Commitment to ourselves, others, processes, and goals…
As many of you know, writing was an area of weakness for me. Being competitive, I decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to improve my writing and hired Robert Palmer from The Raven Institute, my writing coach. He introduced a process to me that includes something he calls dialoguing. Basically, I have a conversation with my topic. Here’s my dialogue on today’s topic, commitment:
Commitment Dialogue:
Me: “Hey commitment I want to talk to you.”
Commitment: “OK, what about?” Me: “Well, I have this blog to finish on you and I’m struggling.”
Commitment: “How so?”
Me: “I keep looking for what others have to say about you, vs. going with what I think.”
Commitment: “OK, so what do you think?”
Me: “I think commitment is very powerful. And it’s about keeping your word, even when you don’t feel like it, or want to do so. This creates a ‘force’ kind of energy. I must force myself to do this because I committed to others and I certainly don’t want to look bad.”
Commitment: “Sounds kind of harsh, doesn’t it?”
Me: Maybe, but without it, I can be very wishy-washy and only do what feels good.
Commitment: “Could there be another side to commitment???”
Me: “Yes, and I’m looking to explore that. Ways to stay the course when I’m tempted to veer or stop. Ways to say how can I make this something I want to and choose to do.”
Commitment: “So how can you do that now and get your thoughts into a blog about commitment? You know how to ‘power through and force an outcome;’ how could there be another way to get to what you want?”
That ‘Me and Commitment’ conversation brought a story to mind related to a company I’ve been working with for a while:
The Players:
Michael: the owner who has big goals and visions for the work he has dedicated his life to. He has aspirations of HUGE growth and has cultivated a resource who provided him with hundreds of leads to vet. That’s the good news. The bad news is he is the best one to follow up on all those leads. The worse news is he doesn’t have the bandwidth to do so. Matt: the sales guy who is great at making initial contact and finding prospects and is dedicated to success.
Denise: the coach who suggested that Matt is the right person to vet the hundreds of leads and that others on the team can then close the sales
The Issues:
Different vs. The Way It's Always Been
Michael, having run this company for 40 years, is highly skilled and has and can do the jobs of 3 people, which is what he expected of Matt. Matt is great at one of those jobs. Denise’s solution didn’t look like Michael's picture.
Strengths vs. Weaknesses:
Matt, while great at sales, is less great at customer fulfillment. His strength is vetting the prospects but not uncovering their pain and finding the best solutions.
The Results:
Michael came to realize that a good outcome can differ from what he thought it should be, is committed to pursuing this opportunity, and is taking 2 days to think through the next steps for Matt.
Matt committed to being ready to take on the project (research, etc.) in 2 days. Matt and Michael will reconvene after those 2 days and come to an agreement on how to proceed.
The Learnings:
Matt and Michael demonstrated commitment by agreeing to:
Create a new, different process to achieve the objective Break the project into pieces (Matt does what he does best, and someone else will focus on fulfillment)
Determine what will be tracked and measured daily
Trust one another that they each will do their part
Things don’t have to look the way they’ve always looked to be successful and empowering your team to play to their strengths is a win-win
Team collaboration (Playing to Win Together) helps uncover the answer in the room and bridges the gap to success!