
Force the issue.
Be welcoming, mentor everyone, and sustain progress, and dedication comes naturally.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Connect Through a Relevant Mission

August 7, 2017

Depending on the level of resilience in the organization and the individual, change can leave people shaken, with a wounded sense of self-worth. Reinforce your efforts by providing reasonable goals. Let these accomplishments restore their faith in themselves. Keep people from just going through the motions. Employees who don’t believe in themselves or in what they are doing deliver little of their potential and hold back the team.

Driving Dedication During Change: Build Momentum

August 7, 2017

Establish a sense of momentum in your team or organization and watch how it brings people together. Progress is compelling because people want to be on the winning side. Dedication starts to increase when things start clicking.

People start to disengage when their organization stalls or loses ground, but they deeply commit themselves when the organization is on a roll.

Momentum means taking action. Pick up performance. Make progress on clear goals.

Bag the deer, don’t chase the squirrels. Match hard challenges with tangible performance gains. Engage in activities that provide concrete proof of the group’s effectiveness. Avoid distractions by trying to address morale, lower stress, or improve loyalty and job satisfaction directly. Remember that they are byproducts of a well-run system. They don’t do much at all to build momentum. It works quite the opposite—momentum heals most attitudinal problems.

You must mobilize people—outlaw apathy, inertia, disinterest, and inactivity. Change begins within, today. Find ways to create meaningful urgency that will help your team or organization move at a faster clip. Push for daily progress where it makes the most sense. Post results and keep them up to date. Celebrate accomplishments, then “raise the bar.”

Rinse and repeat. Discipline is what maintains momentum. Momentum toward tangible results is what tightens the bond between employees and the organization.

Organizations instinctively slow down in response to change. People can grow more committed to protecting themselves, and less committed to protecting productivity and cost management.
Pretty soon results start to suffer. Then the problem begins to feed on itself.
Your job is to reverse the trend.
Speed things up. Focus people on achieving hard results.
Momentum gives job commitment a second chance.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Cultivate The Longing For Belonging

August 6, 2017

Do a quick tally of how many people you know that show up for work each day but don't "belong" to the organization. You aren't doing this to justify they don't belong. You're doing it to figure out how many people on the inside feel like outsiders.

How many people are in the "hired and forgotten" group? Who has been cast to the sidelines, banished to the outer fringes instead of included in the organizational mainstream? How has change broken the ties that bind? How have cliques or an organizational caste system kept employees out of the in-crowd?

Odds are you'll find people have deliberately not been allowed into the social nerve center of the organization. And there'll be others—employees who would never push for inclusion—that nobody else has taken the time or effort to pull into the core. How can high dedication be expected from these people, when they don't even feel like they're part of the group?

Exclusion cuts off the oxygen needed to keep commitment alive. So people who feel rejected put in nothing more than their time. Everything becomes transactional. Employees who feel left out or ignored invest little passion for their work.

As the manager or experienced peer, you should be like a magnet. Draw everyone in. Bring everyone together. Communicate with everyone, not just a chosen few. Take pains to see that each individual feels accepted.

A weak sense of belonging makes any of us feel like a bench warmer rather than a real player.

Change weakens people’s emotional attachment to the organization.
Some quit and leave. Others quit and stay—their names are still on the payroll, but their hearts don’t come back to work.
Re-recruit everyone you’ve decided to keep. Dedication isn’t going to show its face until you reconnect people to the organization.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Driving Dedication During Change: Delegate Generously For Results

August 6, 2017

Give people responsibility; their dedication grows. It's a fantastic thing to watch.

People who crave responsibility are understandably excited up when it comes their way, but what about those who are more inclined to avoid it? Some prefer to dodge duty. Perhaps they find additional responsibility to be a personal burden and a further drag on their sense of commitment.

Hard to say. But whether people want it or not, responsibility for results increases dedication. Responsibility means more work. It means more stress and pressure. Yet, it almost always causes dedication to rise due to an individual desire to meet an appropriate challenge and achieve goals. The opposite is also true: Leave people with no responsibilities--expect nothing from them--and you're likely to end up with zero dedication.

Increased responsibility is a loud statement about the amount of trust we place in others. Delegating responsibilities implies confidence in them, belief in their ability to deliver. Receiving responsibility stimulates people's desire to prove your faith is well-founded. Dedication increases. Task ownership is closely tied to commitment, and responsibility for a task done well plays a role in this. When you need to make changes (such as improvements or innovating new solutions), people are more dedicated to making the changes work if they have ownership of them. They "own" their outcomes. For instance, working down a set of issues by assigning small swat teams helps the group invest themselves in making sure their approach succeeds.

Like it or not, the responsibilities you assign to employees makes a statement about their worth and abilities. Handle it so every person feels worthy and competent and watch the impact it has on the group.

The paradox of change: People feel busier than ever, but productivity sags.
Obviously, mere activity is not the answer. “Busy just leads to burnout, causing the fire of dedication to flicker and die.
The secret is to assign your people responsibility for outcomes, to hold them personally accountable for results.
Productivity is reborn. And dedication, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.