• Transcript

  How do you motivate volunteers, say if you're working for a non-profit organization, when they're not even getting paid? This is a question that i received from one of our newsletter subscribers who wanted me to elaborate on this point. But if you're not in a non-profit organization, stay tuned because my answer is just as relevant for anybody in the corporate world or otherwise. My answer is that motivating volunteers is really no different than motivating a team of employees who are getting paid. I understand that this answer may be puzzling on the surface because with employees, we have some leverage, we pay them, we give them benefits, they owe us something. But with volunteers, they're just simply volunteering. So we have no leverage. But my point is that if you are using the pay and benefits that you give your employees as leverage to motivate them, you're doing it all wrong. In a nutshell, I would suggest that whether you're in a nonprofit organization working with volunteers or you have a group of employees who are getting paid, you ought to treat all of them as volunteers. This doesn't mean that you let people off the hook and every time they drop the ball on something, you say, well, they're just volunteers. On the contrary, when it comes to compliance and doing the minimum work that they absolutely need to do because they've committed to it, whether they're employees and they're doing it because they're getting paid or they're volunteers and they're doing it because they gave their word, because they have some passion for the cause that you're serving. In either case, you ought to really hold them to high standards because in both cases, volunteers and employees have agreed to provide a certain service and you ought to hold them to high standards. But we have to understand that what we must get from them in order to make that relationship work is a tiny fraction of what we could get from them if they volunteer their discretionary effort. if they went out of their way to make suggestions or do some things that are not in their job description or many other ways in which they could contribute beyond our minimum expectations. And when it comes to that, again, we ought to treat volunteers and employees the same way. The volunteers don't owe us discretionary effort. They don't owe us anything more than the minimum that they've committed to doing. Well, it's the same with employees. You can buy their compliance, but you have to earn their commitment. I've heard leaders complain about entitlement mentality in their organizations. Oh, you just can't do enough for these people. Well, just about every organization out there has at least a few leaders in it who have an entitlement mentality. They think they are entitled to people's commitment and their discretionary effort. But the truth is we're not entitled to that. We simply have to earn it. And when we embrace this idea, then we can see that we must treat everybody as volunteers because we're not really paying for that extra effort. They are bringing it to the party because they are willing to offer it to us for free. Let's face it, whether an organization behaves in an accountable fashion and everybody does more than their fair share or not really depends on the culture that's been set up. Whether expectations have been set clearly, whether feedback is given on a regular basis or not, whether people feel that their leaders care about them or not, whether the systems and the processes work or not. All of those things play a role in the kinds of norms that we establish in our culture. And they influence whether people just come in and do their eight and hit the gate, as we used to say, or they go out of their way. And that's really no different between volunteers and people who are getting paid. Now, as a leader, you might say, but wait a minute, there sure is a difference because with these people, I have the big stick. I can say, look, I will do something to basically slow down your progression or I might fire them. They may not make money. And I get that you have that stick, but are you relying on that stick? If you are, you're doing it wrong. Because yes, there are times when people are influenced by the impact on their pay to do the right thing. But by far, people don't go to work every day and think about their paycheck and then decide whether they want to do the right thing or not. They do it based on the norms that have been established and based on the culture. And when it comes to that, you can set that same thing up with paid employees or volunteers. Let me give you an example. My wife used to volunteer at a local church. And for some time, there was quite a bit of demand on her time. She was spending about 20 hours every week. And so one morning she went to work, if you will, even though she was a volunteer, she was supposed to be there at nine o'clock. And so she left the house about 8.30 and she was supposed to be there several hours, but she came home right around 9.30 or so. And I thought, what happened? She said, well, I was five minutes late and they told me I couldn't serve today. Okay. So my first thought was, wait a minute, who are these people? You're volunteering all of this time, but since you were five minutes late, they told you you couldn't serve. What the heck is that all about? Right. But then as I thought about it through an organizational lens, I thought, you know, even if they're not paying people, they're saying, look, we're setting up the norms and our culture such that a certain amount of contribution is expected. And we're not going to let each other off the hook just because we're volunteers. So even the minimum amount of work, getting there on time and doing what you're supposed to do is an expectation, is something that they had set up for volunteers and it's something that we ought to set up in a corporate environment. They weren't willing to compromise their standards just because people were not getting paid. In their mind, everybody here has said that they are going to do what they said they were going to do and we're going to hold ourselves to high standards when it comes to that. And we can do that in the corporate environment. Now, when it comes to the extra effort, the discretionary effort that people can bring in, my suggestion is that you cannot rely on the paycheck that you give people to earn that. So whether you're in an environment where you have volunteers or paid employees, you can't rely on the pay that you're giving them anyway. So in that case also, you can treat them and you should treat them the same way, which is create an environment in which they offer up their discretionary effort. The other downside of this entitlement mentality is that we assume that when somebody goes out of their way to do something extraordinary, they owed us that anyway. So we may not acknowledge it. We may not recognize them for it. And that's a missed opportunity. whether they're volunteers or paid employees, if you assume that they're all volunteers and they don't owe you anything, then you would do a better job of recognizing and acknowledging that extra effort. And that would attract even more of that. I'm a firm believer that nobody starts a new job with the mission to just go to work and do the absolute minimum and get away with as much as they possibly can get away with. No, we all go to work to a new place. We're excited. We want to make a contribution. We want to make an impact. We want to grow. We want to develop. And somewhere along the way, what happens is that many events that happen around us impact our decisions every day as to whether we want to continue to grow that level of enthusiasm that we have, or we should shrink and diminish our enthusiasm and excitement and just do what we need to do and get out of there. Unfortunately, there are so many companies who hire extraordinary people and bring them in and make them feel less than ordinary. I personally know of a company who has now hired at least two very high level employees. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for this very highly paid role. They recruited, they hired, they relocated, they did all of those things. And two employees in a row in the same role were brought in with expectations that they were going to be superstars. And then shortly after that, They were made to feel like they're less than ordinary and they did not succeed in their role. Is that because they just did a bad job of hiring? No. At least in the cases that I'm talking about, that I'm personally very familiar with, these are two very brilliant people, but their contribution was taken for granted and they were made to feel less than ordinary. and ultimately they did not succeed. So whether you're leading a group of volunteers or employees, I think it's kind of lazy to expect them to bring their best without you doing anything to earn that. If you just fall back on the fact that you pay them, therefore they should bring everything that they have, maybe they will for a while, maybe they won't. But I can tell you, they will not sustainably do that unless you give up your entitlement mentality as a leader. The paycheck is at best a satisfier. If people don't feel that they're being paid fairly, they may be dissatisfied. But once they feel like they're being paid fairly, they don't open up their paycheck and go like, yes! I made this money this past couple of weeks. I am going to be so motivated. No, it becomes something that is an ordinary thing. If it's not there, I'm dissatisfied. But if it's there, I'm satisfied. Not that I'm totally motivated. Motivation has to come from recognition, growth, acknowledgement, knowing that somebody cares about me, new opportunities. things like that. So when it comes to motivating people, whether you're working with volunteers or paid employees, treat everyone as volunteers, and you can see that it is a much more effective way of actually earning their trust, earning their commitment, and having them offer up way beyond what they owe you in the first place. The question we ought to ask ourselves as leaders is not how can I get the most out of these people? It's how can I create an environment where they go well beyond the absolute minimum that we expect of them and just blow our minds by bringing their best to work because they're passionate about making something great happen. I'd love to hear from you about your experiences in motivating employees or volunteers. What would you add to what i've shared here in this video? Let me know in the comments.

Summary

I recently received a question from one of our newsletter subscribers: How do you motivate volunteers when they aren't getting paid, i.e. when you have no leverage over them? My answer is that motivating volunteers is no different from motivating paid employees. In fact, I believe leaders should treat everyone as volunteers.

This doesn't mean lowering expectations or excusing people when they fail to deliver on their commitments. Whether someone is paid or volunteering, we should hold them accountable for what they have agreed to do. But we must recognize the difference between compliance and commitment. We can pay people to fulfill their obligations, but we cannot buy their discretionary effort. When people go above and beyond what is expected, they are giving us something we haven't earned the right to demand. We can buy compliance, but we must earn commitment.

The problem is that many leaders have an entitlement mentality. They believe that because they pay people, they are entitled to their best efforts, their passion, and their commitment. But a paycheck doesn't guarantee any of those things. People may comply because they fear the consequences of not doing so, but sustainable discretionary effort comes from the culture we create. Clear expectations, consistent feedback, trust, recognition, opportunities for growth, and leaders who genuinely care about people, all influence whether someone simply shows up to do the minimum or chooses to make an extraordinary contribution.

We cannot rely on the paycheck to inspire extra effort, and we shouldn't take that effort for granted when people offer it. I have seen brilliant, highly paid executives recruited with great expectations only to be made to feel ordinary, have their contributions overlooked, and ultimately fail in their roles. The problem wasn't necessarily the quality of the people hired; it was the environment in which they were expected to perform. I believe most people start a new job wanting to contribute, make a difference, grow, and succeed. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm can gradually diminish when their contributions go unrecognized or their leaders take them for granted.

Ultimately, the question we should ask ourselves as leaders isn't, "How can I get the most out of these people?" It's, "How can I create an environment where people willingly go beyond the minimum and bring their best to work?" Fair pay matters, but it is only a foundation. Lasting motivation comes from feeling valued, having opportunities to grow, knowing that someone cares, and being part of something meaningful. Whether we lead volunteers or paid employees, our responsibility is to establish a culture where accountability is expected, contributions are appreciated, and commitment is earned rather than assumed.

Key Points

1. Act as if your people are volunteers. A paycheck does not entitle a leader to an employee's passion, creativity, or discretionary effort.

2. Distinguish compliance from commitment. Compliance means doing what’s required; commitment involves willingly contributing beyond what is required.

3. Hold everyone to high standards. Being a volunteer isn’t an excuse for failing to honor commitments.

4. Compensation may influence behavior, but it cannot guarantee sustained engagement or extraordinary performance.

5. Threats and penalties may influence behavior temporarily, but cultural norms shape how people behave consistently.

6. Leaders must abandon their entitlement mentality. Employees don't owe their employer unlimited effort simply because they receive a salary.

7. When leaders acknowledge discretionary effort rather than take it for granted, they encourage people to contribute more.

8. People rarely start a new job wanting to do the bare minimum. Their initial enthusiasm can be strengthened or diminished by the experiences they encounter at work.

9. Great people can fail in environments that diminish them. Leaders must create conditions that allow talent to flourish.

10. The leader's job is to create an environment where people want to excel.

Quotes

• “Treat everyone as a volunteer.”

• “You can buy compliance, but you have to earn commitment.”

• “We are not entitled to people's commitment.”

• “If you're relying on the big stick, you're doing it wrong.”

• “We're not really paying for that extra effort.”

• “It's kind of lazy to expect people to bring their best without you doing anything to earn it.”

• “Nobody [wants to start] a new job with the mission to do the absolute minimum.”

• “Too many companies hire extraordinary people and make them feel less than ordinary.”

• “The paycheck is at best a satisfier, not a source of lasting motivation.”

• “The question isn't how to get the most out of people. It's how to create an environment where they willingly bring their best.”

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• Transcript

  I've been reflecting on my 40 years in leadership roles and trying to reverse engineer the one concept that has been responsible for the successes that I've had. This has not been an easy task because there are so many different things that leaders need to do and there are a variety of behaviors and mindsets and tools that they need to use, skills that they need to have, and so on and so forth. So it's been one of those opportunities for me to get to the root of what it is that makes everything else work. And I have discovered it. I believe that every leader should be on a mission to make the workplace a source of prosperity for people. And when I say prosperity, I'm talking not only extrinsic things like pay and benefits, but in a holistic sense, intrinsically. Growth, development, inspiration, encouragement, all of those things. You see, the common understanding that we have is that the workplace is often a source of frustration. It is a necessary evil to have to go to work and be frustrated because, I mean, it's work. It's not like you're supposed to love your job. Now, some of us are fortunate to be making a living doing what we love to do. But that's not the case for most people. And most of us have come to accept that there's some amount of agony and frustration that is going to be caused by our work. or our workplace or the people that we work with. And I'm here to tell you that if we change our mindset as leaders and also as peers, people who are committed, whether they have a leadership role or title or not, to transform the workplace into a source of prosperity and inspiration and growth for everybody else, then that is a game changer. Before I go into the nitty-gritty of what I mean by this, let me go ahead and just address a few of the objections that might come to mind. The first objection might be that basically we are in our workplace to get the job done and get the results. So what does this have to do with that? And I am here to tell you that there's a ton of research that has been done that shows that a workplace that has a healthy culture, when people want to come to work, they will bring in their discretionary effort. They will do what needs to be done and results improve. Great places to work is one of those sources that has proven that in a workplace where people trust their leader and each other, and they take pride in the work that they do and they have camaraderie, they produce exceptional results that is far and above their peers. The second objection might be that you may envision a place where we are singing Kumbaya and everybody's happy and nobody has any challenges and they don't have to work hard. And that is absolutely not true. In a workplace that is a source of inspiration for people, challenges don't go away. The only thing that is different is that we create a different context for challenges. When challenges come up, we don't dread them, we look at them as a way to grow and develop. I'll give you an analogy of going to the gym. When you go to the gym, you don't shy away from picking up the weight and doing the work because you're there to do that. And you know that lifting those weights, although it may be hard at the time, will ultimately contribute to your growth and development. And by the way, we don't go to the gym so that we can pick up heavier weights. We go to the gym to develop our strength so that in our life, when we're not in the gym, we can use that strength. A real life example of this is the conversation that I had with an employee who was very disgruntled and was telling everybody he was going to leave because we were facing several challenges in the warehouse where he was working. Well, I went and had a frank conversation with him and I asked him what he envisioned that he was going to be doing in 10 years. And he told me he was thinking that he was going to be a supervisor at another warehouse, maybe a little bigger than the one that we had. And I told him, I said, if that is the extent of your vision, it's probably not worth it for you to deal with all of these problems. And I don't blame you. And if you want, I give you a great reference. You can leave if you like. I hate to lose you. But I can understand that if that is the extent of your vision, that the trouble you're going through today is not worth it. But I also made a suggestion to him. I said, what if your vision was bigger than that? What if you were going to be a CEO? your own logistics company in about 10 years. Now, would it serve you to come to work and just sit around and let things run smoothly? Or would it actually help you? Would it serve you to deal with these problems and learn something that you can apply in your journey? And this is a real-life story and this person has been complaining and telling everybody who's going to leave. And after that conversation, the context completely shifted into a positive direction in that he began to see the challenges as something positive. So when we talk about the workplace being a source of prosperity and inspiration, it is not that we lack any challenges and we don't have to work hard, but that we create a very empowering context for the challenges. The third objection might be that this might imply that we are actually treating people like children. Like we are trying to create a place here where they can be happy and all of that. So don't they have any responsibility in making that happen? And what I would say to that is absolutely. They absolutely are responsible for doing what they need to do. So in a place that is a source of prosperity for people, we don't just try to do something for people. We're expecting them to adopt the right mindset and do what they need to do to manage their own morale, if you will. And by the way, if that is the mission that is embraced by everybody, then we're doing it for each other. We're not just waiting for the boss to come and motivate anybody. We're doing it for each other and If somebody is not contributing to that mission, we have the hard conversation with them. We give them the feedback. We let them know what the expectations are. So if as a leader, or again, as someone within the organization, no matter where you are, if your mission is to transform the workplace, then anything that interferes with that mission needs to be dealt with, including, by the way, person who is not willing to take personal responsibility and be accountable for their actions. The difference is we do it coming from a place of compassion. We deliver the heart message, but we do it with compassion and with the intention to fulfill that mission of making sure that even for that person, as well as everybody else, the workplace is a source of inspiration and prosperity. The last objection that I will mention is that we still have a whole lot of other things to do. So if we're just focusing on making the workplace a source of inspiration for people, what about all this other work? What about all these other priorities? Well, guess what? All the other work still needs to get done, but we will do it in a different context and we will be a whole lot more effective at it. We still need to set clear direction. We need to clarify expectations. We need to give people the tools and the skills. We need to provide them feedback. We need to coach them and we need to intervene when we are uniquely qualified to support the activities. The difference is that if we do all of that work in the context of making the workplace a source of inspiration and prosperity, then we will be a whole lot more effective at it. You may have heard me talk about an experience that I had about 20 years into my career when I was the plant manager of a plant and we weren't doing very well. And we ended up within a year and a half turning the plant around from being the worst to the best. Well, in that plant, we had a two-part vision. The first part was that we were going to be the showcase of excellence. And this had everything to do with delivering extraordinary results and making sure that all stakeholders are happy with return that they're getting from the plant. The second part of our vision was that we were going to be the cradle of prosperity. Where this came from was a simple observation that people had problems in their lives. They had financial issues. They had health issues. They have relationship issues. And we basically set out to get better at life, not just at work. My wife and i set out to bring a lot of education and support and coaching to the employees and the plant to alleviate some of their pain and suffering. And that was really our only motive. We didn't do it in order to get more work out of people. It was just an act of love and compassion. But when I look back on that experience, I can easily see that it was responsible for the transformation that we saw in our morale and the support that I received for doing the kinds of things that needed to be done in the plan to turn our results around. Before that intervention, we were working in silos and morale was in a really bad place. There wasn't a whole lot of trust for leadership. But somewhere along the way, as people began to see some signs that we actually extended trust to employees and we were going out of our way to make sure that we're doing the right thing for them, then they extended trust and they brought their discretionary effort to work. I can honestly say that I am very clear that I am not the strongest plant manager I have ever seen. Far from it. There are a lot of plant managers who can run circles around me. They know all about every detail of everything about every machine and all of this kind of stuff. And for me, that was not something that I was bringing to the party. And I believe it worked in my favor in that I wasn't trying to be the expert telling everybody what to do. I was in the business of empowering people to do what they did best. And as I went out of my way to do everything I could to support them as a whole person, not just a worker, then I earned their trust and they made up for my deficiencies. But this is not intended to be an instructional video that encompasses everything you need to do to go make that sort of thing happen. You can expect to hear from me on this topic a lot more about how it works and why it works and what you need to do and so on and so forth. I'm extremely excited about this being our North Star and driving everything else. What I do want to do is plant the seed with you here. And I'd like you to consider that when a workplace is a source of prosperity in the broader sense, people don't shy away from challenges. They don't just do the minimum. They go out of their way. They bring their discretionary effort. They lean in. They are receptive to feedback because they want to get better. And they don't hesitate to offer suggestions for improvements. They know that doing what is best for the team is also what is good for them. And so we are tapping into that built-in desire for all of us to do what's right for ourselves. And therefore we entice everybody to do what is right for the team. In that type of workplace, we work through tough issues. We don't avoid them because we know that everybody has good intent and sweeping problems under the rug doesn't serve anyone. Again, there's so much more to be said about how you go about transforming the workplace into a source of inspiration. Believe me, I have done this over a 31 year career in my own operations countless times. And for the past 10 years, consulting with and guiding leaders, we have managed to accomplish this in multiple industries, different geographies. So there's a lot that I can share with you. For now, I just want to leave you with two calls to action. Number one, I'd like you to answer the question on a scale of zero to 10, where is your team? Where is your workplace right now? on this mission of making the workplace a source of inspiration and prosperity and growth. And I know that this is a very subjective assessment, but just assign a number. Zero, meaning we're a horrible place and the place is a source of frustration, and 10 is nirvana. Just pick a number. Just being aware of where you stand gives you something to work with. So that's number one. Number two, I'd like you to ask yourself two questions at the end of every workday for the next two weeks and answer those questions for yourself and journal. The first question is, on a scale of zero to 10, how well did I do in transforming the workplace into a source of inspiration and prosperity? Now, this doesn't have to be on a broad scale with 100,000 people. It could be that you just basically touched one life, that you had a great conversation or something really great happened. But judge yourself on a scale of zero to 10. At the end of each day, ask yourself this question, how well did I do in carrying out that mission? And the second question is, what is one thing that I'm going to do tomorrow to fulfill this mission? Do this for the next two weeks, journal about it, I'd love to hear from you about the insights that might show up. And I'd love to engage with you to have a conversation, to see what you're coming up with and put our heads together to see if there's anything I can offer you in terms of ideas and thoughts. Again, much more to come on this, but I sincerely hope that you entertain this idea. Think about it and see what shows up for you.

Summary

Over my 40 years in leadership roles, I have been trying to reverse engineer the one concept that made everything else work. After reflecting on the behaviors, mindsets, skills, and tools that leaders need, I have come to believe that every leader should be on a mission to make the workplace a source of prosperity for people.

By prosperity, I mean much more than pay and benefits. I mean growth, development, inspiration, enthusiasm, encouragement, and the opportunity for people to become better, not just at work, but in life. We have come to accept that work is often a source of frustration, as if enduring a certain amount of misery is a necessary evil for having a job. I believe we must change that. Whether we have a leadership title or not, we can all contribute to making the workplace a place where people thrive.

Some might argue that the workplace is about getting the job done and delivering results, not making people feel good. But the two are not mutually exclusive. When people trust their leaders and one another, take pride in their work, and experience camaraderie, they are more than willing to bring their discretionary effort, which naturally leads to extraordinary results. Others might imagine a workplace where everyone is happy, nobody struggles, and hard work disappears. That’s not what I’m advocating. Challenges are still part of the equation. The difference is the context in which we face them.

Just as lifting weights at the gym builds strength we can use outside the gym, with the right context, workplace challenges can help people develop capabilities they will use throughout their lives. I once had a disgruntled employee who was ready to leave because of the problems we were facing in his warehouse. When I asked him to imagine a bigger future for himself, one in which he might run his own logistics company, he began to see those very problems as opportunities to learn rather than reasons to quit.

Making the workplace a source of prosperity doesn’t mean treating people like children or relieving them of responsibility. Quite the opposite. We all have a responsibility to contribute to the kind of workplace we want. That means managing our own morale, holding ourselves accountable, offering feedback, and having difficult conversations when necessary. We can deliver a hard message with compassion while still being clear about expectations.

Nor does this mission replace the other work leaders must do. We still need to set direction, clarify expectations, provide tools and skills, coach, give feedback, and intervene when we can help. The difference is that all of these activities become more effective when they are grounded in a genuine commitment to helping people prosper.

I saw this firsthand when I was a plant manager and helped turn a struggling plant from the worst performer to the best in about a year and a half. Our vision was twofold: to be the “showcase of excellence” in our results and the “cradle of prosperity” for our people. My wife and I invested in education, support, and coaching because we cared about people as whole human beings, not because we were trying to extract more work from them. As trust grew, silos began to break down, morale improved, and people brought more of themselves to the job. I was not the most technically knowledgeable plant manager, but I focused on empowering people to do what they did best and supporting them as whole people. They made up for my deficiencies.

I believe this mission can and should become our “north star” for leadership and culture transformation. My challenge to you is to assess where your workplace stands today, then spend the next two weeks asking yourself at the end of each workday: How well did I help make the workplace a source of inspiration and prosperity today, and what is one thing I will do tomorrow to advance that mission?

Key Points

1. Leadership involves countless skills and behaviors, but the ultimate goal should be to make work a source of growth and inspiration, not merely a paycheck.

2. Compensation matters, but so do development, encouragement, trust, and fulfillment.

3. Frustration may be common, but it does not have to define the work experience.

4. Culture and results are complementary. A healthy workplace culture inevitably unlocks discretionary effort and stronger performance.

5. Trust, pride, and camaraderie matter. These are central features of a workplace where people are inspired to do exceptional work.

6. Don't eliminate challenges; change their context. Difficulties can become opportunities for learning and development.

7. Help people connect today's struggles to tomorrow's aspirations. A bigger vision can change how people interpret their current circumstances.

8. Everyone shares responsibility for workplace culture. Creating an inspiring environment is not solely the boss's job.

9. Personal responsibility and compassion belong together. Accountability remains essential, but difficult feedback should be delivered with compassion.

10. Avoiding difficult conversations or tolerating a lack of accountability works against creating a prosperous workplace.

11. Keep doing the fundamentals of leadership. Clear direction, expectations, tools, skills, feedback, coaching, and timely intervention still matter.

12. Support people as whole human beings. Investing in people's lives will build trust and strengthen their enthusiasm to contribute.

13. Empower people instead of trying to be the expert on everything. Leaders can achieve extraordinary results by enabling others to use their strengths.

Quotes

• “Every leader should be on a mission to make the workplace a source of prosperity for people.”

• “We have come to accept that there's some amount of agony and frustration that is going to be caused by our work.”

• “If we change our mindset as leaders and also as peers, that is a game changer.”

• “When people want to come to work, they will bring in their discretionary effort.”

• “The only thing that is different is that we create a different context for challenges.”

• “We don't go to the gym so that we can pick up heavier weights. We go to the gym to develop our strength so that in our life, when we're not in the gym, we can use that strength.”

• “We deliver the hard message, but we do it with compassion.”

• “We set out to get better at life, not just at work.”

• “I wasn't trying to be the expert telling everybody what to do. I was in the business of empowering people to do what they did best.”

• “I earned their trust and they made up for my deficiencies.”

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  With everything we have going on in the world, it's not hard to get overwhelmed. And today, what I want to introduce you to is a framework to get yourself out of that vicious cycle of overwhelm and into a virtuous cycle of productivity and fulfillment. And you can also use this framework if you have the opportunity to coach somebody else. Now, generally, when somebody comes to me, the first thing that I focus on is whether they have clarity or not. See, generally there's a lot of stuff that's swimming around in our head, and the first step is to make sure that we separate the facts from fiction, from the stories that we've been telling ourselves, and also sift through all that stuff that's going around in our heads and make sure that we separate the useful information from all the noise. After you get some level of clarity, what's important next is to get focus because generally we want to work on everything. And what's important here is that you separate your priorities into three different categories. The first one is what I call maintain priorities. These are things that you just have to do to keep your nose above the water. You don't want to make major improvements. You're just trying to make it. The second category is improvement. And these are things that you want to continuously improve. And finally, the third category is breakthrough. Now, I would recommend that you don't really identify more than one or two things that you're trying to transform or create a breakthrough in. But once you get clear about your maintain priorities, improvement priorities, and breakthrough priorities, then things will get into perspective for you. Now that you have some focus, what you want to do is you want to focus on commitment. In other words, what is it that you are 100% committed to? You have a focus area you're going after, but partial commitment is not good enough. So here you want to have 100% commitment and really get on the court and make it happen. And when you give your word to something, you want to honor your word. Finally, we're talking about resilience. Because what happens is you know that no matter how committed you are, things are not always going to go your way. You're going to hit a snag from time to time. And at that time, what you want to do is you want to create a context for yourself that says these setbacks are an opportunity for growth and learning. And what you want to do is you want to continue to learn and improve the next step that you're going to take. This is commonly known as a PDCA cycle, right? Plan, do, check, act. Now just when you get to this quadrant, it is time to get back to clarity because more than likely you have grown to that next level of performance and fulfillment. So now you got to get clarity at a higher level. So this continues this cycle. And now what's important to recognize is that every one of these quadrants involves action. So you got to take action to gain clarity. You got to take action to set priorities. You certainly have to take action if you are truly committed. And resilience takes action. You can't just sit there and say, oh, geez, I guess this happened to me and nothing is going to go my way. No, you got to take action. You got to have the conversation that you want to have to vent a little bit, but then get back up and dust yourself off and keep moving. But in the center of this model, you see that I have community. Now, community is so important to every one of these phases because you want somebody to have your back. You want them to listen to you when you need to vent. You also want them to nudge you to that next level when you need it. So it's so important that you surround yourself with people who really want to continue to propel you to that next level. And if you continue to focus on at this cycle and keep going as if you're going up a spiral staircase, what you will see is that you will gain clarity, identify a focus, remain committed to it, develop more resilience, and continue to go up. So I hope you find this framework helpful for yourself and you can use it to coach others to turn their cycle of overwhelm into a virtuous cycle of productivity and fulfillment.

Summary

When everything happening around us starts to feel overwhelming, I find it helpful to use a simple framework to move out of a vicious cycle of overwhelm and into a virtuous cycle of fulfillment and productivity. I use this framework both for myself and when coaching others.

It begins with Clarity. Before we can make meaningful progress, we need to separate facts from fiction, distinguish reality from the stories we tell ourselves, and filter useful information from all the noise competing for our attention. Once we have clarity, we can establish Focus by sorting our priorities into three categories: maintain, improvement, and breakthrough. Maintain priorities keep us afloat, improvement priorities help us get better, and breakthrough priorities are where we pursue transformational results. I recommend limiting breakthrough priorities to one or two, so we don't dilute our efforts by trying to transform everything at once.

Once we know where to focus, we need Commitment. It's not enough to have just priorities or good intentions. We have to decide what we're 100% committed to and get on the court to make it happen. When we give our word, we need to honor it. But commitment alone doesn't guarantee success, because setbacks are inevitable. That's where Resilience comes in. Rather than interpreting setbacks as evidence that nothing will work, we can treat them as opportunities to learn, grow, and improve our next steps. This is the essence of the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle. And as we learn and improve, we eventually reach a higher level of performance and fulfillment, which requires us to revisit clarity and repeat the cycle at a higher level.

One thing I want to emphasize is that every phase of this framework requires action. Clarity doesn't magically appear; we have to work to gain it. Focus requires us to make choices about what matters most. Commitment requires us to follow through. Resilience requires us to get back up after a setback, have the conversations we need to have, learn from what happened, and keep moving. We can't simply sit back and hope things improve. We have to take responsibility for the next step, even when we're frustrated or discouraged.

At the center of this entire framework is the fifth element, Community. We all need people who have our backs, who will listen when we need to vent, and who will also challenge us to reach the next level when we're ready. The right community provides both support and accountability.

When we consistently practice Clarity, Focus, Commitment, and Resilience, supported by people who want to see us succeed, we begin moving upward like a spiral staircase. We aren't simply repeating the same cycle; we're using each cycle to grow into a higher level of productivity, performance, and fulfillment.

Key Points

1. Overwhelm can become a vicious cycle. A deliberate framework can help us move toward productivity and fulfillment.

2. Clarity comes first. Before deciding what to do, we need to understand what's actually happening.

3. Our assumptions and the stories we tell ourselves can add unnecessary weight to an already difficult situation.

4. Focus requires prioritization. We cannot treat everything as equally important and expect to make meaningful progress.

5. Distinguish three types of priorities.

   • Maintain: Keep things afloat and meet essential demands.

   • Improvement: Make things progressively better.

   • Breakthrough: Transform something or create a significant new result.

6. Limit breakthrough priorities. Concentrate on one or two major transformational goals rather than attempting to change everything simultaneously.

7. Commitment means 100% or nothing. Once we've chosen our focus, we need to get “on the court” and take responsibility for making it happen.

8. Honor your word. Commitment requires follow-through, not just enthusiasm or good intentions.

9. Resilience is essential because setbacks are inevitable. Even strong commitment doesn't mean everything will go according to plan.

10. Treat setbacks as opportunities to learn. The goal is to improve the next step rather than remain stuck in disappointment.

11. Use the PDCA cycle. Plan, Do, Check, Act provides a practical way to take action, evaluate results, and make adjustments.

12. Community is central to the framework. We need people who will listen, support us, hold us accountable, and challenge us to grow.

13. Growth is an upward spiral, not a one-time achievement. Each cycle of clarity, focus, commitment, and resilience can take us to a higher level of performance and fulfillment.

Quotes

• “The goal is to get yourself out of that vicious cycle of overwhelm and into a virtuous cycle of productivity and fulfillment.”

• “Separate the facts from fiction, from the stories that we've been telling ourselves.”

• “Maintain priorities keep your nose above the water. Breakthrough priorities are where you create transformation.”

• “I would recommend that you don't really identify more than one or two things that you're trying to transform or create a breakthrough in.”

• “Partial commitment is not good enough.”

• “When you give your word to something, you want to honor your word.”

• “These setbacks are an opportunity for growth and learning.”

• “You can't just sit there and say, ‘Oh, geez, I guess this happened to me and nothing is going to go my way.’ No, you have to take action.”

• “You’ve got to have the conversation that you want to have to vent a little bit, but then get back up and dust yourself off and keep moving.”

• “You want somebody to have your back. You also want them to nudge you to that next level when you need it.”

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  This morning when we were getting ready to go for our morning walk, I was putting on my socks and shoes and here comes my wife telling me not to lean against the wall when I do that. Well, she was exactly right because we have agreed that we want to make sure that we train our body to be able to maintain our balance and not fall down and break something. Not that we're very old at this point, but we have read that that is one of the leading causes of older people essentially losing their health because they fall and break something. Anyway, this was a very timely reminder that came exactly when I needed it. I was just getting comfortable, just leaning against the wall, putting on my socks, putting on my shoes. And right there in the moment, she corrected me. And that triggered the thought for me. And that thought is that transformations don't happen because of some big bang moment. They happen because of thousands of interventions that are made to keep them on track. Big changes can create momentum, but it is sustaining that momentum that matters. A big initiative, a new leader, a new strategy, some new tools, some new equipment, some new process may bring about some improvement, but those improvements are short lived. And unless there is effort to continue to maintain that level of improvement, you end up with what's known as the Hawthorne effect. That is that the initial improvement that is caused by novelty and attention will fade away once the novelty fades. Big interventions can start the journey, but they can't sustain the journey. One person can initiate and champion a transformation, but they cannot carry it through on their own. In the context of an organization, the culture is being shaped every day. It is being shaped by the actions of not just the leaders, but everybody in that organization, they are often shaped by inaction, not doing anything about something that is happening. When someone challenges something, when someone improves something, how situations are handled, all of these little changes shape the culture every single day. And then that culture produces certain results and outcomes. There is a quote by Dave Hanna that says, every organization is perfectly designed to get the results that it gets. But we have to understand that oftentimes when the results are mediocre, it's not because somebody sat down and intentionally designed an organization for mediocrity. It is something that happened over time through neglect or through poor decisions or inaction. And so that design gets created over time and it produces a certain culture that delivers a certain set of results. Generally speaking, improving something always requires intentional interventions. This is not anything new. You can see it in nature all the time. Try starting a garden and you till the ground and you clean it up and you plant your plants. And if you just leave it there for a few months, you can come back and see all the weeds and a garden that is in a state of decay. You might notice that about even a house. You can go to a neighborhood where all the houses are kept up and they're looking great, but there's this one house that's been abandoned that's just sitting there and it's got a tree growing out of the gutter, right? So everything is in a state of decay unless somebody takes the time to make an intervention and make it better. That being the case, we have to understand that there is no way that one person at the top of the organization will be able to tell everybody what to do and that is going to make everything better. No, if thousands of interventions are needed to keep the momentum going, then that must be achieved by empowering people by getting real clear where we're going, by giving them some level of autonomy, by encouraging them to speak up, by encouraging them to implement their ideas. Just as my wife made that course correction, she made an observation and she gave me that reminder that I need it. People in the organization ought to do it for each other. rather than saying, well, you know, it's not my place. That person is in that department, or that person is a little bit higher than me in the organization. This happens in organizations all the time where people have great ideas. They make observations. They don't say anything about it. They want to stay in their own lane. They want to play it safe because the culture has been created to keep them in their place rather than have them willingly and enthusiastically contribute to the greater good. Leaders who don't recognize this end up becoming the bottlenecks for their organizations. We have all seen it, founders who have become a constraint to the progress of an organization. They were the founder, they had the original idea, they took the initiative, they get things started, they built something extraordinary, but at some point they fail to recognize that unless they empower others to make decisions and they share the authority that they are not going to be smart enough to make all the decisions and make sure that those thousands of interventions are made every day. So they become the bottleneck. Now imagine an organization where hundreds or thousands of interventions are made every day to keep things on track. Someone sees something drifting off and they correct it. Somebody notices an opportunity that has not been spelled out in the priorities, but they act anyway. Someone challenges an old assumption that is no longer true. Someone makes a small improvement to the process. Someone takes the initiative to have a small conversation to prevent a problem. All of these small interventions create an organism that continues to improve itself rather than rely on some big initiative or one person at the top who has all the great ideas. I know I am extremely fortunate in that my family and I work together. They are well-versed on the principles that I teach and I coach people on. And if I ever behave differently than what I teach, they remind me. I do the same to them. When we decide that we're going to improve our health by eating a certain way or exercising a certain way or changing some of our habits, then we keep each other on track. The same thing works within an organization if people care enough and they feel safe enough to correct each other. So I would really encourage you to think about what opportunities exist in your organization for you to sort of decentralize the authority and make sure that people have the authority to make decisions relative to those areas that they are responsible for. And even better than that, they feel comfortable and they feel safe in bringing up ideas, even if it's not in their silo, that they can work across organizational boundaries to bring up ideas and make these course corrections on a going basis every day. The greatest leaders are not the ones who go out and make great things happen. They are the ones who create conditions in which people are compelled and energized to move the organization toward a common vision. That they are enthusiastic about making these small interventions all day, every day to not just start something, but keep the momentum going. I'd love to hear about your experiences with this topic. Have you experienced a workplace where this was the case and because of thousands of interventions every day, big improvements were made? Have you experienced a workplace that depended only on one or two people at the top and people were not really motivated to make those interventions and what type of results, what type of morale did that organization have? Give me a comment, let's talk about

Summary

The other day, as I was putting on my socks and shoes to go for our morning walk, my wife reminded me that I shouldn’t be leaning against the wall while I did so. We have agreed that we want to train our bodies to maintain balance and avoid falls, so her correction was exactly the kind of small intervention I needed in that moment. But it also made me think about transformation.

Transformation rarely happens because of one big moment. It happens as the result of thousands of small, consistent interventions that keep the transformation on track. In other words, when it comes to transformation, to paraphrase Bruce Barton, there are no little things. A major initiative, new leader, strategy, process, or tool can create momentum, but sustaining that momentum requires continuous attention and course correction. Otherwise, the initial improvement can fade with the novelty and attention that created it.

I see the same thing happening in organizations. Culture is being shaped every day by what people do, what they don't do, what they say, what they don’t say, what they challenge, what they improve, and what they tolerate. Mediocre results are rarely the consequence of someone intentionally designing a mediocre organization. Rather, they are the result of indecision, neglect, and inaction accumulating over time. Just like a garden becomes overgrown or an abandoned house deteriorates, everything tends toward decay unless someone intentionally intervenes. That means transformation cannot depend solely on one person at the top. If thousands of interventions are needed every day, thousands of people need the authority, autonomy, clarity, and psychological safety to make those interventions.

This is where leaders can either empower an organization or become its greatest bottleneck. Founders and senior leaders may have been responsible for starting something extraordinary, but eventually they have to recognize that they cannot make every decision or generate every improvement themselves without holding the organization back. I want people to notice when something is drifting, challenge assumptions, improve processes, speak up across silos, act on opportunities, and have the conversations that prevent problems before they become bigger problems. The goal is to create an organization that can improve itself rather than one that waits for the person at the top to have all the answers.

I’m fortunate that my family and I hold each other accountable to the principles we believe in. If I behave differently from what I teach, they remind me, and I do the same for them. I believe organizations can work the same way when people care enough and feel safe enough to make those course corrections for one another. The greatest leaders aren't the ones who personally make great things happen. The greatest leaders are the ones who create conditions in which people are compelled and energized to make the thousands of small interventions required to move toward a common vision.

Key Points

1. Transformation is sustained through small interventions, not just launched by big initiatives.

2. Big changes can create momentum, but the small, regular interventions are what sustain it.

3. New leaders, strategies, tools, processes, or equipment can produce improvement, but the Hawthorne effect illustrates how improvements driven by novelty and attention can disappear when that attention fades.

4. Culture is constantly being shaped every day by everyone's actions, inactions, language, decisions, challenges, and improvements.

5. Mediocre organizational results are often the cumulative result of neglect, poor decisions, and inaction, rather than intentional design.

6. Everything tends toward decay unless there are intentional interventions to maintain or improve things.

7. Sustained transformation requires empowerment, clarity about where we're going, autonomy, and encouragement to speak up and act.

8. Leaders become bottlenecks when they fail to share authority and empower others to make decisions.

9. What used to work when one person made most decisions eventually becomes a constraint.

10. Small actions have enormous cumulative impact: correcting drift, challenging assumptions, improving processes, spotting opportunities, and preventing problems.

11. An organization becomes more resilient when it can improve itself rather than depend on one person with all the answers.

12. Accountability works best when people care enough and feel safe enough to speak up and correct one another.

13. The leader's role is not simply to make things happen personally. It is to create the conditions for others to make things happen.

14. The ultimate test of transformation is not whether you can start something. It is whether you can keep the momentum going.

15. Sustainable transformation is ultimately about creating an organization where everyone contributes to continuous course correction.

Quotes

• “Transformations don't happen because of some big-bang moment. They happen because of thousands of interventions made to keep them on track.”

• “Big interventions can start the journey, but they can't sustain the journey.”

• “The culture is being shaped every day.”

• “When the results are mediocre, it's not because somebody intentionally designed an organization for mediocrity.”

• “Everything is in a state of decay unless somebody takes the time to make an intervention and make it better.”

• “Leaders who don't recognize this end up becoming the bottlenecks for their organizations.”

• “You are not going to be smart enough to make all the decisions and [personally] make sure that those thousands of interventions are made every day.”

• “The greatest leaders are not the ones who go out and make great things happen. They are the ones who create conditions in which people are compelled and energized to move the organization toward a common vision.”

• “The goal is not just to start something, but to keep the momentum going.”

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  Amir Ghannad is a leadership development specialist with over three decades of hands on experience in leadership and organizational development. He's the author of The Transformative Leader: Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary. He explains what he means by the term transformative leadership. Transformative leadership comes down to two things. One is boldly declaring a future that is exciting, that is discontinuous from what is. In other words, it's not just a different version of what we've got going on. It's not about fixing things or repairing things. It's boldly declaring a future we're excited about. The second thing is then to create conditions in which everyone chooses to be fully committed and actively engaged in moving the organization toward that vision. So that to me sums up…transformative leadership. Amir tells us how transformative leadership is relevant to success in business and to delivering bottom line results by offering some examples. I have numerous examples of where transformative leadership has made a tremendous difference. I spent thirty one years in various leadership roles in the corporate world, in various parts of the world, and I've been involved in several turnarounds, one of which always really kind of stands out to me because, we not only transformed a manufacturing plant from being the worst performing plant to the best, but we improved our morale and the lives of people there. And it was all done through transforming the culture. so the there is a, an absolute…correlation between transformative leadership and bottom line results, and I've seen it many times. Amir explains how an organization should go about creating a high performance organization. Everybody wants to be a high performance organization. I've never met somebody who says, well, we kinda wanna be a mediocre, performing organization. However, not everybody wants to do the work, to become a high performance organization. And that work involves creating a, what I call, a high commitment culture. And so what's involved in creating a high performance organization is that it has to be about delivering extraordinary results that people can take pride in. The second thing is that it cannot be a project, something we give to HR and say, go do these kinds of things. It has to permeate everything that we do. And finally, it has to be, something that involves creating leadership capability at all levels of the organization because everybody is going to be touched…and everybody is going to impact, the, creation of a high performance organization. Culture is a critical component of all organizations. People call Amir Ghannad a culture transformation catalyst. Next, he gives us his definition of culture. I think of culture, in very simple terms, and it's not some fuzzy, idea. It's about the culmination of behaviors that take place in an organization. So simply if I am a fly on the wall and I'm watching people and see what they're doing, that basically shapes the culture. Are they talking to people in their own department, in their own silo, or are they going across? Are they solving problems to root cause? Or are they just band aiding things? So that to me is culture. And every result that an organization gets is the direct outcome of that culture. So if you want different results, you have to shift your culture. And so there are two, categories of work, if you will, that I do with my clients. The first thing has to do with the systems, the processes, the policies, that entice people to behave this way or that way. So many times, you have to make sure that you…don't just…make a change in your structure or whatever, but not change your reward system. So we look at holistically, look at all of the different things that cause people to behave one way or another. The second thing is developing leadership capability at all levels of the organization. At the top, so that they become servant leaders and everywhere else on the front lines particularly so that they're not just waiting for their bosses to become perfect. And they can see clearly that right where they are, they can impact the culture. Amir explains how a high commitment culture is different than a traditional one. A high commitment culture, has a lot of different characteristics that are just very different than what we do by default or what I call a traditional culture. I define, thirty four dimensions of these in my book, The Transformative Leader. And, there are things like, for example, in a traditional culture, everything, all the decisions are made top down. and, in a high commitment culture, we basically distribute that responsibility and authority throughout the organization. in a high commitment culture, we, give recognition, abundantly. whereas in the traditional culture, we're kinda careful, with that. We don't wanna do that. We share information openly in a high commitment culture. we make sure that, people are really clear about the goals of the organization and the part that they play as opposed to just saying, hey, this is your job, this is your box, stay there. So there are a number of, characteristics that separate a high commitment culture. And I, again, define those, in my book. Is there a difference with the culture transformation process in a large organization versus a smaller one? The principles behind culture transformation are exactly the same, whether you are dealing with a hundred people or a hundred thousand people. What's different is, of course, with a large organization, you'd wanna make sure that you have some visible changes in your systems and processes that people can see immediately. But what doesn't change is that personal touch. In fact, what I always coach people on is don't get overwhelmed by how you're going to reach all of these people. Because if you think about the compound effect of one person affecting two people and then each of those two people affecting two other people, in a very short period of time, you can touch the rest of the organization. Just begin to practice the principles, that create a high commitment culture with your small group and expect them to do the same. And pretty soon, it spreads like wildfire. Amir discusses how you go about developing a transformative leader. I believe that there is a transformative leader inside each of us. And the reason we don't show up that way and the reason we don't feel that way sometimes is that there's something in the way. I have these seven hidden saboteurs of success and fulfillment that I show people. They're very simple, yet, they have a profound effect as to how effective you are at practicing transformative leadership. And so what I do is essentially say, the first thing you need to do is declare a bold future because I don't want you in some class so you can learn something about leadership so that you can apply it someday. I want you to have a very practical, real life, sort of goal that you're going for. And then in the service of that goal, I help you see what's in your way, so you can get it out of the way. And then I arm you with the appropriate skills and tools so you can become even more effective…at doing what you do. Amir talks about how his approach is different from traditional leadership development. Traditional leadership development is all about giving you more information, giving you more tools. It's kind of like, just putting something on you, what I call informative training. What I do is mostly transformative training, which does involve giving you some new things, but mostly is about getting something out of your way. in other words, the metaphor that I always use is that imagine that you're driving down, the highway and you're just not going fast enough. Traditional, leadership development shows you how to push the gas a little bit more or downshift or whatever you gotta do. What I do is I show you where you've got your left foot resting on the brake pedal. And when you take it off, then you really begin to pick up some speed. Amir Ghannad is known for his phrase, quote, I am the one, and it's not about me, end quote. He explains that paradox. I often, tell people that, if they adopt this idea, behind I am the one and it's not about me, they truly capture the essence of leadership. Because I am the one says, in the context of the transformation that I'm committed to, the buck stops here. I'm the one. If it's to be, it's up to me. I take full responsibility and accountability. It's not about me, says, when I get into my head about the implications on me, if I wanna come up with an idea and I feel like, well, what's that going to make me look like? What if they say no? I remind myself that it's not about me. I'm doing all of this in the service of a greater cause. So when you embrace both of these ideas, then you become a lot more effective at transformative leadership. If you've ever worked in organizations where people were working in silos, how counterproductive it can be. In organizations like this, rather than working together to create synergy, team members work against each other with the aim of optimizing their own interest at the cost of significantly sub optimizing the interest of the organization as a whole. And since even those working toward their own ends are part of that whole, by pursuing their own interests, they are also paradoxically working against them at the same time. The leading cause of silos being formed is that team members feel that nobody has their back, and they feel compelled to seek refuge in the company of those they find to be most like them. In this sense, silos or any other kind of insular group is really just the result of our natural human tendency to seek out community, especially when we feel that we have been abandoned by the larger group. Before you know it, people in these silos lose all sense of what is right or wrong with respect to the organization, and they become entrenched in what they consider to be in the best interest of the group of people they identify with. Amir doesn't believe that you have to hold a traditional leadership position in order to cause culture transformation. He tells us how you should show people who are not in charge that they are leaders and that they can lead from where they are. I do believe that it's important for top leaders to support, the movements that, people want to start. However, I've seen countless examples, where we've had grassroots movements, where somebody without a title, just, committed themselves to something and they made it happen. And so my advice to people on the front line or somebody who doesn't consider themselves to be the top manager or top leader, is to just really set your sights on a worthwhile transformation and begin to get excited about it. Then talk to a few more people about it. Get them excited about it. Show them what's in it for them. then issue some kind of a call to action. a lot of times people wanna get involved, but they don't know how. so let them know how they can get involved. Create a following in the service of a great cause. And you'll see that just believing in a positive future immediately shifts your mindset in terms of your own experience of your workplace. And that gives you even more energy to take more actions. Now can you go write a million dollar check tomorrow to do that project and all that? No. But you know what? You work inside your circle of influence, and it begins to grow. Amir referred earlier to the hidden saboteurs of success. He tells us more about them and the impact they have on people and organizations. I believe that we are all transformative leaders, and sometimes we're stopped by some of our, disempowering beliefs that we have, developed over the years. We make these assumptions about ourselves and about our boss, about our world, about our employer that essentially, stop us from really showing up as the transformative leaders that we are. so these hidden saboteurs really have to do with questioning some of those assumptions. They have to do with really paying attention to our language. we use disempowering language, what I call the language of people in the stands as opposed to people on the court, who are actually trying to make things happen. So that language perpetuates a kind of a victim mentality. oftentimes we don't focus, for example, on a transformation that is really worthwhile. we only focus on change, which is fixing things and repairing things. And it gives us a new and different version of what we don't want. So I talk about these seven hidden saboteurs. And when people see what's in their way, they're able to get it out of the way and become much more empowered and effective at what they do. Air explains whether it is more important to start leadership development at the top of the organization or on the front lines. Leadership development is important. And if you just get started, it doesn't matter where you get started. However, what is, I think, ideal is that you do it in parallel. And this,

  has worked for me for years, where I've started working with the leaders at the top, and there are certain ways in which I coach those folks around, how to really shift the culture, using their, power and authority and the resources that are available to them. But at the same time and in parallel, coaching everybody else to say, look, here are some of the ways that you can go about leading. Because many times what happens, particularly to leaders in the middle of the organization, is that they have risen in ranks to a certain point because they did a really great job. and they're functional experts, but they don't know anything about leadership. They've learned a few things through the school of hard knocks, but nobody's really ever coached them on what to do, what not to do, how to go about it. So I think, ideally, I would have a parallel approach at the top of the organization and closer to the frontline. Amir explains what prevents most organizations from adopting the transformative leadership approach. I can speak from my own experience, on why organizations resist, an approach of transformative leadership or creating a high commitment culture. because leaders feel that they are responsible to get things done, and so they wanna just tell people what to do. And oftentimes, they're going for the short term results and not necessarily empowering people. Unfortunately, people within the organization kind of get used to that. And even though, deep inside they would like to be empowered, they kind of find it easier to be told what to do and not have to take responsibility, for the decisions that they make. so in my own experience, when I was the plant manager of this plant that we turned around, from being the worst to the best, I found that as I took this approach of empowering people, they were kind of annoyed with me because they kept coming to me, wanting me to tell them what to do, and I refused to do that. And it took us a while, to really understand that that's not what leadership is all about. and when we all embraced it, then we began to, take some huge steps in the direction of establishing a high commitment culture. What if your boss is not supportive of leadership development? What do you do then? Unfortunately, many organizations, suffer from this issue of their boss not being, an empowering person, not being supportive. and in those cases, although it's not ideal, what I always advise folks to do is…start with yourself. look, your view of the world, your view of the boss, and your view of what you're going to tolerate and not tolerate really has a lot to do with your current circumstances. so in some situations you may just need to accept the situation as an immovable object and work around it. In some cases, if you're truly feeling that you're having to compromise your values and things like that, it might be time to move on and do something else. But if you're gonna stay, you know what? Commit to it one hundred percent. Start with yourself. and I've experienced that myself. I started in the middle of the organization doing a lot of this work. And in many cases, my bosses were wondering why I'm working on all this touchy feely stuff and all of this type of thing, soft skills and all of that. And then at some point when we delivered the results, we made believers out of them. So don't give up on yourself. Just go make it happen. Amir Ghannad offers some recommendations for leaders who want to go deeper with applying the ideas that we've been talking about. I would say leaders, would be well served in starting with themselves. Develop a sense of self awareness. So instead of asking, why is my circumstance this way? Why is my boss that way? Why is this happening to me? Start asking, why do I tolerate that? Where do I need to get better? What is it that's inside of my circle of influence, to go make something happen? So if you have a situation that you're dissatisfied with, begin to ask those questions and they all come back to you. What are the choices you're making? And that's where you start. The next thing is, instead of just jumping from this problem to another problem and playing whack a mole with your problems, if you will, declare a bold future. Get excited about something. What is it that you want? Stop focusing on what you don't want. Focus on what you want. And then the third thing is begin to work with the rest of the organization, even if it's just a small group of people, to build some support for this transformative future. Begin to instill some hope in others so that they want to work with you to create this future. And those three steps alone will make a huge difference, and then you'll build on those. We hear a lot about tone at the top. Amir tells us how that fits into what we've been talking about. The tone at the top of the organization is absolutely important. Now is it possible to have some grassroots movements, if the boss doesn't really get it? Yes, it is. However, it's so much easier and it takes so much less effort and energy if the bosses get it. Right? So I always say even the greatest leaders can't make anything happen by themselves. They need the organization. but a terrible leader can really mess things up single handedly. Okay? So there's a lot of power that we hold at the top of the organization. I experienced myself the way I came across and, sort of my mood and whether I was hopeful or I was disappointed or whatever, would just send these shock waves within my organization. I'd walk out to the manufacturing plant floor one day and ask people how things were going and they were all exuberant and happy. And two days later I'd ask the same question and they all seemed down. And it took me a few months to figure out that they were simply mirroring me. If I'm walking up to you and say, how's everything going? You know what? If you're an employee, you don't wanna be too excited because a, all heck is breaking loose and you don't know about it, or b, you know about it and you don't care. So you might have been excited just before I walked up to you, but now it's like, oh, man, the boss is feeling bad. so the tone at the top is extremely important. You can learn a lot from great leaders, but you can also learn from bad bosses. Many of us have had to deal with our own fair share of bosses who did everything they could to make things difficult, both for you and for the organization. Most were more concerned with their image than the health of the organization, lacked emotional intelligence and tactfulness, and didn't believe transformation was possible or even worth pursuing. There were those who constantly sowed seeds of doubt and cynicism, those who didn't lift a finger to help with transformation efforts, and even those who actively seemed to create roadblocks for any initiatives that were actually gaining traction. Here are some lessons learned from bad bosses. One, when it's necessary to deviate from arbitrary standards in order to meet a real business need, go ahead and do it, even though you may have a scar to show for it later. Ideally, when such deviations are warranted, extend the courtesy to inform those who have set those standards as soon as possible. Two, embarrassing people in front of their peers or anyone else for that matter serves no productive purpose and will do irreparable damage to your reputation that you will never really recover from. Just don't do it. And if you do, apologize and make it right. Three, never shy away from delivering the tough feedback people need to hear, but do it while keeping your composure. And certainly, do not rehearse premeditated drama for effect. It causes you to lose credibility, make you look like a buffoon, and gets nothing useful done. Four, integrity matters all the time. That goes triple for leaders. When you demonstrate a lack of integrity in one area, you lose credibility and respect as a leader and as a person in all areas of your life. Five, we all make mistakes. When it happens, own up to it. If you can make it right, do so. But if it can't be done, apologize and try to make it up to the person who was affected. Amir Amir recaps for us the important aspects of transformative leadership. See, transformative leadership is not about just understanding or learning some ideas, and then that's it. You're at the finish line. You're there. It's something you gotta work on every day. That's why it's so important to create the right sort of environment where people are armed with the language that perpetuates a certain kind of mindset, certain kind of behavior. So when I work with organizations, what I do is I do this baseline training with them so we can arm them, with the right language of, for example, things that stick. are you are we on the court? Are we in the stands? Are we a hundred percent committed, or are we fifty fifty committed? Those things stick. And then the work is to really make sure that language and that sort of behavior permeates everything that we do. Most organizations that I've worked with are really, they have no shortage of people who really care, and they are experts at what they do. The problem is sometimes their passion is expressed in the form of what I call drama. You see, there's a chapter in my book called “Keep the Passion, Ditch the Drama.” Because sometimes we think that drama has to go with passion. If I care about something, if it doesn't go my way, or if I hit a snag or something because I care, then I experience drama. If I didn't care, I don't if I didn't have any passion for it, I wouldn't have any drama. But because I care, I experience this drama. So there's this, sort of misconception that drama has to come with passion. It's a package. It comes together. Well, that's not the case. What I teach is, look, when you are in the passion zone, you have a certain mindset and you're behaving a certain way. When you're in the drama zone, you are in a completely different zone. So you have left the passion zone. So it is really important for us to be able to help each other within the organization and coach each other so that we can stay out of the drama zone and get back into the passion zone where we actually get to influence that very thing that we care about. Amir referred to how passion often comes out in the form of drama. He provides some insights into how you can avoid the drama. There are three questions that I pose in my book, The Transformative Leader, and they can be answered individually. I offer a few suggestions, but the right answer is the one you come up with. The first one is, what is my brand of reoccurring drama? if I look at my life, where does drama show up in my life? And if you look, you'll see some of those reoccurring patterns. The second question is, how can I prevent that drama? Instead of just waiting until it happens? What is it that contributes to it and how can I prevent it? And the third question is, what if in spite of my best efforts, drama happens anyway? How do I immediately bring it down and get rid of it? So I make a few suggestions in my book. But again, those are just thought-provoking, sort of points. But each person has to answer those questions for themselves and, then act on the answer. According to the dictionary, accountability is the willingness to accept responsibility for one's actions. Why is it such a big issue today? One of the problems that many organizations, struggle with is accountability. So I ask people in the audience, how would you rate, the organization on the scale of zero to ten on accountability? Ten being like super accountable. And usually I get a number less than five. Then I ask them to rate themselves. You as a person, how accountable are you? Well, I usually get a number over six or seven. So how is it possible that this entire organization rates so low, but everybody in this audience, has such a high number on accountability? Well, the reason is that we basically judge ourselves by our intentions, and we judge others by their behavior. So we see something out there that says this person said one thing and did another, and we label them as not accountable. And, when we do it ourselves, then we say, okay, well that was justified. There was a good reason for it. And so one of the reasons that this continues to fester in organizations is because…they don't have the conversations that they need to have, to work through those things. so here again, a lot of organizations say, you know what? We have a communication problem. And what I always remind them of is that they don't really have a communication problem. They have a commitment problem. And a good example of that, I think, is in just about any of those organizations that suffer from communication issues everybody gets paid when they're supposed to, and generally, it's done accurately. Well, hundreds of pieces of information have to change hands for that to happen. So when we care about something, when we're committed, we communicate, impeccably by the way. But when we are not committed to resolve an issue, to work through an accountability problem because we're hesitant and all of this kind of stuff, then we find all kinds of excuses. Oh, I don't have time. I've got a lot going on and so forth. So one of the things that I offer in my book is, five steps in having the conversations that you've been avoiding. and I have found that to be extremely helpful with people who have tried it. Again, around the world, I have tried this and it really works. And it really has to do with not just going to the person in an offensive sort of, position saying, hey, you messed this up. But starting with confessing your own sins, even if it's like, “hey, I've been meaning to come talk to you about this, but I've been kind of avoiding it because I just didn't know how this was gonna go.” And then putting the problem out there, then listening and capturing some of the agreements, and then making sure that at that point, we talk about what there is that we disagree on and working through a solution. So as we implement this sort of approach in organizations, I have found that they go from a sort of, a culture of silos. And when I say silos, not just departments, but everybody kind of being on their own island, if you will, to one of collaboration, working through accountability issues, creating an accountable, culture, and taking communication to that next level, and that benefits everybody. Amir explains why this discussion on transformative leadership is important to managers. It's extremely important. I have, I've had experiences with so many projects that looked so great on paper, and then they failed, simply because what we focus on is the technical part. We focus on functional expertise. We focus on, tools and systems. We don't focus on the mindset. It's kind of like if you're building a really great house and you go out and invest in the best materials possible. And then you're like, okay, so everything's gonna be great, except you go out and hire a contractor who has never built a house and doesn't really care if they do a good job or not. How does that work? Well, it doesn't, right? So basically what organizations do oftentimes is they say, okay, what software do we need to buy? What equipment do we need to install? How much does it cost and how much is it going to return to us on paper? Oh, that sounds good. Let's go make it happen. They don't pay attention that aside from the toolset, you also need the right skill set. While some of them go beyond the toolset and give people some skills, they do some of the training. But then they miss the mindset. Are people bought in? Do they care? Do they see what's in it for them? Do they see a connection? So this is where transformative leadership comes in. people are obsessed sometimes with change management, but change is often not the problem and management is often not the solution. What the problem is transition leadership. So you make the change, great, but now you've got to lead the transition. And that's where this, these concepts that I'm talking about really come in handy. They make a difference. Amir Ghannad leaves us with one final thought on transformative leadership. I would say to managers, that because you are involved in so many, high level decisions, I know that you cannot get into all the details of how projects are done or how initiatives are managed. But it is extremely important that you go beyond just asking questions about the obvious things that look good on paper and ask questions about the transition. What about the organizational dynamics? If we're going to institute this change, how does that impact people? Are they bought in? Are they trained? How are we going to manage this transformation in a holistic fashion? So go beyond the hard stuff because when it comes to transformation, the hard stuff is easy. The soft stuff is hard.

Summary

Note: This week’s video is a little different than our usual ones; it’s an interview I did explaining some of the core concepts of my book, “The Transformative Leader,” as well as transformative leadership in general. This is a great primer (or refresher) for anyone interested in the foundations of my core philosophy and approach.

I describe transformative leadership very basically as a combination of two elements: boldly declaring a future that is exciting and discontinuous from what exists today, and then creating the conditions in which people choose to become fully committed and actively engaged in making that future a reality. I've seen the connection between transformative leadership and business results firsthand. In one of the most notable turnarounds I led, we took a manufacturing plant from the worst-performing plant in the company to the best while simultaneously improving morale and people's lives. We did it by transforming the culture. To me, culture isn't some fuzzy concept. It is simply the culmination of the behaviors that take place in an organization. If you want different results, you have to change the behaviors that produce those results.

Creating a high-performance organization requires more than a project handed off to HR. It has to permeate everything we do, and it requires developing leadership capability at every level. I distinguish this from traditional leadership development, which often focuses on giving people more information and more tools. My approach is more transformative and focused on mindset. I want people to declare a bold, real-world future and then identify what's getting in their way. I use the metaphor of driving with your foot on the brake: traditional training teaches you how to press the gas, while transformative development helps you identify and release the brake. That includes addressing the seven “Hidden Saboteurs,” changing disempowering language and assumptions, and helping people move from being spectators to being active participants in creating the future.

I also believe leadership and culture transformation are not limited to people with titles. There is a Transformative Leader inside each of us. Grassroots movements can create tremendous change when people get excited about a worthwhile future, bring others into it, show them what's in it for them, and give them a way to participate. At the same time, the tone at the top matters enormously because people constantly take their cues from leaders. I've experienced this myself: the mood of the people on a plant floor could change simply because they were mirroring my own mood. Leadership also requires accountability, difficult conversations, integrity, and the ability to keep passion without allowing it to turn into drama. One of the biggest obstacles I see is that organizations often focus on tools, systems, and functional expertise while overlooking the mindset and commitment required to make those things work.

Ultimately, I want leaders to start with themselves. Instead of asking, “Why is my boss like this?” or “Why is my organization this way?”, I encourage people to ask, “What do I tolerate? Where do I need to get better? What is inside my circle of influence?” Then I encourage them to stop focusing exclusively on what they don't want and declare a bold future they actually want to create. From there, they can build support, instill hope, and begin influencing the people around them. When organizations undertake change, managers need to look beyond the technical solution and ask about the transition: Are people bought in? Are they prepared? Do they understand what's in it for them? How will the organizational dynamics be affected? The hard stuff is easy. The soft stuff is hard.

Key Points

1. Transformative leadership starts with declaring a bold future, not simply repairing what already exists.

2. A Transformative Leader creates conditions where people choose to become fully committed and actively engaged.

3. Transformative leadership directly influences bottom-line business results.

4. Culture is not an abstract concept. Culture is merely the culmination of the behaviors people demonstrate every day.

5. If you want different results, you have to change the culture and behaviors that produce those results.

6. A high-performance organization (HPO) requires a high commitment culture (HCC), not simply better processes or technology.

7. Culture transformation cannot be delegated to HR as a project. It has to permeate everything the organization does.

8. Leadership capability needs to be developed at every level of the organization.

9. Traditional leadership development often adds information and tools, while transformative development focuses on removing what is getting in people's way.

10. There is a Transformative Leader inside each of us, but hidden assumptions and disempowering beliefs can prevent that “inner leader” from showing up.

11. Leadership isn't restricted to people with formal authority. Grassroots movements can and have transformed societies in the absence of “official” leadership.

12. Tone at the top matters because people constantly take behavioral and emotional cues from leaders.

13. Leaders can learn valuable lessons from bad bosses, including the importance of integrity, composure, accountability, and treating people with respect.

14. Passion does not have to come with drama. Leaders can and should care deeply without becoming consumed by emotional reactions.

15. Organizations often mistake a commitment problem for a communication problem.

16. Transformation requires more than a toolset and skillset. It also requires the right mindset.

17. The technical aspects of transformation are often easier than dealing with organizational dynamics, human behavior, and commitment.

Quotes

• “Transformative leadership comes down to two things: boldly declaring a future that is exciting, and creating conditions in which everyone chooses to be fully committed.”

• “If you want different results, you have to shift your culture.”

• “There is a Transformative Leader inside each of us.”

• “Traditional leadership development shows you how to push the gas. I show you where you've got your foot resting on the brake pedal.”

• “You don't have to have a title to lead.”

• “Keep the passion. Ditch the drama.”

• “Stop focusing on what you don't want. Focus on what you do want.”

• “Change is often not the problem, and management is often not the solution. What the problem is is transition leadership.”

• “When it comes to transformation, the hard stuff is easy. The soft stuff is hard.”

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• Transcript

  What is the most important thing that a leader can give his or her team members? Is it more information? Is it more recognition? Perhaps more authority to make decisions? I believe all of those things are important. But the one thing that is the most important thing that a leader can do for the organization is to give them hope for a brighter future. This topic on the surface may seem like a touchy-feely, intangible thing. I mean, what is hope? But let me break this down for you. If I ask you about how you're feeling about your career, about your life in general, you're likely to point to some things that have happened in the past, the experiences you've had in the past, and all of those things that have happened to you up to this point.

  However, I would suggest that if you were really excited about your future, all of that could change. Regardless of what's happened in the past, if you're all of a sudden excited about a future, your mood shifts and your level of enthusiasm goes to a much higher level. Let's say you've had a really bad job with a bad boss and a bad company, and you've had a really tough time, but you know that tomorrow you're starting a new job reporting to a fantastic boss in a work environment that you're really looking forward to. Wouldn't that shift your mood just a little bit? Of course it would. Regardless of what has happened in the past, you are driven by what you expect in the future. Organizations are the same way. They may have had an abusive background. There may have been all kinds of things that have happened in the past and it takes some time to work through that.

  But the one factor that causes the morale of an organization to go through the roof is if they expect a brighter future. So your work as a leader, your job, if you will, above all else, is to instill hope in a brighter future. Well, how do you do that? There are many tangible ways that you can do that. Sharing information. That could be good news or it could be bad news. Of course, accentuating the positive and talking about what's going well and projecting that in the future helps. But you know what? If there's bad news to be shared, don't keep it to yourself. Just share it, but don't do it as a victim. Share it and let people know that, hey, this is our plan to overcome this challenge. Or if you don't have a plan, invite them to be part of it. Sitting down with people and making sure that you understand what their aspirations are and reassure them of plans to make sure that they are going to be developed and there's a certain path for them to go to that next level of performance and fulfillment helps. You know, then there are those subtle things. When you're walking around your workplace, people are paying attention. They're picking up their cues from you. whether the future is bright or not really comes through you. They don't have a crystal ball. They're looking at you. If you're going around with your head down, then people are going to interpret it a certain way. But if you're more enthusiastic, now it doesn't mean you have to be totally animated and sound like a person that you are not, but people know whether you are looking forward to the future or you as a leader are dreading the future and they take their cues from you. This has happened to me several times where I've caught myself just walking around, not really paying any attention. Now I may have been in deep thought, but somebody a few days later came by and told me, they said, man, you just looked really bad the other day. We were all thinking, man, what the heck is going on? What's wrong? So on and so forth. So it's really your body language is important. So again, there are a number of ways in which you can instill confidence in people that tomorrow is a better day. And depending on who you're working with, depending on the current culture of your workplace, you need to adjust those approaches. But the overarching goal here is to make sure that people understand that there is hope and things are moving in the right direction. Or if we've had setbacks, we've got some plans to address them.

  So if you really think about it this way, all of those things that I mentioned earlier are appropriate things. Some people would like to have more information. Some people really view it to be a very positive thing if you give them the authority and the responsibility to make certain decisions. Some people may really thrive on participating in a problem-solving process kind of a process as opposed to being left in the dark and imagining the worst. So all of those things are appropriate, but as long as you recognize that job one for a leader is to instill confidence in a brighter future. Now, the good news is you don't even have to be the big boss to make that happen. We can do that for each other within an organization. You don't have to have a title to instill confidence and hope in your peers. There are many people within the organization that other people are looking up to. You may not realize that other people are looking up to you because you think of yourself as just a whatever you are. However, there are people in the organization who are picking up their cues from you as to whether tomorrow is a better day or a worse day. Can they count on a brighter future? So I would encourage you, no matter where you are within your organizational chart, to think about this, to say, okay, what can I do to instill hope for a brighter future within my organization? And then take action to make that happen.

I believe the most important thing a leader can give their people is hope for a brighter future. Information, recognition, authority, and responsibility all matter, but none of them has the same power as giving people something positive to look forward to. Our experience of the past matters, but what we expect from the future can dramatically change how we feel in the present. Someone can have a terrible experience at work, but if they know tomorrow brings a great opportunity, a good boss, and an environment they are excited about, their mood can change almost immediately. The same is true of organizations. Even when an organization has a difficult history, morale can change when people begin to believe that the future will be better.

As leaders, we can create that hope in very tangible ways. We share information, including bad news, but we don't present challenges as victims. If something has gone wrong, we explain what we're doing about it. If we don't have the answer yet, we invite people to help us find it. We talk with people about their aspirations and help them see a path toward greater performance, growth, and fulfillment. And we pay attention to the subtle signals we send. People are watching us. They notice our body language, our energy, and whether we seem excited about the future or are dreading it. I have learned this myself, for instance, during times as a leader when I was simply deep in thought, but people interpreted my demeanor as a sign that something was wrong.

The important thing is that instilling hope isn't about pretending everything is wonderful. It's about helping people believe that things are moving in the right direction or, when we've experienced setbacks, that we have a plan to address them. Different people may need different things to build that confidence. Some need more information. Others need authority and responsibility. Others need to participate in solving the problem rather than being left in the dark. Those are all valuable, but they should serve the larger objective of creating confidence in a brighter future.

And you don't have to be the CEO or the person at the top of the organizational chart to do this. We can give each other hope. People throughout an organization are watching one another for clues about what tomorrow will bring. You may think you're “just” whatever your role happens to be, but someone else may be looking to you for their cues about whether the future is getting better or worse. So I would encourage every person, regardless of their position, to ask themselves: “What can I do to instill hope for a brighter future in the people around me?” Then take action.

Key Points

1. Information, recognition, authority, and responsibility are valuable, but they don't replace hope.

2. Our expectations about the future dramatically change how we experience the present.

3. Belief in a brighter future can dramatically improve morale and enthusiasm.

4. Leaders should share both good news and bad news rather than keeping people in the dark.

5. Leaders should understand their people's aspirations and hopes and help them see a path toward growth.

6. People are constantly watching leaders for cues about whether the future is bright or bleak.

7. A leader's body language and demeanor communicate more than they may realize.

8. Instilling hope doesn‘t mean pretending everything is fine. It means giving people confidence that things are moving in the right direction.

9. Different people may need different things to build confidence, including information, authority, responsibility, or involvement in problem-solving.

10. Hope is not merely a “touchy-feely” concept. It can have a tangible effect on enthusiasm, morale, and organizational performance.

Quotes

1. “The most important thing that a leader can do for the organization is to give them hope for a brighter future.”

2. “Regardless of what has happened in the past, you are driven by what you expect in the future.”

3. “People don't have a crystal ball. They're looking at you.”

4. “If you're going around with your head down, people are going to interpret it a certain way.”

5. “Don't share bad news as a victim. Share it and let people know what our plan is to overcome this challenge.”

6. “Job one for a leader is to instill confidence in a brighter future.”

7. “You don't have to have a title to instill confidence and hope in your peers.”

8. “There are people in the organization who are picking up their cues from you as to whether tomorrow is a better day or a worse day.”

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• Transcript

  Today I want to talk to you about one of the very important characteristics of high commitment cultures, and that is that high commitment cultures manage by guidelines. They lead by establishing guidelines and principles, as opposed to traditional workplaces that have a rule for everything. See, managing by rules is very easy, but it's not very effective. If you have a rule book about that thick, you can get anybody to look at a situation, go to the book and say, well, in this situation, this is what we need to do. Now, some people prefer it that way because they say, well, you know what? We're going to be consistent because we're going to do the same thing in every situation. However, I would argue that doing the same thing in every situation may not be the right thing to do. You want to be consistent with your principles, but not necessarily apply the same rule everywhere. The other disadvantage of having a rule for everything is that ultimately those rules and policies are established based on the very few who abuse them. We have policies and organizations that have been established because one or two people abused this particular guideline. Now, nobody can do this because two people did that. And just about every organization that I've ever worked in we never have a time card. So does that mean that everybody comes and goes as they please? No, we establish standards, we establish principles and we operate by those principles. But bottom line is that we're not going to assume that everybody's a criminal and everybody's out to do the wrong thing. We assume that 95% of the people or more want to do the right thing. We establish our guidelines and standards for them. And then we deal with any sort of deviation that we might have. Now, is it wrong to have rules? No. In some cases, you should have rules. Look, there ought to be a rule for safety that you are not ever going to stick your hand in a piece of equipment that's running. There ought to be rules about how we do our documentation relative to things that are required by the government. We ought to be able to produce our quality results and so on and so forth. So yes, there are few occasions where it makes sense to establish rules and abide by them. But by far, in most cases, what you can do is establish guidelines and manage by those guidelines. One of the downsides of managing by rules is that we treat people like children. Like they cannot make good decisions for themselves. So we say, you know what? You cannot wear this kind of clothes. You cannot do this. You cannot use your phone here and things like that. Very early in my career as I worked for Procter & Gamble, we always talked about the adult business deal, meaning that people are adults. They come to work, you know, outside of work, they can handle all kinds of adversity. They can handle different things that need to happen in their life and they can handle that at work. However, in some workplaces, we treat people like children, like they don't have the capacity to make certain decisions. And by the same token, we tend to protect them from bad news as if they're little kids. I know from my own experience, I have two kids who are adults right now and we work together and we operate on an adult business deal because they are no longer children. But I also remember a time when they were little and we had to establish some rules for them. We had several guidelines for them because we knew that they were incapable of making decisions for themselves. At that point, they didn't have a whole lot of authority, but you know what? They didn't have a lot of responsibility either. When they became teenagers, they began to take on more responsibility and we gave them the authority that came with that. In some organizations, leaders refused to work with everybody else as if they are at least in their adolescent years. You see, sometimes people want the authority, but they don't want to take the responsibility. And sometimes leaders want to give them the responsibility, but withhold the authority. That doesn't work. So just like in the teenage years, you ought to give them a balance of responsibilities and authority. Now, when our children became adults, then at that point we really switched over to adult business deal. We're not going to treat them as if they cannot make decisions for themselves. Well, the same thing needs to happen in every organization because you know what? Everybody that works for you is an adult. They are capable of managing within guidelines. So my encouragement to you is to evaluate your policies and your procedures and all the rules that you have in place and slash some of them, eliminate some, and send a very clear signal to your organization that you are willing to trust them. Let them know what their responsibilities are. Let them know what their accountabilities are. But by all means, give them the authority to make the decisions that they can make because they do not need to be micromanaged. And if you turn them loose and they feel trusted, they will rise to the occasion and make things happen.

I believe one of the defining characteristics of a high-commitment culture is managing by guidelines and principles rather than creating a rule for everything. Managing by rules is easy, but it isn't necessarily effective. Rules often emerge because one or two people abused a guideline, and then the entire organization gets treated as though everyone is going to do the wrong thing. I would rather establish clear standards and principles, assume that most people want to do the right thing, and deal directly with the exceptions when they occur. There are certainly situations where rules are necessary, particularly around safety, regulatory requirements, documentation, and quality. But those should be the exception, not the operating philosophy.

When we create a rule for every situation, we are essentially treating adults like children. Early in my career at Procter & Gamble, we talked about the “adult business deal.” Adults are capable of making decisions, handling adversity, and operating within reasonable boundaries. I think the same principle applies in the workplace. I use the analogy of raising children: when they are young, they need more rules because they don't yet have the experience or judgment to make certain decisions. As they mature, they take on more responsibility, and they should receive the authority necessary to go with it. The workplace should work the same way.

The problem I see in many organizations is an imbalance between authority and responsibility. Sometimes people want the authority without accepting the responsibility. Other times, leaders expect people to take responsibility while withholding the authority they need to act. Neither works. If we expect people to be accountable for outcomes, we need to give them appropriate decision-making authority. Otherwise, we create dependence, frustration, and micromanagement. A high-commitment culture says, “Here are your responsibilities. Here are your accountabilities. And here is the authority you have to make decisions.”

My encouragement to leaders is simple: look at your policies, procedures, and rules and start eliminating the ones you don't really need. Every rule we remove can send a powerful signal that we trust people to think and make good decisions. That doesn't mean turning people loose without boundaries. It means giving them clear principles, expectations, and accountability while allowing them to exercise judgment. When people feel trusted, they often rise to the occasion. Trust isn't just something we give people after they've proven themselves. Sometimes trust is what allows them to become the people we need them to be.

Key Points

1. High-commitment cultures manage by guidelines and principles, not an endless collection of rules.

2. Consistency should mean being consistent with our principles, not necessarily doing the exact same thing in every situation.

3. Many organizational rules exist because a small number of people abused the freedom given to everyone else.

4. Leaders should generally assume that most people want to do the right thing.

5. Rules still have an important place when dealing with safety, regulatory requirements, documentation, and quality.

6. Excessive rules can communicate that we don't trust people to make good decisions.

7. Treating adults like children creates a culture of dependence and micromanagement.

8. Leaders should evaluate their policies and eliminate rules that aren't genuinely necessary.

9. A high-commitment culture doesn't mean having no boundaries. It means using principles and judgment instead of controlling every decision.

Quotes

1. “Managing by rules is very easy, but it's not very effective.”

2. “We establish our guidelines and standards for the people who want to do the right thing.”

3. “One of the downsides of managing by rules is that we treat people like children.”

4. “Everybody that works for you is an adult.”

5. “Sometimes leaders want to give people the responsibility, but withhold the authority. That doesn't work.”

6. “If you expect accountability, give people the authority to make the decisions they can make.”

7. “If you turn them loose and they feel trusted, they will rise to the occasion and make things happen.”

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• Transcript

  Do I do what's right for me or do I do what's right for my team? Should I protect my team or do what's right for the whole company? Now, these are questions that I'm sure you've asked yourself. And there's no doubt in my mind that people on your team are asking themselves these questions from time to time. And how you handle these questions will make a huge difference in whether you deliver extraordinary results and your people experience fulfillment or that your results suffer and so does morale. If people answer these questions with ease and they don't have to choose, then everything goes well. Otherwise, it leads to silos, burnout, resentment, and division within your organization. In this video, I want to share with you three distinct aspects of creating what I call the magic of common objectives. I was first introduced to this term common objectives when I worked for Procter & Gamble where I spent the first 19 years of my career. The idea was that we ought to create common objectives between people and the company so they don't have to choose to do what's right for them or to do what's right for the company because Ultimately, if we don't have common objectives, at some point the person is going to do what is right for them, not for the company. This idea came in handy for me when I took over as a plant manager at a plant that was in real trouble. We were the worst in the company, our results were horrible, and our morale was worse. And we were able to take this plant from being the worst to the best within 18 months. We didn't bring in new equipment. We didn't make any significant changes out there. It was just a matter of creating common objectives in three different ways. The three dimensions of creating common objectives that I'm gonna go over in this video are the following. One, alignment with the company vision. Two, alignment between teams. And three, alignment with personal priorities and objectives. Now let's look at each one of these in practical terms. Alignment with the company vision. Now let's face it, a lot of vision statements are simply wall art. You know, we make the statement, we put it up on the wall, but people can't really articulate what is in our vision. What does it really feel like when we have arrived there? So it's really important to make sure that people can see themselves in that vision. If you have a vision for your company, if you've set goals for the company or your team, you want to make sure that people understand what it means to them. What does it feel like when we arrive in that place? Otherwise, it's something that is meaningless. You know, my priorities and what's really important to me or my team or in my personal life, is right in front of me, but I can't really relate to the company vision. But if you get me hooked on why that's important, then I can see the commonality between doing what's right for me and what is right for the company. What we did was that we made sure that our vision was inspiring. It was about something extraordinary that people could really get excited about. We made sure that it was specific and clear. Now, we didn't get there on day one, I have to admit. I made a few mistakes when we created our vision. It wasn't real clear to people, but we took the steps to make sure that they could really clearly see what it was all about. We made sure that our vision was inclusive, that it wasn't just for the operations people or the maintenance people or the finance people or this department or that department, that everybody could see themselves in that vision. It took some work to make sure that we communicated and we have enough conversations so that we get to that point where it is inclusive. And finally, we integrated that vision in everything that we did. Now, as I mentioned in a previous video, it's not about the big stuff. It's about the small stuff. It's not about creating the statement, putting it on the wall, but it's about those conversations to make sure that you are getting everybody calibrated and having them align themselves with the vision and creating a space where they can ask questions or they can bring up objections so that they can be resolved so that everybody can see themselves in that future. It's about having informal conversations. In meetings, in discussions, it's about referring to that vision, the various aspects of how we're going to operate and how things are going to be and bringing those into the moment. It is also really important to highlight wins and not just results, but behaviors that we see that align with the vision. Fan the flames, if you will, of something great that is going on, highlighted to acknowledge that this is exactly what we want, and there's going to be more of this in the future. Just as importantly, to acknowledge behaviors that are not in line with the company vision, results that are not in line with the company vision, so that over time, people get calibrated as to where we're going, how they fit into it, and how doing the right thing for the company is also good for them individually. The second dimension of creating common objectives is to create alignment between teams. The status quo in most organizations is every person in every department is clear about what it is that they need to deliver, and they couldn't care less about how it hurts somebody else. That's not the same in every organization, but I'm just highlighting that if you don't really manage this alignment between teams, that's where you end up. You're essentially sending a message that says, as long as you protect your turf and deliver your numbers, you're okay. This causes people not to really have a lot of energy to collaborate with one another and to create synergy. A few things that you can do to create alignment between teams is set multifunctional objectives. Yes, it's important for every person and every team to have their own goals, but make sure that you have multifunctional objectives that groups of people or number of teams are responsible for delivering. Prioritize horizontal accountability. If there is a multifunctional team that is working on a certain objective, then work on accountability for that team as a team, regardless of which department they belong to. so that everybody can't just protect their part of the work and feel like they can say, I did my part, even if the result is not achieved. Lastly, don't tolerate unhealthy competition and silo mentality. When people come to you and talk about somebody else that they're supposed to be collaborating with, yes, you can coach them, but ultimately hold that team of people accountable for working together and coming up with a multifunctional solution. I remember an experience in this plant that we turned around from the worst to the best where three very critical people who I called the three-legged stool for the organization were not working together. And as I reminded them often, if one of them, one of the legs of the stool wasn't there, the stool was not going to stand. But these three had a habit and a history of not working well together. So through a series of coaching conversations and group discussions, we were able to uncover what was leading them to not work together. And once we cracked the code on that, they truly became a team and made things happen. one of the things I would encourage you to do is look for those unsung heroes, those people who behind the scenes are facilitating collaboration and working together across boundaries, because often those people are a target and they become isolated because nobody likes them, right? Because people are in their function are saying, hey, what are you doing? You're protecting those people. And those other people are like, wait a minute, who's that guy? That person is in that other silo and so on and so forth. So they're really going out of their way and making sacrifices to create collaboration. So keep your eyes and ears open for those unsung heroes who are creating those common objectives and acknowledge them, recognize them. I'd encourage you to practice extreme empathy. Get in conversations with people and listen. Make sure that they feel safe to tell you what some of the issues are and what are some of the support needs that they have in order to create collaborative relationships, especially in organizations that have worked in silos for a long time. People may not be equipped with the right skills. So at times you may need to coach people individually. And lastly, promote abundance mentality. When people feel like there's scarcity and it's only so much to go around and either I can win or you can win, then the answer to this question of do I do what's right for me or the company? Do I do what's right for me or the other team? Is one of those that really takes its toll because they're gonna have to choose. But if there's an abundance mentality that says there's plenty for everyone, then it is easier to answer that question. We're not so worried about losing something if we help somebody else win. So every chance you get, promote an abundance mentality. Make sure that people know that the problems are our problems, that we are on the same side, invite them to participate. And when they deliver extraordinary results, celebrate the outcome, not just by recognizing the superheroes who fixed the problem, but all the people who were involved in coming up with a solution and implementing the solution. The third dimension of creating common objectives is alignment with personal priorities and objectives. Let's face it, everybody comes to work with certain aspirations and hopes, things that they need, whether it's skills that they want to get better at, certain rewards that they want to earn, whatever it is, they have a personal life, there are certain things that are important to them, and they bring them with themselves and yes, there's a give and take in some days doing whatever it takes to make things happen, even if I don't see the particular benefit in doing that work for myself. But over time, people ought to see an alignment between doing what's right for the company and for them personally. People ought to know that they are growing in their career, that they're being acknowledged, that they're making a difference in doing something that is important to them. What kills that alignment is if you only focus on compliance as opposed to commitment. You know, I need this from you and that's all that matters. And basically what you're doing is you're asking for the minimum that you need and you're not really trying to create an environment where people bring their full commitment, their full self. The other trap that leaders fall into is that they put a great deal of emphasis on extrinsic rewards. They feel like just because they pay somebody or give them some benefits that all of a sudden that person owes them commitment. No, they don't. Essentially, they owe you compliance and you have to earn their commitment. The best thing you can do is make sure that you treat people as whole persons, not just a piece of machine that is helping you deliver the results, make sure that you understand their hopes and aspirations and objectives. To a reasonable degree, find out what it is that they want out of this deal, right? Because it is what we used to call at P&G an adult business deal. People sign up to work for the company because they get a certain benefit and certain pay, and they promise to do certain kind of work. But how can we go beyond that? And as a leader, you ought to find out what that is. What is it that's important to people beyond just the pay and benefit? In what ways do they want to grow? What are their career aspirations? What opportunities could be created during the course of delivering extraordinary results? What is it that's important to them? You know, again, going back to the story of the plant that we turned around from the worst to the best, we had a vision that said we were going to be the showcase of excellence, and that is how we created alignment with the company. So what does it look like when we are showcase of excellence? Yes, we're delivering these kinds of results, but these are the ways in which we are going to transform the way we do our work, which is going to be good for us. We don't have to clear 55 jams every five minutes. We get to watch the machine run and do the kinds of things that really add value as opposed to clearing jams, for instance, on a production floor. And Showcase of Excellence was only a part of our vision. The second part of our vision, which really goes to creating alignment with personal priorities, was that we were going to be the cradle of prosperity. And what that meant was that we wanted people to see benefits in their personal lives as a result of being part of the team. So we launched several initiatives to make sure that we help people with their finances. You know, we brought education into the plant to make sure that people could manage their personal finances with their health, with their personal relationships. a number of initiatives that had nothing to do directly with delivering the results, but everything to do with making sure that people could see benefit in being part of the team for their families. My suggestion in operationalizing, if you will, this dimension of creating common objectives is be interested in people, develop relationships, learn about them, lead by principles, not just rules, that are implemented the same way across the board. Understand what's going on with a person and how the principles apply to that individual. Invest in people's growth and development, even if at times it slows down the immediate progress. Invest in people. And as much as possible, align roles with interests. Align people's roles with their strengths. Align people's roles with their strengths. In summary, this question of do I do what's right for me or the company, do I protect my team or act in the best interest of the whole company does not go away. But what you can do is make it a whole lot easier for people to answer that question and come up with something they can do that benefits them, their team, and the entire company. Create alignment with the company vision, create alignment between teams, and create alignment between the person's work and their personal life. I would invite you to take action this week on every one of those dimensions. If you have a company vision, bring it up in several meetings, create alignment, clarify for people what it means and how it actually benefits them when we achieve that vision. And finally, have some conversations individually with people to understand their hopes and aspirations and their objectives and inquire about their experience in how well that is aligned now with their work and how you can help them create that alignment. These few simple steps will make a huge difference if you stick with it and continue to practice it. The answer does not lie in some sophisticated process. It is about practicing these simple steps and applying these simple principles every day to create common objectives that will result in extraordinary outcomes and unprecedented fulfillment.

I often ask leaders to consider a deceptively simple question: Do I do what is right for me, what is right for my team, or what is right for the company? The same question is being asked by the people on their teams, whether we realize it or not.

When people are forced to choose, the result is often silos, resentment, burnout, and division. But when we create common objectives, people can see how doing what is right for themselves, their team, and the company can actually be the same thing. I first learned this concept at Procter & Gamble, and I later saw its power firsthand when I took over a plant that was the worst in the company. Within 18 months, we turned it into the best, without major equipment changes. A big part of that transformation came from creating alignment around common objectives.

I see three dimensions to creating this alignment. First, align people with the company vision. A vision cannot simply be something written on a wall. People need to understand what it means, what it will feel like when we get there, and how they see themselves in that future. The vision needs to be inspiring, specific, clear, and inclusive. Leaders create alignment through everyday conversations, by reinforcing behaviors that support the vision and addressing behaviors that don't.

Second, create alignment between teams. Without intentional intervention, departments naturally protect their own turf and their own numbers. We need multifunctional objectives, horizontal accountability, collaboration, and zero tolerance for unhealthy competition and silo mentality. We also need to recognize the unsung heroes who cross boundaries and bring people together.

Third, align people's work with their personal priorities and aspirations. People don't leave their hopes, ambitions, families, and personal goals at home when they come to work. If we want commitment rather than simple compliance, we have to understand what matters to people and help them see how being part of the organization benefits them. People need opportunities to grow, develop, make a difference, and achieve things that matter to them. In the plant I led, we didn't just strive to become a “showcase of excellence”; we also wanted to become a “cradle of prosperity,” helping people improve their finances, health, relationships, and lives beyond the workplace.

Ultimately, the fundamental tension doesn't disappear. People will always have competing priorities. But as leaders, we can make the choice much easier by creating alignment between the company vision, teams, and individual aspirations. This doesn't require a sophisticated process. It requires leaders to be genuinely interested in people, build relationships, invest in their growth, align roles with strengths and interests, and practice these principles every day. When we do that consistently, we create common objectives that can produce both extraordinary results and unprecedented fulfillment.

Key Points

1. People constantly face competing objectives: what is right for themselves, their team, or the company.

2. When people have to choose between those objectives, silos, burnout, resentment, and division are likely to follow.

3. Common objectives allow people to see that their personal success and organizational success can reinforce each other.

4. There are three dimensions of alignment: company vision, alignment between teams, and alignment with personal priorities.

5. A company vision should never become “wall art.” People need to understand and feel connected to it.

6. Recognizing behaviors that reinforce the vision helps people understand, “this is what we want more of.”

7. Organizations naturally drift toward silo behavior unless leaders deliberately create cross-functional objectives.

8. Horizontal accountability prevents people from saying, “I did my part,” when the overall result wasn't achieved.

9. Some of the most important collaborators are unsung heroes who work across boundaries and may even become targets because of it.

10. An abundance mentality makes collaboration easier because people stop seeing another team's success as their own loss.

11. People bring their hopes, aspirations, and personal priorities to work with them.

12. Employees may owe an organization compliance, but leaders have to earn commitment.

13. Leaders should understand what people want beyond compensation, including growth, career aspirations, meaningful work, and personal development.

14. Investing in people may sometimes slow immediate progress, but it creates long-term capability and commitment.

15. The goal is to create an environment where people can say, “What's good for me is also good for my team and the company.”

Quotes

• “If we don't have common objectives, at some point the person is going to do what is right for them, not for the company.”

• “A lot of vision statements are simply wall art.”

• “People owe you compliance. You have to earn their commitment.”

• “[Their] problems are our problems. We are on the same side.”

• “If one leg of the stool isn't there, the stool is not going to stand.”

• “Don't just recognize the superheroes who fixed the problem. Recognize everyone who helped create the solution.”

• “Treat people as whole persons, not just [pieces] of a machine that is helping you deliver results.”

• “If there's an abundance mentality, we are not so worried about losing something if we help somebody else win.”

• “The answer does not lie in some sophisticated process. It is about practicing simple principles every day.”

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• Transcript

  I'm sure you've heard the phrase, don't sweat the small stuff. You may have even read the book by the same title. In this video, I want to turn that idea upside down and suggest that when it comes to leadership and organizational culture, you should sweat the small stuff, not the big stuff. Not necessarily because the big stuff is not important, but because most people, most organizations get the big stuff right, but they miss the mark on the small stuff. Leaders lose credibility because they make the big announcements, they take the big steps, but then they fall short on following through on the small things. As a leader, when you make a declaration, you're letting people know what you claim to believe. But when they see the behaviors, when they see those ideas in action, then they know what you really believe and who you really are. And that is where we fall short. We may make a vision statement. We may put it on the walls. We may make a company announcement. We may even have a town hall and a Q&A afterwards. But then we don't live those ideas. We don't have the conversations. We don't make sure that those ideas that are embedded in the vision are coming to life for people. and that they can make the connection to their everyday routines. I want to share with you a few examples of how I have seen this play out as I've worked with organizations and leaders where leaders have lost credibility and have come across as hypocrites because they've said one thing, and in effect, they've done something completely different. A word of warning here for you is that it is probably easy to spot how you've been on the receiving end of some of these behaviors. You've probably seen these in your bosses. But as I go through these examples, I'd like you to also examine whether you have been guilty of doing any of these and identify some of the changes that you can make in your behavior so that you can be a lot more effective and align your big, announcements and big steps with the small things that you can do to back them up. One example that comes to mind is building trust in organizations. Everybody says they are trustworthy, that they are gonna trust people and all that. Even the least trustworthy person is not gonna get up in front of people and say, you know what guys, I cannot be trusted. When I was a leader at a plant where trust was destroyed by the previous leaders, I never asked people to trust me. I only asked them to give me the opportunity prove myself trustworthy or not. I ask them to bring their problems to me and then watch how I handle it and give me an opportunity to prove to them that I'm going to follow through and that I'm going to honor my word. And so the problem is that we tell people that we are going to trust them, but then when it comes to our day-to-day behaviors, we micromanage, we second guess, we constantly try to give people the answers that we think they need to go and explore as opposed to giving them some room and some trust to come up with solutions and implement them. Trust is not built in the course of a workshop or as a result of an announcement. People watch us every day to see how we behave. So the missed opportunity shows up in the form of those short conversations where the person is looking to see if you are willing to trust them or you're going to jump in and tell them what to do or second guess whatever they're telling you. Another thing all leaders tell people is we want you to speak up. Psychological safety is important. We want you to challenge us. Everybody says that. But the real test is when somebody says something that the leader does not agree with, how do they behave? All eyes are on the leader at that moment to see how they behave. Do they actually accept the feedback? Do they engage in a productive way to understand the other point of view? Or do they get upset and defensive? Those are the tiny little moments where people find out what you really stand for. So don't sweat the big stuff. You're gonna say the right things. Sweat the small stuff. In that moment when you are feeling defensive, make sure that your behavior reflects this notion of creating psychological safety. I worked in an organization where there was a story that was going around from years past where this leader, had actually gotten up in the middle of a meeting and had thrown his chair at a person who disagreed with him. This was a true story. There were many witnesses, and I heard about this story many times. It took us a while to reverse that trauma and to make sure that people understood that a person in my role is never going to do that, as long as I'm in that role. So beware of those small actions that would destroy trust and destroy psychological safety and will require weeks and months of recovery to get back to where you were. Another thing we say is we want a culture of accountability and we may have certain systems in place. Again, the big stuff is going to be in place. Yes, we have a process by which we communicate where people stand and spell out what the consequences are and so on and so forth. But the small stuff is in the nuances of how we handle things. First of all, accountability is not something that is only created when something goes wrong. As I've explained in a previous video, is something that is built into how we treat people. Accountability is not created when you hold someone accountable when things go wrong. Accountability is created when you create a space and give people an opportunity to behave in an accountable fashion. And so the worst thing that we can do is make all these announcements and yet not hold ourselves accountable and let people off the hook when things go wrong. So we might set an expectation or have a standard, for instance, that everybody is going to be on time for this particular meeting. But then next thing you know, somebody is late. They offer no explanation. expect no explanation. And somebody else is like, well, you know, everybody's going to be late a few minutes anyway, so I might as well just show up 10 minutes late. And therefore, when accountability is not present with one person, it eventually erodes accountability. And we find ourselves in a place where we have a slogan that says we want accountability in our culture, but yet our behavior is completely different. Another common thing that leaders say is, we want people to collaborate. We don't want them to work in their silos. Well, that's great, but how are goals determined and assigned? How is the follow-up done? When something goes wrong, do we actually hold just one person or one team accountable, or do we expect a multifunction solution? Again, I've been in organizations where everybody felt like They just need to be accountable to the boss as opposed to their peers in the other functions. So everything just bubbled up to the top and then possibly got tossed over to the other silo and then went down to the front lines and followed the same sort of routine again. And therefore a lot of time is lost, a lot of efficiency is lost because while we are saying we want people to work collaboratively, our systems and processes and behavior is not necessarily creating that kind of collaboration. Another opportunity that I've seen in organizations to close the gap between what we say and what we do is that we say we want leaders to coach their people. When in fact, many of these leaders have never really been coached on how to coach. They have certain expertise and know how to give the answers, but they don't know how to bring out the best in people. They don't know how to coach. They don't know how to ask the right questions. So if they haven't been coached on how to coach, then how are we going to create a coaching culture within the organization? Now, it is not that difficult to close this gap. All it takes is coaching for people leaders to make sure that they understand that their role is not just to deliver the results, but to create other leaders so that they can think for themselves and come up with ideas and solutions. So the idea that I'd like you to take away from this video is sweat the small stuff, not the big stuff, not because the big stuff is not important, but because most likely you have those covered anyway. In fact, I believe that many times the reason we are so fascinated with the big stuff and we want to get those right is because we'd rather deal with the big stuff than the small stuff. I'll give you a personal example from my life. There was a time here a couple of years ago where my wife and I were looking for a gym. So we wanted to get in shape. We were looking for the perfect gym. And we had our criteria defined and we were asking friends and neighbors and all of this. And this process took a couple of months. And during that time, the floor was there. We could have done some push-ups and some sit-ups, right? But no, we want to do the big stuff. We want to sign up with the right gym because we want to avoid doing the small stuff that are in front of us right here and now. When I work with organizations, I pay attention to two things. One is, are they taking care of the big stuff? Do they have a vision? Do they have a mission? Have they announced it? And so on and so forth. And if they do, then I'm going to look at the small stuff. How is that showing up in the organization, in their everyday behaviors, in their systems, in their processes, in the actions that they take? When an organization does not have the big stuff in place, I don't worry about it so much because I can work with them and have them put those things in place and get on with the small stuff as well, in parallel, by the way. What I worry about is when I see an organization that has the big stuff in place, but they're actually not living it. In fact, in my book, The Transformative Leader, I talk about what I call counterfeit leadership. high commitment cultures, because I draw a distinction between high commitment cultures and default cultures. And I make a case in the book with several examples that the opposite of a high commitment culture is not that people are just doing the exact opposite of what they need to do. Like in high commitment cultures, we are very clear about the direction and our vision and so on and so forth. But the opposite is that we have no vision. We just show up to work and nobody knows where we're going. Well, usually leaders don't do the opposite. They do the counterfeit. In other words, they have a vision in place, but the vision is not about creating something extraordinary. It is about just solving problems and playing whack-a-mole with the issues that are showing up every day. And so I have 11 of these examples in the book where people are not doing the opposite generally, but they are doing the counterfeit. For example, ideally, we want servant leadership behaviors. Well, the opposite of that is dictatorship. But The counterfeit is what I call benevolent dictatorship or paternal or maternal leadership. So what does that mean? That means that I basically, as a leader, have made it known to people that as long as they agree with me and they do what I say, that I will take care of them, right? So it's not exactly dictatorship that I come out and say, hey, you know what? It's my way or the highway and all of that. It's a little softer. It's like, okay, so if you agree with everything that I say, then I'll take care of you. But if not, then we're going to throw you to the wolves, right? And so it's a subtle form of dictatorship. But if you go into an organization like that, everybody's like, oh yeah, we love this leader. They take care of us. But if you dig a little bit deeper, you find out that they're not necessarily empowering people. They don't allow any sort of disagreement or anything like that. So I would encourage you today to think about the small stuff. Think about some of the ways in which you are sending a signal to your organization as to whether they should really believe all the things that they're hearing when it comes to announcements and declarations or not. If you have a set of values, that your company claims to have, and you've put those on the walls and on your company website, are you really living those? From time to time, are you picking those up and bringing them into the conversations to make sure that you are actually incorporating those values in the way that you do your work? If you say that you want people to trust you and you want to demonstrate that you trust them, what are you doing every day to make sure that you're demonstrating that intent? If you say you want people to speak up, when was the last time somebody disagreed with you? And how did you handle that? And was your reaction or your response something that reinforced that idea that there is psychological safety and it's perfectly fine to disagree or not? In closing, I want to say that the ideas that I've presented here and watching this video and possibly agreeing with these fits into the big stuff category. Like, you know, nobody's going to watch this video and say, oh, no, no, I don't think we should trust people. And I don't think we should, you know, give them psychological safety and all of that. So the big stuff side of this says, yeah, that sounds good. Now I'm going to leave you with the small stuff, which is sitting back for a moment and reflecting on what is going on in your organization. Where are you missing the mark personally or as a leadership team on the small stuff? I'd encourage you to identify one thing, just one action that you're going to take, one correction that you're going to make, and go make that happen in the next 24 hours. That's all it takes. Otherwise, you've done the big stuff, you watch the video and you perhaps nodded and agreed, but you neglected the small stuff, which was actually taking some action and doing something to make it happen.

I’ve come to believe that when it comes to leadership and organizational culture, we should “sweat the small stuff,” not the big stuff. Most organizations can get the big things right: they create a vision, announce their values, hold town halls, and establish processes. Where they often lose credibility is in the little things that happen every day. What we say as leaders tells people what we claim to believe. What we do tells them what we actually believe.

I see this gap repeatedly with trust, psychological safety, accountability, collaboration, and coaching. Leaders say they trust people, but then micromanage and second-guess them. They say they want people to speak up, but become defensive when someone disagrees. They say they want accountability and collaboration, but tolerate behaviors and systems that undermine both. They say they want leaders to coach, but often haven't equipped those leaders with the ability to coach. The small moments are where people discover what we really stand for.

I also believe we sometimes focus on the big stuff because it is easier than dealing with the small stuff. We can spend months looking for the perfect gym, for example, while ignoring the fact that we could simply start exercising on the floor in front of us. The same thing happens in organizations. Once the vision, mission, and other big pieces are in place, we need to focus on how those ideas actually show up in everyday behaviors, systems, processes, and decisions.

That is where I see counterfeit leadership emerge. Instead of creating the extraordinary culture we claim to want, we create softer versions of the opposite. We may call it servant leadership, but operate through benevolent dictatorship. We may talk about trust, accountability, and empowerment, but behave in ways that contradict those declarations.

So my challenge is simple: identify one small thing where you are missing the mark and change it within the next 24 hours. Otherwise, you have “done” the big stuff while neglecting the small details that make it real.

Key Points

1. We should “sweat the small stuff,” because that is where leadership credibility is won or lost.

2. Leaders' behaviors reveal what they truly believe, regardless of what they proclaim.

3. A vision statement means little if people cannot connect it to their everyday work.

4. Trust is built through daily interactions, not workshops or announcements.

5. Accountability is created through the conditions leaders establish, not simply by punishing people when something goes wrong.

6. Leaders cannot create a coaching culture if they haven't learned how to coach.

7. Leaders sometimes prefer focusing on the big stuff because it allows them to avoid the uncomfortable small stuff.

8. Once the big organizational pieces are in place, leaders should examine how those ideas show up in everyday behavior.

9. Counterfeit leadership occurs when organizations appear to embrace positive leadership practices while actually operating in ways that undermine them.

10. Leaders should regularly examine whether their values on the wall match their behavior in the workplace.

Quotes

• “When it comes to leadership and organizational culture, you should sweat the small stuff, not the big stuff.”

• “When they see the behaviors, when they see those ideas in action, then they know what you really believe and who you really are.”

• “The tiny little moments [are] where people find out what you really stand for.”

• “The worst thing that we can do is make all these announcements and yet not hold ourselves accountable.”

• “We want to do the big stuff because we want to avoid doing the small stuff that [is] in front of us right here and now.”

• “No amount of big announcements can compensate for the small behaviors that contradict them.”

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• Transcript

  In this video, I want to share with you a few tips on how you can focus yourself and your organization on a few breakthrough priorities that will change the game. I believe it's really important for us to learn from our mistakes. And I can tell you one of the lessons that I had to learn the hard way was the value of setting priorities and not just putting your head down and focusing on doing the best you can on many fronts.

  I still cringe when I think about an assignment when we had a crisis that was unfolding in front of us. And I basically put all of our priorities on a sheet of paper. And I remember putting them all in these different bubbles and basically assigning these bubbles to different groups and all of that. So essentially, as a leader, I was not adding value in setting priorities and focusing the organization. All I was doing was just moving things around and saying, okay, now let's organize these tasks this way or that way.

  So what I ended up learning in that process was that it is important to make sure that priorities are put in three different categories. There's always a lot of work to be done, right? But these three categories define what type of attention we pay to each of the priorities and how much time and how many resources we put against them. The three types of priorities that I'm referring to are Maintain, Improve, and Breakthrough.

  So what does that mean? That means that a lot of work that we do really has to do with basically delivering the day-to-day business results. Those are things that we don't really think about. They just need to be done. We need to put a certain amount of resources against them, make sure that we have our bases covered.

  Then there are those priorities that go into the Improve bucket. These are results or systems or behaviors that we aim to improve, steadily improve. So we do need to put some amount of resources against those.

  And then there's the breakthrough bucket. And this is usually where we identify one or two priorities where we are expecting to achieve a step change improvement. We don't want to identify too many things in this bucket. And that's where people go wrong sometimes, right?

  Now, I've had bosses who would come to me with a number one priority every other week. And I remember distinctly in the midst of that situation where I learned my lesson about setting priorities, I had a boss who just kept dumping number one priorities on me. And at one point, I stopped and asked him, which one of those number one priorities were really number one? And his answer was that they were all number one priorities. Well, it may be that we must deliver all of those, but if you as a leader are just dumping everything on your people and calling everything number one, then they don't really have a good way to think about things and set priorities and make choices around how to allocate resources, and so on.

  So what's really important is to make sure that we have our bases covered by ensuring that those maintained priorities are getting done. Then identify one or two breakthrough priorities where we're expecting a step change and make sure that we have those covered and then put the rest of our resources against those priorities where we want to steadily improve the results. This principle is something that is helpful for individuals as a person. But when it comes to organizations, it's even more important because you want everybody to be on the same page. Now, let's talk a little bit about these game changers and these breakthrough priorities, because this is where a lot of leaders get this wrong.

  In my mind, there are six characteristics that are really important if you are developing a vision, if you're coming up with those breakthrough priorities. The first one is that you've got to create that vision from nothing. It cannot be a new and improved version of today's reality. Your vision can't be to cut your quality defects by 10%. That's just simply saying we're going to maintain 90% of our quality defects and just reduce it by 10%. Now, you may have milestones. You may have targets that you set. but the vision itself really needs to be created from nothing. If we had nothing, what would we create?

  Number two, the vision has to be bold. It has to be something that when people look at it, they're not gonna go like, oh yeah, sure, we can do that, no problem. No, it's gotta be a bold future that is being declared.

  Number three, it has to be simple and memorable. I cannot tell you how many organizations I go to where they say, oh yeah, we have a vision statement. Well, what is it? Well, I don't know. Let me look it up and all of that. And it might just even also be on the wall, but nobody knows what it is. They haven't been able to internalize it. So it's gotta be simple and memorable.

  Number four, the vision has to be unifying. Now you can accomplish this in a variety of ways. in how do you develop that vision, how you identify those breakthrough priorities. Do you get people involved or you just go into a room and come back and say, okay, this is our vision, these are our priorities? No, you can actually start unifying people by getting them involved. Number two, in how you are writing it and how you're expressing that vision or how you're defining those priorities. Do those words represent ideas that people can relate to? And number three, in how you roll it out to make sure that different people in the organization can relate to it and see themselves in it. They can see something in it for themselves and they can see something in it for the organization. So these are ways that you can make sure that your vision or your breakthrough priorities are unifying.

  Number five, your vision or your priorities have to be inspiring. They have to be emotionally appealing to people. It can't just be about some numbers that don't really mean anything to people. We're going to increase our sales by 20%. We're going to deliver this type of result. Well, what does that really mean for me? Do I see myself in that future and what does it mean in terms of my experience and how does it impact me? So people need to be able to emotionally relate to that vision or the results that will be delivered as a result of focusing on those few priorities.

  And lastly, the vision and the priorities need to be widely declared and shared with everybody. This is something that has to go beyond just having a town hall meeting or putting something on the company website or looking at it from time to time. It has to be shared widely.

  Now, these ideas are nothing new. This is not rocket science. We all know these, but there are some nuances to creating a vision, to identifying breakthrough priorities, and actually going through the process of communicating and implementing the work. And these nuances make all the difference in the world. In fact, there are a number of reasons why visioning efforts fail. So let me go over a few of those with you here.

  Number one, we create a vision on top of limiting beliefs. The vision has to be discontinuous. It cannot be just a better version of today. By definition, what that means is that it's going to be bold and it's going to challenge us to really think about ourselves as someone who can actually deliver that. And this is where you run into your deep-rooted beliefs. If you have really believed about yourself that you're not good at this or you're not good at that, and you don't deal with that limiting belief, then that's gonna slow you down. Likewise, if an organization has a low self-image, a negative self-image that says, oh, you know, we've never been able to do this and that, once you set that vision in place, you've gotta make sure that it is developed based on what's possible, not what's holding us back based on our past, and that we actually talk about it and we work through it so that those limiting beliefs are challenged and dealt with.

  Number two, we don't embrace the feeling of having achieved the vision. So what does that mean? That means that we are not only going to elaborate on what that It means that we're not only going to talk about what it means for the business to deliver those results, but we're going to talk about what it really means for the people who are delivering those results. What sort of benefits will we get from delivering those kinds of results? Something that people can sink their teeth into and emotionally connect with.

  Number three, we keep it to ourselves. As I said, a vision or concept, the priorities need to be shared widely. But oftentimes we don't do a good job of sharing openly with everyone what this vision is going to do or what these priorities are going to make available to us. Sometimes that's because we feel like, oh, well, these people are not really affected by it, or those people just need to do X, Y, and Z. And whether we're going for this vision or that vision, it doesn't matter. But you never know. If you widely share it and you don't keep it a secret and you let everybody know where we're going, people can find all kinds of ways to contribute to the journey and accelerate progress.

  Number four, we don't revisit the vision often enough. In other words, we develop the vision, we share it, we put it on the walls, and then we go on about our business. It's important to revisit that vision. It's important to bring it up in different meetings to say, okay, how are we doing against these particular priorities? How are we doing in moving toward our vision? So that people can relate their day-to-day activities with the priorities, with the vision.

  Number five, we form the vision based on what we don't want versus what we want. I remember distinctly coming up with a vision in an organization where we weren't doing very well. But instead of saying, well, we just want to not be the worst, we said we're going to be the best because that is what inspires people. Not that we don't want this or we don't want so many quality defects or we don't want so many injuries. No, we have targets for those results, but the vision itself doesn't need to be based on what we don't want. It needs to be articulated based on what it is that we do want.

  Number six, we hold on to old thought patterns and behaviors that no longer fit our vision. And this is why it's important to revisit the vision on a going basis so we can check ourselves. Is this system, is this process a fit for where we're going? Are these behaviors a good fit for what we want to achieve? Is our mindset the right fit or not? So these are all the minor changes that will make a huge difference if we continue to make those adjustments along the way.

  Number seven, we don't create a compelling enough reason for us to act boldly. In some organizations where they have a burning platform and basically they have a situation where they either have to get better or they're gonna shut down or fail, that reason is there. It's like, look, we don't wanna lose our jobs or whatever it is. But in cases where we are not great, but we're not bad enough to actually act, it is a leader's job to create a compelling reason to act and make things happen.

  And finally, one of the things that we do that holds us back is that we try to chart the entire path of how we're going to get from point A to point Z, when in fact, we can only see a small part of that path. Now, it's important to step out into that future when we declare that bold future and look back from there and identify the key milestones. But when it comes to executing and achieving that vision, it's important to make sure that we have a plan that covers the short term without being bogged down with what's gonna come next and without being overwhelmed by the size of the challenge, because we're only going to make so much progress in the next few steps that we can see. It's important to recognize that the path will unfold in front of you. So yes, get a broad view of the overall journey, but focus in on what's in front of you and don't get overwhelmed by what it takes to make it happen.

  So again, these are just a few tips for you to, number one, set priorities and don't put everything in the same bucket because all the work is not equal. There are some things you're doing to maintain your results. There are some things that you're doing to steadily improve things. And then there are those one or two things that everybody needs to be on the same page on that you're trying to achieve a breakthrough in and create a step change improvement. And then make sure that when it comes to those breakthrough improvements, that you have those characteristics that I talked about in place. And then stay away from the pitfalls that I mentioned to make sure that your visioning effort does not fail. I'd love to hear your suggestions on what you have seen work or not work when it comes to creating a vision or identifying breakthrough priorities.

I’ve learned the hard way that going all out on every front isn’t the way to lead an organization to breakthrough results. When leaders call everything a number-one priority, they leave people without a meaningful way to make choices about where to focus their time and resources.

Early in my career, during a crisis, I essentially took all our priorities and just moved them around on a piece of paper, think that would be enough to solve our issues. I was organizing work, but I wasn’t really leading. That experience, and many others, taught me that categorizing and assigning varying levels of focus to different priorities is a fundamental part of leadership.

When it comes to setting priorities, I suggest three main categories: Maintain, Improve, and Breakthrough. Maintain priorities cover the day-to-day business that simply has to get done. Improve priorities are areas where we want steady progress. Breakthrough priorities are the one or two things where we are looking for a genuine step-change.

When I think about breakthrough priorities and visioning, I look for six characteristics. The vision must be created from nothing, bold, simple and memorable, unifying, inspiring, and widely declared. It should represent what we genuinely want to create rather than simply a slightly better version of today's reality. And people need to see themselves in that future and understand why achieving it matters to them.

I’ve seen plenty of visioning efforts fail because leaders build the vision on limiting beliefs, keep it to themselves, fail to revisit it, focus on what they don't want, hold on to behaviors and systems that no longer fit, fail to create a compelling reason to act, or try to map every step from today all the way to the destination. People need a broad view of the journey, but it is the leader’s role to help them focus on the next few steps they can actually see and influence.

Key Points

1. Not all priorities deserve equal attention.

2. Calling everything a "number one priority" defeats the purpose of prioritization.

3. A breakthrough vision must be created from nothing, rather than simply a better version of today's reality.

4. A compelling vision must be bold, simple, memorable, unifying, inspiring, and widely shared.

5. People need to emotionally connect with what achieving the vision will make possible for them.

6. A vision should be revisited regularly so people can connect their day-to-day work to the larger purpose.

7. Leaders should articulate what they want to create, rather than simply what they want to avoid.

8. Leaders sometimes need to create a compelling reason to act boldly, particularly when there is no obvious crisis forcing action.

9. Don't try to map the entire journey from point A to point Z. Focus on the next steps while keeping the broader destination in view.

Quotes

• “All the work is not equal.”

• “Doing the best you can on many fronts is not the same as setting priorities.”

• “If you as a leader are just dumping everything on your people and calling everything number one, then they don't really have a good way to think about things.”

• “Your vision can't be a new and improved version of today's reality.”

• “If you widely share [the vision] and you don't keep it a secret, people can find all kinds of ways to contribute to the journey.”

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Download the Transformation Blueprint mentioned in the video

I recently found myself confronting a transformation that I had been putting off, and I realized that, as often happens with transformation, I was the main barrier to making it happen. That experience led me to reflect on what has helped me overcome hesitation and make extraordinary things happen in the past. I reverse-engineered those lessons into what I call the Four Cs of Transformation: Commitment, Clarity, Cadence, and Community. I have discovered that while discipline has a role, it is often only a temporary solution. Without the Four Cs, discipline rarely produces sustainable results.

The first C is Commitment. We need to be honest about whether we are truly committed to the outcome we say we want. We can strengthen that commitment by magnifying the benefits of achieving our vision while separating real, actionable barriers from stories and fears that may be holding us back. I have also learned that commitment must be about more than just ourselves. When we focus on the difference we can make for others, we have a much more powerful reason to persevere.

The second and third Cs are Clarity and Cadence. Once we know what we’re committed to, we need Clarity about what must happen to make it a reality. I find it particularly useful to start from the desired future and work backward, rather than allowing today's problems to define my entire plan. Then we need Cadence, a structure that turns intentions into action. My Always, Never, and Sometimes framework is useful for helping decide which behaviors are non-negotiable and where we want to leave room for judgment and spontaneity.

Finally, we need Community. Transformation becomes much more achievable when we have people who encourage us, hold us accountable, benefit from the outcome, and celebrate the milestones with us. Whether we’re pursuing a personal goal or leading an organizational transformation, I have learned that nothing great happens by default. We must always be intentional about creating the conditions that make transformation possible.

Key Points

1. The Four Cs of Transformation are Commitment, Clarity, Cadence, and Community.

2. Discipline can help, but discipline alone is often a temporary solution.

3. Transformation begins with determining whether one is truly committed to the outcome they say they want.

4. We can strengthen commitment by clearly identifying the benefits of achieving our vision, for ourselves and others.

5. We must distinguish between real, actionable barriers and fear-based stories that may be holding us back.

6. A powerful commitment must be about more than personal benefit.

7. Clarity means identifying the actions and milestones required to turn a vision into reality.

8. Looking backward from the desired future can help us avoid becoming consumed by today's problems and immediate priorities.

9. Cadence turns intention into action by creating schedules, routines, and structures that make progress more likely.

10. The Always, Never, and Sometimes framework helps establish clear behavioral commitments while preserving room for judgment and spontaneity.

11. When we miss a commitment, we should regroup rather than use the setback as an excuse to quit.

12. Community creates encouragement, accountability, motivation, and celebration, all of which make transformation more sustainable.

13. The people who benefit from our transformation can become part of the community that helps us achieve it.

14. Nothing great happens by default. Transformation requires intentionality.

Quotes

• "Discipline is a temporary solution to overcoming your desire to give in to temptation and get off track."

• "If what you're committed to only benefits you, you’re often not a big enough reason for you to hang in there and to make it happen."

• “The vision and the dream is kind of a faded picture. But all these other concerns and the potential barriers are very crisp and clear right in front of you.”

• “You have to realize that these pleasures and the pains involved are not always equally represented in our thoughts.”

• "Amplify the whisper and tone down the noise."

• “Staying on track with meeting your commitments is so much more effective when you have a community who cheers you on and is willing to call you out when you're getting off track.”

• "Nothing great happens by default. You've got to be intentional."

• Transcript

  In this video, I'm going to share with you the four key factors, what I call the four C's, of bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to be. I'm also going to give you a free gift from my book, The Transformative Leader. It's called The Transformation Blueprint, which will help you get a head start on planning and implementing your transformation. What has prompted me to make this video is that we, as The Ghannad Group, have been planning a fabulous transformation that we believe is going to make a huge difference for the community of leaders that we serve. And it's been kind of on again, off again. And the main barrier has been yours truly.

  I've been dragging my feet and my state has kind of ranged anywhere from hesitation to full on sabotage to make sure that we're not making as much progress. So I've been doing a lot of soul searching and I've been thinking through what is going on? What is at play here? And what I've discovered in the process is that there are key elements that in the past have helped me overcome this kind of issue and continue to push through to make things happen. And I managed to reverse engineer, if you would, the key factors that helped me get past this type of hesitation in the past. So I'm really excited about that. And I wanted to make a video and share this in case somebody else is in that same position.

  So if you have a dream, if you have a vision, if there's something you always wanted to do, and it seems exciting, and there's no real good reason why you shouldn't pursue it, but you just haven't done it, this video is for you. To be completely transparent, I'm not sitting here trying to pretend that I'm perfect at this and I never get off track. In fact, I've had more failures than I've had successes in pursuing extraordinary goals. But what I can tell you is whenever I made sure that these four key elements are in place, things have turned out to be absolutely amazing. Now, before I tell you what these four C's are, I want to just own up to the fact that discipline did not make the cut when it came to listing what it takes. So let me tell you why, because

  I really believe that discipline is a temporary solution to overcoming your desire to give in to temptation and get off track. Yes, discipline plays a role, but without these four Cs, discipline is just a short-term measure that does not produce long-term results and is not sustainable. So now let me tell you what the four Cs are. The four Cs are Commitment, Clarity, Cadence, and Community.

  Let's talk about commitment. The question here is, are you truly committed to that outcome that you say you're committed to? We all say we want this and we want that, but not all of us are truly committed to that outcome. You know, everybody wants to be healthy. Everybody wants to be wealthy or whatever, but they don't want to become that, right? Because the process of becoming does require you to make certain sacrifices and do certain things and all of that. Now, one thing to examine is the pain and pleasure balance. What is the pleasure in achieving that outcome that you say you're committed to? And what is the perceived pain of making it happen? The problem is that it's not an easy exercise to go through to identify the pain and pleasure. Something you have to realize is that these pleasures and the pains involved are not always equally represented in our thoughts.

  If you think about it, that vision that you have, dream that you have, that thing that you want at some point is whispering to you. While all the concerns and all the sacrifices you have to make and all the potential risks that you have to take, those things are screaming in your ear. They are loud. The vision and the dream is kind of a faded picture out there. But all these other concerns that you have and the potential barriers and perceived issues are very crisp and clear right in front of you. To sort through whether you are truly committed to something or not, what I suggest is that you find a way to magnify the benefits that you will get by making that thing happen, by bringing that vision to life. And at the same time, sort through the concerns and barriers. For instance, you could sit down and write down all the benefits to you and to others and to your community and to the world of making this vision a reality. Just make a list, a very specific list of what's in it for you, what's in it for them, what's in it for all of us, if that happens. And that way you're taking it out of your head and writing it on a piece of paper. You're amplifying in a way the benefits that you would get.

  At the same time, the concerns that are swirling around in your head, what you could do, you could also write those down and you could sort through what's a fact and what's a story that you've made up. What's something that is actionable and what is something that is just a fear from the past that has kind of resurfaced. You can engage somebody else and reading that list out loud to them And that always helps because when you read something out loud, it has a lot more clarity than when it's going through in your head. And actually, if you read it out loud to somebody else, they can help you sort through fact and fiction. And that way you can identify those actionable barriers and then set aside some of the stories that are coming out of your fears.

  So as you go through this process, what you're doing, in fact, is you're amplifying that whisper and you're toning down the noise so you will be more likely to get action on those things that you can do something about to overcome the barriers while you're being fueled by this energy that you get from your excitement about that future that you are about to create. One other thing I will mention about your commitment is that it cannot only be about you. If what you're committed to only benefits you, you are often not a big enough reason for you to hang in there and to make it happen. It has to be about somebody else. When I was writing my book, initially, it started as an idea to make a difference for others. And I was truly passionate about it. And I was writing every single day. Then at some point, it occurred to me that I was going to be an author. I may be famous. I might even be rich. And so at that point, it became about me. Oh, I need to finish this book because this is going to be good for me. And I have to tell you, that slowed me down a lot because every time I sat down to write, I would write something, but they would not be as meaningful. It was not until a few weeks later when I discovered that it had become about me And I rededicated myself and I committed myself to the people who were going to read this book that it started flowing again. I have many of these examples where I have not been a big enough reason for me to hang in there and make something happen. But when it's about somebody else and the benefit they get, then that's a big enough reason.

  So the question I have for you is, what is it that you are committed to? And I think it's important for you to be honest with yourself. That if you truly are not committed to something, then let it go and honor your choice. And it's totally fine. But find something that you are truly committed to making happen. Assuming you are committed to a cause or an outcome that passes the commitment test.

  The next thing you want to do is have a certain amount of clarity around what it takes to make that outcome happen. Now, you may change this list of things that need to happen as you learn more things, as the circumstances change. But based on your current knowledge and everything that you know, write down everything that needs to be done to make it happen.

  Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be in any particular order. Just brainstorm a list and then organize it later. But identify what are some of the key actions that need to be taken. What are some of the key milestones that you need to reach in order to achieve your vision? A word of caution for you is not to just be focused on the immediate challenges that you have. You see, a lot of times when I take leadership teams through an exercise to come up with a strategic plan for the next three years, what happens invariably is that they want to put everything in the next six months and then they don't know what they're going to do in the next two and a half years. So I have a way to facilitate the process so that we're not only focusing on the immediate priorities that are in front of us and lose sight of what needs to happen in the long term. So we do that with a simple and very powerful exercise.

  In fact, one of the ways that you can do that on your own is take an approach that doesn't start with the present moment looking into some distant future. Assume that it is a year from now, two years from now, whatever the timeline is for that transformation that you want to make happen, And then look back from there, independent of today's reality, independent of today's challenges, and just plot out what are some things that need to happen over the course of this timeline to make that outcome happen. And then fill in the blanks with some of the things that need to be done in order to overcome the barriers that you're dealing with in the short term. That way you have a better picture of what it takes to go from point A to point B and not just a view of what it takes to deal with today's problems. Going through this exercise will give you a great deal of clarity on not just what you're committed to, but what you believe, at least at this point, it will take to make it happen. Now, if you're going through this process with your team, of course, you would get them involved in generating ideas. And in fact, it is extremely helpful for everyone to contribute to this process and give their input and ultimately have a certain level of clarity around what it takes to make the vision a reality. Once you know what you're committed to and you have a certain amount of clarity around what it takes to make it happen, you've got to then move to the next C, which is cadence.

  You've got to put a structure in place to make sure that those things that need to happen actually happen. You see, without cadence, we end up with things like these New Year's resolutions that vaporize within 14 days, right? So yeah, my New Year's resolution is I'm going to lose 20 pounds. And I tell you what I need to do is eat less dessert and exercise a little bit more. But then it fizzles out because we have no schedule. We have nothing that we have really committed to in the way of making it happen. So creating a structure is really important. Again, even more so if several people are involved in this, if this is a team effort, but most certainly also for you, if this is an individual goal for you. A practical exercise that I recommend to you is to take all the behaviors and the actions that you've already identified and put them in three buckets. Those three buckets are Always, Never, and Sometimes. So let me explain.

  Always, that bucket includes all the things that you know that you must do without questioning. These are things like okay, I get up in the morning and I brush my teeth. This is not like, okay, do I have time or not and all of this. So those kinds of things in our lives that we do without thinking, without questioning, the always bucket contains those. So for instance, if you've decided that you're going to lose some weight and you've decided that you're going to exercise, you say, okay, you know what? I will always exercise three times a week. You might put in the Never bucket, some things that are the opposite of what needs to be done. So if what needs to be done is we stay away from too many calories and so on and so forth in that particular example, you might decide that at least for a short period of time, you will never have a piece of cake, right? Whatever that is for you, but you get real clear that there are things that you will always do and there are things that you will never do and you don't question them. Now, you can come back and revisit that list and you can change it as often as you want. However, you want to stick to those lists and you want to do what you said you were going to do. Now, why do we have a Sometimes bucket? Because we want to also allow for some spontaneity. We want to allow for some creativity. We don't want to dictate on the front end that I will never do this and I will always do that and there's only two buckets. No, we want to leave some room for judgment.

  Now, going back to this discipline piece, you may decide that you just don't have the discipline to overcome the temptation to have that piece of cake if you go to a cafe that serves all those delicious cakes. And so you might say, I will never go to a cafe. However, somebody else might say, you know what, I trust myself to be able to handle that, so I will sometimes go to the cafe. So it's important to put those actions and behaviors in those three buckets, Always, Never, and Sometimes. Now, once you do this, what you wanna do is create a schedule. If you said you're going to exercise three times a week for 20 minutes on what days, at what time, do the best that you can on the front end, to set it up in a way that has a good chance of getting done. And by the way, if you don't do it, then don't just kind of use that as an excuse to get off track, but reschedule it. Okay, something came up and you messed up or something happened. All right, so you didn't do it today. What are you gonna do now? When are you gonna reschedule that for? Now, I know this is a very simple process and it may not seem like it is all that powerful, But this cadence, this schedule makes all the difference in making sure that those things that need to get done will get done. Once you have a commitment and you're clear and you've got the right cadence in place, the last C is community.

  Staying on track with meeting your commitments is so much more effective when you have a community who cheers you on and is willing to call you out when you're getting off track. When you have accountability partners who are willing to be there for you to make sure that you are continuing to meet your commitment, it makes all the difference. A community is also essential in keeping us motivated to keep going because they will benefit from the outcomes that we achieve. If you are committed to improving your health, your family and your friends could be your community because they will enjoy your longevity. They will enjoy your vitality. If you're working on a project at work, your coworkers, your colleagues, the other stakeholders at work would benefit from the outcomes of that initiative. Finally, there's nothing like having a community that you celebrate with. It is important to celebrate the milestones, no matter how small they are. So I would encourage you to identify your community. Declare your intentions. Let them know that you want them to hold you accountable if you get off track. Remember, nothing great happens by default. You've gotta be intentional.

  And my hope is that these four Cs, Commitment, Clarity, Cadence, and Community will help you get going with that commitment that you have been putting on the back burner for some time. Now, I also promised to give you a tool and a process from my book. The tool is called the Transformation Blueprint, and the guide that I'm getting ready to share with you that you can download for free asks you 10 questions, and it gives you explanations on how to answer these questions so you can prepare to implement your transformation successfully. Please click the link in the description or comments and download this tool, and I would love to hear how it's working out for you. I wish you the very best. May you boldly declare, courageously pursue, and abundantly achieve the extraordinary.

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I believe accountability has gotten a bad reputation because we often associate it with punishment after something has gone wrong. But accountability can be much more empowering. Contrary to popular belief, we cannot actually "hold" anyone else accountable. What we can do is create the conditions in which people choose to act accountably. That starts with clear expectations, timely feedback, encouragement when people do well, and a willingness to address low performance rather than simply tolerate it.

For me, creating those conditions begins with setting a high bar while assuming positive intent. If I assume someone is lazy or incapable, I can use that assumption to excuse myself from giving them the feedback and support they need. But if I believe they want to do the right thing and are capable of doing it, I have a responsibility to give them clear direction, provide feedback, and expect their best performance.

I often demonstrate this paradox in my workshops by asking people to rate their organization's accountability from 0 to 10 and then rate their own personal accountability. The organization typically gets a 3 to 5, while individuals rate themselves between 6 and 9. That gap exists because we often fail to hold ourselves accountable for creating the conditions that produce accountability in others.

I also believe that failing to hold someone to a high standard can actually be a form of disrespect. If I genuinely respect someone, I believe in their ability to do better and I am willing to give them honest feedback. Ultimately, leaders are judged by the worst behavior they tolerate, not simply by their own behavior. Accountability, therefore, is not a final act of punishment. It is an ongoing process of creating an environment where people can and do take responsibility for their performance.

Key Points

1. Accountability should not be viewed primarily as punishment.

2. We cannot hold other people accountable, but we can create conditions that encourage accountable behavior.

3. Leaders must assume positive intent and believe people are capable of doing the right thing.

4. There is often a significant gap between how people rate their own accountability and how they rate organizational accountability.

5. Leaders must hold themselves accountable for creating the conditions that produce accountability.

6. Failing to give someone feedback or hold them to a high standard can actually be a form of disrespect.

7. Leaders are judged by the worst behavior they tolerate in the organization.

Quotes

• "You cannot hold anyone accountable other than yourself."

• "If we assume that people don't want to do the right thing, we let ourselves off the hook."

• "If you truly respect someone, you hold them to high standards."

• "Leaders are not judged by their best behavior. They're not even judged by their worst behavior. They are judged by the worst behavior that they tolerate in the organization"

• "[Creating] accountability is a process of creating conditions in which people [choose to] act in an accountable fashion."

• Transcript

  Accountability is often a dirty word in organizations because most people associate accountability with the action that is taken when something goes drastically wrong. But there's a whole other way that we can look at accountability that is much more empowering, much more productive, right? I mean, let's face it. When we think of accountability issues in organizations, we often think of holding people accountable. Why isn't somebody holding this person accountable? In my view, you cannot hold anyone accountable other than yourself. All we can do is create conditions in which people act in an accountable fashion or not. Now, those conditions can be created by doing several different things, being clear about expectations, making sure that people get timely feedback, making sure that they are encouraged when they are doing something well. And at the same time, also making sure that we don't tolerate a low performance and just kind of let the person off the hook. And when I think about creating conditions in which people operate in an accountable fashion, it has to start with

  setting a high bar for people and making sure that at the same time that we hold them to high standards, that we assume positive intent and we assume that they want to do the right thing, right? Because if we assume that they are lazy and they don't want to do the right things or they don't have any capability, then we let ourselves off the hook on giving them feedback. But if we assume positive intent and we know that the person is capable, then it is only natural that we give them clear direction, we provide them with feedback, and we make sure that they are basically performing to the best level that they can perform. Now, in my keynotes or workshops, I ask people who say we have an accountability issue,

  I asked them, if you were to rate from zero to 10, the level of accountability in your organization, 10 being absolutely amazing, zero is ultimate chaos and nobody's doing the right things and all of that, give yourself a score as an organization, but don't tell me. And then I asked them a second question. I said, I want you to rate yourself on your own personal accountability. And then I make a guess and I'm, always right in that the answer to the first question is often somewhere between three to five. And the answer to the second question is most of the time somewhere between six and nine. And so how is it possible that everybody in the audience rates themselves that high, but the level of accountability within the organization is always lower? Well, it's because we don't hold ourselves accountable for making sure that the right feedback is given and the right action is taken. I remind leaders that while I really believe in treating people with compassion and respect, we often miss this idea that not giving someone feedback, not holding them to high standards, or sometimes, as I said, we say, oh, bless his heart, he's never gonna do any better. That's a sign of disrespect. If you truly respect someone, you do hold them to high standards. And when you fail to do that as a leader, then you are judged by others by the behavior that you are tolerating. Leaders are not judged by their best behavior. They're not even judged by their worst behavior. They are judged by the worst behavior that they tolerate in the organization. So let's start thinking about accountability not as a final act of doing something negative to someone and start thinking about it as a process of creating conditions in which people act in an accountable fashion.

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One of the biggest barriers to collaboration I’ve seen is holding to a mindset of "I've done my part" instead of "I'll do what it takes." It reminds me of the story of a cobbler who agreed to repair one side of a customer's shoe but noticed the other side was about to fail. Although he wouldn't be paid for the extra work, he faced a choice that every leader encounters: Do I do only what I'm compensated for, or do I do what's right? That same choice determines whether organizations thrive or become trapped in silos.

I have seen this dynamic play out repeatedly in organizations. One memorable example involved employees arguing over who should wash shared spoons in a laboratory. Every attempt to solve the problem with rules and schedules failed because the issue wasn't the process. It was the mindset. Everything changed when people stopped asking, "Is this my job?" and instead started asking, "What needs to be done?" When everyone takes ownership, collaboration becomes automatic.

This principle applies at every level of leadership. I've coached senior executives who felt they were doing more than their peers and wanted the other person to make the first move. My advice is always the same: be the one who breaks the cycle. Waiting for someone else to change only guarantees that nothing changes. Transformative Leaders role-model the behavior they want to see rather than demanding it from others first.

Real transformation begins when we stop measuring whether we're doing our fair share and start measuring whether we're making the difference that needs to be made. Going beyond the call of duty may not always bring immediate recognition, but it builds trust, inspires others, and creates a culture of proactive, enthusiastic collaboration.

Key Points

1. The story of the cobbler illustrates the choice between doing only what you're paid for and doing what’s right.

2. A 50-50 commitment focuses on completing assigned responsibilities, while 100% commitment focuses on achieving the desired outcome.

3. Silo mentality often begins when people define their responsibilities too narrowly.

4. Processes and rules cannot replace a culture of personal ownership.

5. Leaders must role-model the behaviors they expect from others instead of waiting for others to change first.

6. Collaboration improves when people ask, "What needs to be done?" rather than, "Whose job is this?"

7. Taking the first step often encourages others to follow.

8. Intrinsic satisfaction from doing the right thing ultimately outweighs external rewards.

Quotes

• "The difference between success and failure is often the willingness to do what you won't be acknowledged or compensated for."

• "Fifty-fifty commitment says, 'I'll do my part.' One hundred percent commitment says, 'I'll make sure the job gets done.'"

• "The fastest way to change a culture is to role-model the behavior you want to see instead of waiting for someone else to go first."

• "Stop asking, 'Is this my job?' and start asking, 'What needs to be done?'"

• "Every organization has people waiting for someone else to take the first step. Transformative Leaders break that cycle."

• "Go ahead and sew the fourth and fifth stitch, even when no one is paying you for them."

• Transcript

  There was a cobbler and a guy came to him with his pair of shoes. And the cobbler took a look at the shoe and it was damaged on one side. And he told the guy it's going to take three stitches because apparently in those days they charged by the number of stitches. So this guy says, okay, it's going to take three stitches over here. It'll be really great. So the guy leaves his shoes and he's going to come back the next day. So the cobbler goes to work and he puts those three stitches on. and yeah, sure enough, it looks really good. But then he notices that on the other side, the shoe is about to fall apart and he's going to need to put on a couple more stitches. And so this cobbler wasn't very rich, he wasn't doing very well, and those additional stitches were going to cost him, but he couldn't charge the guy anymore because he had already quoted the price. So at this point, he was faced with this challenge of,

  Do I actually give the guy the shoe because I've done everything that I said I was going to do? I'm going to charge him what I said I was going to charge him. Or do I actually go out of my way and fix the other side of the shoe because I know it's going to fall apart? And so the moral of the story there is that that's the question that we are often faced with. Do I only do what I'm going to be acknowledged for or what I'm going to be compensated for? Or do I go above the call of duty and do some things that I may not be compensated or acknowledged for simply because it is the right thing to do. The cobbler could have stopped right there and said, look, it is not illegal nor is it immoral for me to just give the guy his pair of shoes back. He's going to pay me what I asked for and I have done what I said I was going to do. Now, I run into this all the time in

  my practice, and certainly in the many years that was in the corporate world, I saw it all the time, where the difference between success and failure, the difference between working in silos within organizations or working together collaboratively was whether we were willing to go out of our way or we were just really careful to say, okay, wait a minute, that's not our job, it's their job. This is not something that I'm getting paid for. That's what they need to do and so on and so forth, right? So in real life, I've seen many examples of this and some of you may have heard the story. I was a plant manager at one point and we had this one problem that as the plant manager, I got tied up in many times. People would pull me into this one issue and the issue was this, that in the lab, we had a problem. We had a number of spoons

  And nobody would wash them. They would use the spoons and then dump them in the sink. And then the problem was, wait a minute, you didn't wash your share of the spoons. Well, you need to use it. You wash it. Now I washed mine. And so this problems of people are not washing spoons always would bubble up to the plant manager and I would have to go play referee. So they tried all kinds of things, right? They said, okay. I tell you what, on Mondays, I'll wash the spoons, and on Tuesdays, you wash the spoons. So they tried to structure this collaboration. They tried to put some structure and rules around this, but it still wasn't working. And it wasn't until we got real clear about this notion of being on the court versus being in the stands, about not waiting for somebody else to do their part so that we can do our part. It wasn't until then that we got real clear

  That was the solution. Instead of trying to structure everything to make sure I don't do any more than I have to, what we're going to do is I'm simply going to do what needs to be done. And guess what? If everybody does that, then there is no problem. Then there is no inequity. And if one person doesn't do it in an environment like that, then they stand out and we can deal with that. But you know what the problem is, though? You say, okay, in theory, that sounds good. If everybody just always did more than they could, Nobody actually is going to end up doing more than they should. However, the problem is, how do I know that if I go first, that you're going to follow? I'm going to wait to make sure you do your part before I do more than my fair share. Well, guess what? They're waiting for you to do the same thing. So somebody has to break the cycle.

  Therein lies the problem because I think what happens is many times we are in that position of saying, okay, you know what? Technically, I've done my part, right? And we have justification saying, hey, you know what? I've done enough to where if this thing doesn't go well, I have plenty of evidence to say I've done my part. But does that actually do the job? And this is the difference between 100% commitment and 50-50 commitment. 50-50 commitment is partial and conditional. It says, I'll do my part. But 100% says, I am concerned about making sure the job is done. Now, I have to tell you, this problem is pervasive. It goes throughout the entire organization. I've had coaching clients who were at the president, CEO, COO level who weren't getting along, and I was coaching them. And literally,

  Their concern was, wait a minute, this seems a bit one-sided because it seems like I'm doing everything to make this work. And you know what? My response to them was, yeah, I know it feels one-sided to you. But guess what? It also feels one-sided to the other person because you both are expecting the other person to take the step. And I don't care how it looks to you. I want this to be one-sided as far as you're concerned. You take the steps and don't worry about the other guy. Because many times what happens is when you take an extra step, then other people will as well. So in your situation, whether you are the leader within the organization or you're working with your peers, and if this shows up, one of the best ways to break that cycle, to change that cycle, is to literally role model what you wanna see in other people. I know you're gonna be tempted to say, well, what if they don't follow?

  You're going to be tempted to ask whether they're going to take advantage of you. But all of those things are cop-outs. Those are ways in which we talk ourselves out of taking a step forward. And then when things don't go right, when things don't work out, we blame everybody else. So my encouragement to you would be, as our friend the cobbler shows us in that story, to go ahead and do that fourth and fifth stitch, even though you didn't get paid for it. And you'll see that sort of mentality will permeate through the organization and people will notice. And whether you get extrinsically rewarded for it or not, it will be rewarding to you intrinsically. And you will come to know yourself as a person who is willing to go above the call of duty, even when it doesn't seem like it is in your personal best interest. Role model that kind of behavior

  and witness the kind of magic that it creates in your organization. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Have you experienced it one way or another? What are you willing to try? Let's engage with this dialogue and see what's going on within our community relative to this topic and what people are thinking. What's been your experience? If you want to push back on it and say, you know what, in this kind of situation, it doesn't work. Okay, let's get into a dialogue. So I wish you a wonderful week. and I will leave it with you right here.

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In my experience, one of the biggest misconceptions in leadership is believing that people owe us their commitment. They don't.

While people do owe us compliance because we pay them, commitment, trust, and discretionary effort must be earned. When people don't trust their leader, they may do what they're required to do, but they are unlikely to consistently bring their very best to work. That's why I believe trust is the foundation of extraordinary leadership.

Over the years, I've identified 10 simple habits that help leaders earn trust rather than demand compliance. These include genuinely listening to people, generously sharing information, communicating with clarity, keeping promises, giving meaningful positive feedback, admitting mistakes, speaking well of people when they're not present, empowering others with real authority, showing authentic interest in people as whole human beings, and learning what uniquely motivates each individual. None of these habits is complicated, but together they create an environment where people willingly choose to give their best.

I've also learned that trust grows when leaders consistently demonstrate that they have people's best interests at heart. Whether it's investing in employees' personal development, acknowledging their contributions, or trusting them with meaningful responsibility, people pay close attention to our actions. They don't just listen to what we say. They watch what we do, and that's what ultimately determines whether they trust us.

So the next time you're tempted to complain that your people have an entitlement mentality, I encourage you to first look in the mirror. Ask yourself: Have you unintentionally developed an entitlement mentality of your own by expecting commitment instead of earning it? Pick one or two trust-building habits, practice them consistently, and you'll be amazed at the difference they make in building commitment, trust, and having people go above and beyond without even needing to ask.

Key Points

1. People owe leaders compliance, not commitment. Commitment must be earned through trust.

2. Trust is the foundation of discretionary effort and long-term engagement.

3. Leaders must actively seek out and listen to a wide variety of perspectives.

4. Sharing information generously helps people understand the bigger picture. Clear communication eliminates confusion about expectations and direction.

5. Keeping promises builds credibility and demonstrates respect.

6. Genuine, specific positive feedback strengthens relationships and makes constructive feedback easier to receive.

7. Admitting mistakes creates opportunities to build trust rather than damaging it.

8. Empowering people with real decision-making authority demonstrates confidence in them.

9. Showing authentic concern for employees as whole people builds deep loyalty.

10. Leadership is not one-size-fits-all. Different people are empowered by different things, and leaders must adapt accordingly.

Quotes

• "People don't owe you commitment. They owe you compliance. Commitment is something you have to earn."

• "Don't just share information on a need-to-know basis. Give people perspective on the bigger picture."

• "When things go wrong, you have a perfect opportunity to build trust."

• "People don't care what you know until they know that you have their best interest at heart."

• "The next time you find yourself complaining about entitlement, look in the mirror and ask whether you have an entitlement mentality yourself."

• Transcript

  In this video, I'm going to share with you 10 simple habits that will make you so much more effective as a leader because they will help you genuinely earn people's trust and their commitment. Do the people on your team have an entitlement mentality? You know what I'm talking about. You share information, you get them involved in decisions, you do all kinds of things to get them involved, but you can just never do enough. I want to share with you that their entitlement mentality is not the problem. Yours is. You may think that you're entitled to their commitment, to their discretionary effort, but you're actually not. You're entitled to compliance. You give them a paycheck, you give them benefits, and they owe you compliance. But that only gets them to the point where they give you what they owe you.

  It doesn't earn you their commitment. What earns commitment is something entirely different. One thing I can tell you is trust is at the foundation of earning commitment. I mean, if you think about your own experiences, have you ever been truly motivated and committed to support a boss who you didn't trust? If you didn't think they had your best interest at heart, Did you really go out of your way to support them and to give them your best? Well, the same is true for everyone. You know, some people have a tendency to be more generous with their discretionary effort. But at the end of the day, if people don't trust their leader, then they're not going to sustainably bring their best to work. In this video, I'm going to share with you 10 simple habits that will make you so much more effective as a leader because they will help you genuinely earn people's trust and their commitment. These actions and behaviors are not a one size fits all formula. They are merely suggestions for you to consider. Out of this list of 10, you may be doing very well at one or two of them.

  or not doing so great at some of the other ones. So you get to choose which ones you want to focus on and really take to the next level. So let's get into these 10 trust-building habits. Number one, take time to listen. And I'm not just talking about being a good listener when you are in a conversation. You may be an active listener. You may even be better than that. You may be what Stephen Covey calls an empathic listener, where you listen with not just your ears, but with your eyes and with your heart, where you really put yourself in the other person's world. And that is amazing. But you need to go beyond that. You need to make sure that you're not just exposing yourself to the few people that you need to talk to every day, that you actually take the time to

  hear everybody else's perspective. Give yourself exposure to as many people as you possibly can. Now, sometimes that's possible if you have a smaller team to do it in person. Sometimes you have to put mechanisms in place to do it virtually. But at the end of the day, what people want to know is, are you interested in my perspective? And if you don't genuinely listen, you don't take the time to listen, or you don't really do a good job of listening while you're in the conversation, that's not going to work out well. Number two, generously share information. Don't just share information on a need-to-know basis. Actively demonstrate to people that you're willing to take some chances by sharing some sensitive information with them. Don't just give them information about

  the little piece of the work that they are handling, but give them perspective on the bigger picture. Number three, deliver a clear message every time you communicate. Speak their language. Don't water down bad news. Make clear requests. Be clear about your expectations. Share your commitments and ask for theirs. Don't leave people wondering what you were trying to say. You know, my favorite is when you share some ideas, be clear as to whether that's input, recommendation, or direction. The difference is input is something for the person to decide whether they're going to use or not. Recommendation is a little stronger than that. that says you still get to decide whether you're going to use it or not, but if you decide not to use it, I'd like to know why. But direction is something that is much stronger than that. Now, the person may still decide that they want to push back on it, but they don't get to make that choice on their own, you see. So what often happens when communication is not clear is that you walk out of your boss's office

  or you come out of a conversation and you're wondering, did they just tell me to go do that or were they just making a suggestion? So be clear about your suggestions and your direction. Number four, keep your promises. If you make a commitment and you're not able to meet that commitment, get back to them and communicate with them as if they are your boss. Make sure that people understand that they are as important to you as your boss or someone else in the organization that has more authority than you. Condition them to know that when you give them your word, that they can take it to the bank, that you will keep your commitment, and if you're not able to, that you will at least communicate with them. This will also help you set

  an example and be a role model for them to do the same thing. Number five, regularly share genuine positive feedback. Make sure that you do it in a way that causes the person to truly feel acknowledged. Don't be distracted, don't be general. Look the person in the eye, make sure that you are very, very clear about what you're acknowledging them for. If you're writing a message on email, make sure that you bring up some specifics and do this regularly and do it abundantly. Because what you wanna do is you wanna put chips in the bank. You wanna constantly make deposits into that emotional bank account so that you don't hesitate when the time comes for you to give them some constructive feedback, something that they need to do differently. You see, so the value of positive feedback

  goes a long, long way in that it builds people up and it also makes it a whole lot easier for you to share constructive feedback with them. Number six, admit your mistakes and take responsibility for your shortcomings. When you make a mistake or when you miss a commitment or when you do something that falls short of who you want to be, admit it. You don't have to be a victim and feel bad about it and all of that. You just need to be honest about it, admit what happened, take responsibility for it, and let them know what they can expect from you in the future. In fact, when things go wrong, you have a perfect opportunity to build trust because that is when people are looking to see if you are a person who just deflects that responsibility and blame somebody else,

  or you're willing to stand up and say, that was me, I messed up, and here's what you can expect in the future. Number seven, speak up for those who are not present. When you engage in gossip and talking negatively about others who are not present, the people in that conversation will eventually recognize that you're also going to talk about them when they're not present. So this is a very important habit to develop is to not engage in gossip. It's perfectly fine to talk about facts and do it in the spirit of action planning. If someone is not doing well, okay, what do we need to do to have that conversation? But if you engage in gossip and talking negatively about somebody, then trust is eroded in that relationship, even if the other person is engaged in the same negative conversation with you. Number eight, give others the authority to make decisions, the results of which you are accountable for. In other words, I'm giving you the accountability, I'm giving you the authority to make decisions in this area

  knowing that if you don't do the right things, I would have to answer for that. In another video, I shared how I gave someone the authority to sign for $5,000 worth of parts when in fact on the books, they were only allowed to sign for 250. Well, I was still accountable, but I trusted them to go ahead and make those decisions knowing full well that if they made bad decisions, I could not blame them, I would actually have to answer to my boss. That kind of thing has massive trust-building power. Number nine, demonstrate your authentic interest in people as whole persons, not just someone who is a piece of machine that you're using to get the results that you want to get, but show interest in them.

  Now, everybody may not be interested in talking about all the private details of their lives, and that's totally fine, but show interest in making sure that they know that you are interested in them as a whole person. You may have heard me tell stories about a plant that I was leading at one point, and we essentially went to work. I say we, it was because it was me and my wife. She was the only consultant I could afford. because I had no budget and she was free. But she and I set out to help people improve their lives relative to their health, their relationships, their personal finances, and all of those kinds of things. And years later, as we had lots of success in helping people transform their lives,

  somebody told me, they said, you know, Amir, all those times when you were coming in at 7.30 in the morning to hold those classes about personal finance and all of that, we were thinking, what does this guy have up his sleeve? Why is he doing all of this? And at some point somebody said, well, maybe the guy just wants to help us out, right? Maybe he has our best interest at heart. And that had a lot to do with people trusting me and making up for my shortcomings so that as a team, we became very, very successful. And number 10, learn what empowers people professionally and deliver it to them. Don't use a one size fits all approach with everybody. Learn what makes people tick. If they have a desire to have more information, give it to them.

  If they have a need to get better at something, get into their world and figure out what that is and make the resources available. Let them know with your actions, not just your words, that you are willing to invest in them to make sure that their needs are met. If you take these 10 trust building actions and habits into account, evaluate them and pick one or two that you want to get better at and go to work at it, I assure you that it will make a huge difference in you earning people's trust and their commitment and the discretionary effort that you would like to have. So next time you find yourself complaining about people having an entitlement mentality, Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you have an entitlement mentality and if you feel that people owe it to you to bring their best to work. Then go to work on some of these habits and earn their commitment.

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If you feel stuck in your transformation, the good news is you’re already doing most of the right things. What you need isn’t a complete overhaul, it’s just one small, powerful tweak.

In my experience, when a transformation stalls, it usually isn't because everything is wrong. More often, it's because one outdated mindset or one missing ingredient is holding everything else back. I learned this lesson years ago while facilitating a client session in downtown Atlanta. Trying to save ten dollars on parking, I parked several blocks away, arrived soaked from the rain, and realized I was still operating with a scarcity mindset that no longer served me. That experience became the lesson that I now call "Pay the Parking Fee."

I've come to realize that transformation requires letting go of ways of thinking that helped us succeed in the past but now limit our progress to the future; what was once a propeller always eventually becomes an anchor. Just as a tuxedo doesn't look complete with dirty tennis shoes, leadership and organizational transformation can be undermined by one habit, belief, or practice that no longer fits. The goal isn't to throw everything away. It's to identify the one thing that is preventing everything else from coming together.

I've seen this repeatedly in organizations. A company may be doing dozens of things right to build trust, yet one contradictory signal can undermine all of it. Leaders may invest heavily in training and development, but if they never give people the opportunity to apply what they've learned, the training never translates into lasting growth. (That's why our Transformative Leadership Accelerator program focuses not only on tools and coaching, but on giving participants meaningful challenges where they immediately put new ideas into practice.)

So before you abandon your transformation efforts, take a closer look. Chances are you're already doing most of the right things. Instead of asking, "What am I doing wrong?" ask, "What is getting in the way?" Like a pot of soup that's missing just a little salt, sometimes one small adjustment is all it takes for everything else to come together.

Key Points

1. Most stalled transformations are caused by one missing ingredient, not a fundamentally flawed strategy.

2. Old mindsets that once served us eventually become barriers to future success.

3. Small mindset shifts often produce disproportionately large improvements.

4. Organizational culture is strengthened when leaders eliminate contradictory signals.

5. A single inconsistent practice can undermine many positive leadership behaviors.

6. Leadership development requires opportunities to apply new knowledge, not just learn it.

7. Stretch assignments and real-world challenges accelerate leadership growth.

8. Before changing everything, identify what single factor is preventing progress.

9. Continuous transformation depends on regularly examining and updating our assumptions.

Quotes

• "Sometimes you've got to pay the parking fee."

• "Transformation often stalls because of one outdated mindset, not because everything else is wrong."

• "Don't second-guess all the things you're doing right. Ask what's getting in the way."

• "We don't transform by working harder. We transform by thinking differently."

• "Training changes very little unless people have the opportunity to apply what they've learned."

• "A single missing ingredient can be the difference between frustration and breakthrough."

• Transcript

  In this video, I want to share some good news with you. If your transformation is stalling, if you're not making as much progress as you want, it may not be because you're doing everything wrong. In many cases, all it takes is a little tweak. In fact, if you're watching this video and if you're interested in my content, I can almost guarantee you that you're doing most of what needs to be done right. It's just a matter of figuring out what is messing things up. I want to share with you a real life story that has been a lesson that has kept on giving for years and years. This story is featured in my book, The Transformative Leader, in a chapter called Pay the Parking Fee. Many years ago, I had a facilitation gig. I was working full time. But at the same time, I had just gotten certified as a facilitator and I was moonlighting. I would take a vacation day and I would work with a client. And in many cases, I would take the client to the mountains for a day or two, and we would come back with a five-year plan. And on this particular day, I was facilitating a session at a client's office near downtown Atlanta. as I pulled into their garage underneath their building, I saw a sign that said parking was $15 for the day. And I was like, no way, I'm not paying $15. So I pulled back out and I'd seen a sign for parking for five bucks, one of these outdoor lots. So went down there about two or three blocks down, parked my car. And by the time I started walking over to the office, it was drizzling a little bit. As I got a little bit closer to the office, it was raining. So I'm going faster, I'm getting wet. So by the time I got to the client's office, I was drenched and I was out of breath. I still had a few minutes to prepare and the session went well, but that was cutting it too close. I remember that afternoon when I was leaving the client's building, I was thinking to myself, why did I do that? 15 bucks for parking was not a lot of money compared to the thousands of dollars that they were paying me for the day. But my mindset was still the one that I had from years before. See, I came to the US when I was 16 years old, I didn't have a whole lot of money. I didn't know anybody. I didn't speak the language. I didn't have any resources at all. In fact, while I was in high school, I ended up getting the job as a dishwasher, only making $2 an hour. And over time I had developed this mindset of being frugal and not spending any more money than I have to. But that had been many years prior. And at that point, while I was making the kind of money that would make it real easy for me to afford the $15, I still had that mindset. So that day I learned a lesson that sometimes you've got to pay the parking fee. Sometimes you have to let go of some of the mindsets and thought processes that you've had in the past so that you can move forward. The way I describe it in the book is like going to a formal ball and you have your tuxedo on and everything is looking great, except you have dirty tennis shoes on. Everything else is okay, but that piece does not fit. The same thing is true with our mindset in life or as a leader in the workplace. It's not so much that we're not doing the right things. Sometimes it's because we're holding on to a way of thinking that is no longer conducive to our progress and our success. So since then, my kids who are working with me now on our team oftentimes say to me, okay, you know what? We just need to pay the parking fee. And we all know what that means. That means that we are trying to be too frugal when we don't really have to be, or that we don't want to put in a certain kind of effort because we don't think it's going to work. But if we pay the parking fee, that means we're taking on a different mindset that is really aimed at making great things happen as opposed to being held back by our previous mindset. So coming back to the transformation that you're aiming for, whether it's changing the culture of your workplace, transforming the level of leadership capability that you have, causing people to want to take more initiative and be involved, or work better together as a cohesive team as opposed to going into their silos. Whatever transformation you're out to cause, if it's stalling, if it's not happening, it's discouraging. Sometimes it causes you to question everything you're doing. Oh, I'm not doing this right. I shouldn't be doing this. Maybe that's not right. Maybe. And many times that's not really the case. Many times all it is that you got to tweak something. There's something that is holding you back. Like I mentioned in one of our previous videos, in one case we were doing as a plant, everything that we could to make sure that everyone felt valued. But there was one thing that we weren't doing right. And that was that we had two separate entrances for the haves and have nots. And we eliminated that issue. And it sends a very strong signal to the entire organization because to them, it was clear. Yes, you're doing this right. You're doing that right. You're involving us in decisions and so on and so forth. But that right there doesn't fit, right? And the moment we fix that, then everything came together and we increased the level of trust. If you are developing leaders, for instance, it could be that you're sending them to the right classes, you're giving them the right resources, but you're not necessarily trusting them to make certain decisions or take their new learnings for a test drive. Oftentimes that's the case. We give people all kinds of information. We put them in training sessions and give them tools and in some cases skills, but we don't necessarily give them the opportunity to use it. This is the main reason that our transformative leadership accelerator program really works very well. Because during this three-month program, not only do we give people tools and skills, but everybody takes on a big, hairy, audacious goal, if you will. Everybody takes on a project that they're working on that really stretches them to be their best and to seek out better ways to do things as opposed to just working harder and trying to do better. And in the course of delivering those results, as we give them more tools and more coaching, then they take it and apply it right away. And in many cases, that is exactly what's missing. Are people getting the opportunity to apply what they're learning? So I would encourage you if you are working on a transformation, if you are committed to making the transformation happen, think about all the various components that you have in place. And I would encourage you not to second guess all the great things that you're doing, but ask the question, what is getting in the way of all of these things working? If you're cooking a delicious soup, you may have all the right ingredients, but if you forget to put salt in there, then it is a bit bland and you don't taste anything. The moment that you put a little bit of salt in, that is what transforms the taste of that soup and everything comes together. So what kind of soup are you making and what is the one ingredient that is missing, the presence of which would make a tremendous difference?

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I have learned that getting people to buy into a vision takes far more than creating a vision statement or talking about it in town halls. The visible work of writing a vision is the easy part. The real challenge is consistently sending signals that convince people the vision is real. I've found that four specific actions dramatically increase people's commitment to a shared future.

First, I make the vision tangible by defining what success actually looks like in practical, everyday terms. Abstract slogans don't inspire action, but clear descriptions of the future do. Second, I help people see themselves in that future through meaningful one-on-one conversations. When people personally identify with the vision, it stops being my vision and becomes their own.

Third, I believe leaders must put their money where their mouth is by backing up their words with trust, authority, and meaningful action. If we expect people to take ownership, we must be willing to give them the authority to make decisions and demonstrate our confidence in them. Finally, I look for highly visible actions that reinforce the culture we want to create. The smallest symbolic changes often send the strongest messages about what we truly value.

In my experience, people don't buy into a vision because they hear it repeatedly. They buy into it because they can clearly picture it, see themselves contributing to it, experience leaders making sacrifices for it, and observe visible evidence that the organization is serious about creating that future.

Key Points

1. Creating and communicating a vision statement is necessary but not sufficient.

2. Make the vision concrete by describing what success actually looks and feels like.

3. Help people see themselves personally succeeding in the envisioned future.

4. One-on-one conversations are often more powerful than large town halls for creating buy-in.

5. Leaders build credibility by backing up their words with meaningful actions.

6. Trust grows when leaders give people the authority to make decisions instead of simply talking about empowerment.

7. Symbolic actions can reinforce cultural values more effectively than speeches.

8. Organizational signals speak louder than posters, slogans, or mission statements.

9. Visions become real when employees take personal ownership of making them happen.

Quotes

• "The hard stuff is easy. The soft stuff is hard."

• "People don't buy into an abstract vision. They buy into a future they can see themselves creating."

• "Put your ‘money’ where your mouth is."

• "Take visible steps that send a message to the organization about the future you're committed to creating."

• "A vision becomes real when people stop seeing it as the leader's idea and start making it their own."

• Transcript

  Are you struggling to get people to buy into the vision that you have for your organization? If that's you, stay tuned because I'm going to share with you four very specific steps that you can take that will give you an immediate boost in getting everybody aligned behind the same vision and moving forward. The mistake that most leaders make is that once they create a vision statement and they put it on the wall and they put it on the website and they have a town hall and they talk about it from time to time, they think that about 80% of the work is done. But while that stuff is necessary, it is not sufficient. It is of course important to declare a vision and paint a picture of that future. But when it comes to leadership and cultural transformation,

  The hard stuff is easy. The soft stuff is hard. Some of those things that are tangible, you know, make a vision, make posters, put them on the wall and all that, that stuff is easy. What makes or breaks your progress is the signals that you send to the organization. I once led an organization that was not doing so well. And I came up with this idea that we are going to be the showcase of excellence. And what that meant to me was that we were going to be the best of the best and we're going to deliver the best results. For weeks and possibly, I hate to admit, for months, I was excited about this vision. I was going around and telling people, yeah, we're going to be showcase of excellence.

  The look in their eyes was not very convincing, right? So they were looking at me like I had two heads. And of course, for some time I was thinking, well, these people must not have had a visionary leader. But that was not the problem. The problem was that this vision only existed in my head and nobody else knew what it meant. It was only when we sat down with a small group of people leaders within the plant and we dissected this idea and we began to define what that really looks like. What does it look like to be the showcase of excellence? That we're delivering these kinds of results, that people are coming to our plant because we're the benchmark, they're learning from us, that our people become the sort of the go-to experts that other people seek out for coaching and support. That is when

  it started to take shape as something real for people. So I remember very clearly the day that vision went from being an idea in my head to something that a few other people got excited about. We listed about 13 different descriptors of what the Showcase of Excellence actually meant. And then we began to go through a similar exercise with other people to help them understand what this idea was all about and wrap their mind around it. So what I would say is if you want your vision to come to life, make sure that it is expressed in terms that people can relate to, not some abstract idea, but explained in a way that people can relate to and connect to their everyday lives.

  Another way you can influence people to buy into the vision of the future is to have them see themselves in that future. It's not only enough to tell people or try to push them in that direction, but have them see themselves in that future so that they internally are driven to make it a reality. This generally does not happen in town hall meetings. but in one-on-one conversations or in small group conversations where the realization sets in and the light bulb goes off for somebody. I remember such a moment that I had with Shane. He was working in the plant. He was running the wrapper. And one day I was walking around and as usual, I saw a whole bunch of tools and materials and other things on the wrapper. So

  As always, I went up to Shane and brought that to his attention. And of course, he started cleaning up and I was helping him. And then I stopped and I asked Shane, I said, Shane, I want you to think about this showcase of excellence that we're talking about here. Imagine, I want you to imagine that it's a year from now and we've been identified as the plant of the year in Atlanta. And the mayor is going to give us an award. So there's this banquet, this award ceremony, and they've asked us to nominate one person to accept this award on our behalf. Shane's like, okay, well, sounds good. I said, well, Shane, imagine that you are the person that I nominate. Now, imagine this. You're in your tuxedo, you're up on stage, and you're

  You look out there, you see all of us, employees and our families, we're so proud and you're going to accept this award. By now, Shane had a smile on his face and he was like, yeah, that sounds really good. I said, imagine that the mayor has asked us to bring a picture that he's going to put up on the screen while you accept this award. Shane, what do you think if we just took a picture of your wrapper right now? and put it up there. And as you can imagine, Shane's like, oh, come on Amir, now that wouldn't look good. No, why not? Well, you know, it's not supposed to have all of this stuff on it. I said, yeah, that's right. That's not a good representation of who we are as the Showcase of Excellence, is it? For some reason in that moment, it clicked for Shane. That was unacceptable. Now, even though Shane only worked on one of our three shifts,

  He took it upon himself to get together with the other two people on the other shifts. And I never saw another piece of material or tool or any kind of debris on that wrapper. That was the defining moment when he owned it, not only for himself, but he made it his business to get everybody else to buy into it. and he got us a little bit closer to our vision. So get people to see themselves in that future and be hooked on it. Another way to influence people to buy into the vision of the future is to put your money where your mouth is. It's easy to describe a certain vision and tell people that they should do this or they should do that. But if they don't see you making any sacrifices or any big moves that show that you are really committed, then most likely they're not going to be bought in. One aspect of our vision when we wanted to become the Showcase of Excellence was that we were going to distribute the authority to make decisions across the plant.

  And this meant that some people who in the past had to go to the plant manager to get permission for certain things would now make their own decisions. The problem was that we had a certain structure in place that did not necessarily give people the authority, for instance, to purchase more than a certain dollar amount worth of material for even the most basic things in their area. So I remember very clearly Jackie, who had been working in the plant for over 30 years and he was an absolute expert on our utilities, but he could only sign for $200 worth of materials. Most of the things that Jackie did took a lot more money than that. So every time he wanted to buy something, he would come to me

  And he would explain to me why he needed the part and I would have to sign it. And then he'd go off and do what he needed to do. I told Jackie that I was going to give him the authority to sign for up to $5,000. I couldn't make that change as far as the corporate was concerned. I was going to accept responsibility for that. But I said to Jackie, if it's less than $5,000 worth of materials, all you have to do is tell me to sign it and I'll sign it because I trust your judgment. It took us several weeks to get to that point. Jackie would come to me and he'd be like, yeah, Amir, we need this part. I said, stop, Jackie, would you buy this part? And he'd say, yes. I said, okay, you don't need to tell me anything else. And I would sign it and give it to him. And occasionally I would say, well, okay, if there's something else you wanna tell me, that's okay.

  But as far as the signature is concerned, all you have to do is tell me to sign it. After a few weeks, Jackie would walk around the plant with his head up high, really proud, knowing that he was trusted with the resources that we expected him to work with. I will never forget the day that I left that assignment. Jackie came up to me. with tears in his eyes, and he told me that nobody had ever trusted him with so much and gave him so much authority to do what he needed to do. So give people authority to do what they are responsible for. Put your money where your mouth is. Take some risk, calculated risk, but take some risk with their development and their ability to do what they need to do. Another thing I suggest that you do is take some big steps that show people you are really serious about creating the vision that you keep talking about. Take some visible steps that will get people's attention. I remember telling everybody that we want to make sure that everyone

  regardless of whether you are hourly or salary or a manager or technician or whatnot, that we want to treat everyone as an employee who is truly valuable. I realized a few months into our journey that there was something that I had missed. The plant had two entrances. One was a very nice, beautiful entrance that was recently remodeled, nice carpet, plants, security guard that would smile and greet you. And that one was only for visitors and the managers, the salaried people. Everyone else, contractors, people who worked on the floor, came in through this dark, dingy little entrance that we had in the back. And it all of a sudden dawned on me that we are treating people like second-class citizens while we're saying we're all valued. So the step that I took there was I said, okay, I understand that we need to have that other entrance for contractors if they're bringing in their tools or material and things like that.

  but as far as the employees are concerned, we are all going to come through this front entrance. I had quite a bit of resistance to that because some people were like, oh, you know, these people work on the floor, you know, their shoes might be dirty and all of that. This thought process was appalling to me because we were already assuming that these people perhaps live in a pigsty. When they get home, you know, they drag all their greasy, shoes all over the floor and all this kind of stuff, which I knew was not the case. We were already making an assumption about people that perhaps permeated everything else we were doing. So I resisted that and I fought and pushed back on that thought process. And it turned out to be a huge step in the right direction for us because the moment we made that change, it got everybody's attention for years and years.

  The people who worked on the floor were coming in through the dark and dingy little entrance, and now we were all coming through the main entrance. So take some steps that are visible that send a message to the organization about that future that you're committed to creating. I have written about this topic extensively, and we hold workshops that go into a lot of detail about every step of the process from start to finish, how you actually create a vision and how you share it and all of this. But if you take these four steps that I've talked about in this video, I believe that you're going to see an immediate impact in your ability to get everybody aligned behind the vision that you have for your organization.

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When I facilitate a workshop or deliver a keynote, my goal is never to simply motivate people for a few hours. Inspiration is valuable, but by itself it fades quickly. What I'm really after is a sequence of outcomes that begins with a transformative realization, leads to immediate action, produces lasting behavior change, and ultimately delivers measurable business and personal results. That's how I define a truly successful leadership development experience.

I believe participants play just as important a role as the facilitator. The people who get the greatest value from a workshop arrive with a clear purpose, remain coachable, and listen for wisdom rather than simply collecting information. Once they experience a meaningful insight, they need to act on it immediately. Transformative realizations have an expiration date, and unless they are put into practice, they become just another good idea that never changes anything.

Sustaining change requires more than motivation. I encourage participants to embrace setbacks as part of the learning process, build systems of accountability instead of relying solely on willpower, and celebrate the behavior changes they see along the way. Progress becomes sustainable when new habits are reinforced through commitment, reflection, and consistent action.

Leaders and event organizers also have a critical responsibility after the workshop ends. They should keep the conversations alive by reinforcing key concepts, checking in with participants, encouraging continued learning, and connecting workshop insights to real workplace challenges. The true measure of a successful workshop is not how people feel when they leave the room. It is how differently they think, behave, and perform weeks and months later.

Key Points

1. A successful workshop produces lasting transformation, not just temporary motivation.

2. The four desired outcomes of any successful workshop or development program are:

   • New personal realizations

   • Immediate action

   • Sustainable behavior change

   • Improved long-term results

3. Participants should enter every workshop with a clear personal purpose.

4. Being coachable means being willing to try new ideas, not necessarily agreeing with everything.

5. Listen for wisdom that applies personally rather than simply collecting information.

6. Transformative realizations have an expiration date unless acted upon immediately.

7. Renewing commitment to a purpose greater than yourself increases motivation and follow-through.

8. Publicly declaring intentions and creating accountability accelerate lasting change.

9. Sustainable behavior change requires systems, accountability, and embracing failure as part of learning.

10. Leaders should reinforce workshop concepts through follow-up conversations, continued learning, and practical application in everyday work.

Quotes

• "Transformative realizations have an expiration date."

• "A successful workshop isn't measured by motivation. It's measured by lasting behavior change and results."

• "Knowing something doesn't change your life. Acting on it does."

• "Don't wait for motivation. Take action first, and motivation will often follow."

• "The true value of a workshop is determined long after the event is over."

• Transcript

  Have you ever been to a company event that knocked your socks off, a workshop, a leadership development event, or something like that? Now, have you ever been to one that was a complete waste of time? Believe me, as a participant, I have gone through both experiences. That is why I am so committed that when I hold a workshop or when I give a talk, that people get a lot more than they expected to get. In this video, I'm going to share with you some things that the participants and event organizers can do to get the most out of those types of events. It takes a lot of investment of time and money to pull something like that together, to bring everybody together, hire a speaker or have a facilitator. What you wanna do is you don't wanna just have a motivational experience. You wanna go way beyond that. And I'm gonna share with you the outcomes that I am after when I do one of those sessions and some of the things that you can do as a participant or an organizer to make sure

  way beyond the event itself, you maximize outcomes that you get. I recently came back from an event with a client that I really enjoyed working with. So we had a one day workshop and it was a great experience. I knew it was really good when we took our first break about two hours into our one day session. And the leader was talking to me. went up to him to say, okay, so how's this going for you? And he told me that one of the participants told him that if we just stopped right now and did nothing else, that they felt that they got enough value out of the workshop to make it worthwhile. So I was really happy to see the testimonials that I got after the workshop. And most people quite honestly would declare victory. They say, okay, that's a successful workshop.

  And yes, it's really great news when you actually hear that the conversation moved people and it gave them something to work with and they were really happy. But that's only the first step in the series of outcomes that I personally look for. When I give a talk, what I am really looking for is four things. One, I want the participants to see something in the workshop for themselves that they couldn't see before that would make it visible to them what is possible, who they are, what they're capable of, something that would energize them. The second thing I'm looking for is that immediately after the workshop, the participants are energized to get in action. Transformative realizations have an expiration date. when you have a realization, you ought to get in action. Even if it's just a couple of baby steps, because if you don't, then you put that realization and that knowledge in the pile of things that you have known, but have not done you any good, right? And if somebody suggests that you take a particular action, according to that knowledge later on, you say, oh yeah, I know. But knowing things doesn't really help you. Once you get in action,

  then you begin to see the benefits. The third thing that I'm looking for is that in a couple of weeks that they are able to see the behavior changes that have taken place in themselves. And I want them to be able to point to some behaviors that have shifted from before the workshop to after the workshop. In this situation, I used to act this way, and now I see myself behaving this way. And the final thing I'm after is that in a couple of months, they ought to be able to point to some results that have actually shifted. So realizations that have resulted into actions that have actually culminated in some different behaviors, which produce different results. Now, let's face it, no matter how amazing a facilitator or a trainer or speaker is, and no matter how transformative their content is, the final ingredient that really creates something extraordinary is the participant and the attitude that they bring in. So this is why I always ask ahead of time what people are actually experiencing.

  committed to getting out of the session. I have my objectives based on the extensive pre-work that I do with clients. I know what I would like to accomplish, but what's most important is what are you, the participant, who want to get out of the session that would make this an extraordinary experience? That process in itself does wonders for people because rather than sitting in the session and just saying like, happened to me, if you go into the session clear that, look, I am here to learn this, or I am here to experience that, then you will look for the insights to actually make sure you walk out of there with that outcome. Whether you volunteered to be there or you were voluntold, you're going to spend a few hours of your life in that session. So have a purpose.

  The second thing is be coachable. Coachable doesn't mean that you agree with everything. Coachable means that you're willing to try it on. And the third part of this is to listen with the intent to gain wisdom, as opposed to just picking up information, but not connecting it to yourself. Listen with the intent to attain wisdom about yourself and your situation. To develop motivation and energy to get in action, there are again three suggestions that I have for you. Number one, get in action on your new insight immediately. As I mentioned earlier, I mentioned this again because oftentimes we wait for motivation to do something, but many times it works the other way around. You got to get in action, take a few baby steps, and then

  generate motivation. So don't wait for motivation. Begin to act on what you picked up in the workshop. Number two, renew your commitment to a cause greater than you. Look, when you are committed to something bigger than yourself, you are more likely to get in action. It's a natural thing. When the only thing at stake is something that has to do with you, you're less likely to find the motivation to act. For instance, if you're going to go work out early in the morning, isn't it true that if you're doing that by yourself, you're more likely to skip a day here and there versus if you had a partner and you didn't want to let them down. So renew your commitment to something bigger than yourself.

  And finally, to develop the motivation to get in action, declare your intentions to other people. Don't keep it a secret. If you got something out of the conversation and you're committing to changing your behavior, let other people know. Let them know what your intentions are and ask them to keep you in check. Let me know, please, if I behave differently because my intention is to act on the things that I learned in this workshop. That keeps you in action and it gives you the motivation to keep going. Now, to turn those actions into sustainable behavior shifts over time, there are also three suggestions that I have for you. Number one, embrace failure. Just know that if you have behaved a certain way for a long time and now all of a sudden you have a different point of view and different perspective and you intend to behave a different way, sometimes you might fall into your automatic patterns and that's okay as long as you recognize it and you change course. Because if you use your first failure as an excuse

  to get off track and say something like, yeah, that stuff sounded good in the workshop, but it doesn't work, then essentially you have given up on those actions turning into sustainable behavior shifts. Number two, don't rely on discipline alone to keep you on track. Put a system in place, put a process in place, renew your commitment to a worthy cause. If you lose sight of your commitment and try to still maintain your discipline to do something that you don't see any point in, that's not going to work and it's not going to be sustainable. Finally, take the time to acknowledge your behavior shifts. Talk to some of those people who are your accountability partners, the ones who you ask to keep you on track. Check with them to see if they're noticing something. If you are noticing something in yourself in terms of those behavior changes, take the time to celebrate and acknowledge those. I also have some suggestions for leaders and organizers of leadership development events.

  Because it's important when an event goes well that you strike while the iron is hot, if you will. Because it's one thing to be motivated coming out of a session, but if that motivation is not connected to reality, then it dissipates in the face of everyday challenges. And this is why we've got to integrate what we got out of the workshop into our daily lives. So here are some of the things that you can do as event organizers or leaders, or even if you are one of the participants, you could take these actions to perpetuate the message and the value that you got out of the workshop. Number one, listen for the distinctions that are presented in the workshop. There are a large number of

  distinctions that I present. I talk about being on the court and playing the game as opposed to being in the stands and talking about the game. This usually sticks with people. We talk about being 100% committed as opposed to having a conditional and partial commitment. I have a saying that says, I am the one and it's not about me. And all of those things, when we come out of a workshop, I hear people talking about it. And what's important is that you, continue to listen for those particular distinctions that have stuck for people and bring those into conversations and make sure that you continue to perpetuate that kind of language. The next thing I suggest is that you have as many one-on-one conversations as you possibly can with the participants. These don't have to be 45 minute one-on-ones, but just a five minute check-in. Hey, what did you get out of the workshop? This is what I got. This is what resonated with me. What do you think about ways in which you can apply some of the things that you got? The other thing you can do is dig into the material

  that is in line with the work that was done in the workshop. In my case, most of our clients end up conducting a book study with the transformative leader. And so there is a great deal of overlap between what's in the book and what I present in my workshop. So that keeps the conversation alive. You also may looking to blog posts or articles that are written by your speaker. In my case, the ganotgroup.com slash blog has like 500 articles that could also be used to generate conversations in small groups that will keep that conversation alive. Another way that you can make sure that you connect people's reality to what was presented in the workshop is to talk about what challenges they are dealing with. In addition to starting with some of the concepts that were presented, you actually start talking to them about what they've got going on and work back from there and connect some of the challenges that they're dealing with to some of the concepts that were presented. There are a number of things that you can do within your organization to make sure

  that you continue to get the most out of sessions. And as we have our events with our clients, what I do is I have a debrief with them where I share some of these standard items, but also based on my observations and based on the conversations that I've had, I formulate a number of actions that they can take to make sure that they maximize their benefits from the workshop. I hope that you've gotten something out of this video that you can act on immediately. And I would encourage you, if that's the case, to begin taking action on it as soon as possible. And if you want to get in touch with me to get clarity on any of the points that have been made or learn more about the services that we offer, please feel free to schedule a discovery call and we'll have a chat.

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Most organizations struggle not because they lack leaders. They struggle because too many people in leadership roles were never prepared to lead. Often, this is the number one reason organizations ask for my guidance. The common practice is for high-performing technical experts to be promoted into leadership positions without being equipped with the mindset, skills, and habits required to actually be leaders. The result is predictable. They become bottlenecks, micromanage their teams, and spend most of their time doing instead of leading.

In my experience, solving this problem requires much more than just some leadership training after someone is promoted. Leadership development should begin early and continue throughout a person's career. Every employee should learn to lead themselves first, then progressively develop the capabilities needed to lead others. While tools and techniques are important, they are never enough on their own. The mindset of a Transformative Leader is what determines whether those tools create growth or simply reinforce counterproductive behaviors.

One of the biggest mindset shifts is recognizing that a leader's job is not simply to deliver results. A leader's primary responsibility is to grow leaders while also achieving results. That means assuming positive intent, earning commitment rather than demanding it, and creating an environment where people willingly contribute their best rather than merely complying with instructions. Organizations must also reward people for performance but promote them based on their leadership potential, helping prevent the Peter Principle from limiting organizational growth.

Ultimately, leadership development must become part of everyday work, not an occasional training event. Organizations need promotion practices, reward systems, and experienced leaders that intentionally focus on developing leadership capability at all levels. When leadership development becomes part of the culture, organizations create leaders who not only deliver outstanding results but also multiply leadership capacity throughout the business.

Key Points

1. The biggest reason organizations seek leadership consulting is that too many leaders have never been taught how to lead.

2. High-performing technical experts are often promoted into leadership roles without adequate preparation.

3. Leadership is a skill unto itself, one that can be learned, practiced, and improved upon independently of other capabilities.

4. New leaders frequently become bottlenecks by micromanaging and trying to do everything themselves.

5. Leadership development should begin long before someone receives a leadership title.

6. Tools and skills are necessary, but mindset is what determines leadership effectiveness.

7. Transformative Leaders focus on developing people, not simply completing tasks.

8. Leaders earn commitment through trust, purpose, and intrinsic motivation, not through authority or compensation alone.

9. Organizations should reward performance but promote based on leadership potential.

10. Leadership development should be embedded into everyday work, not limited to classroom training.

Quotes

• "Your job as a leader is not just to get the job done. It's to grow leaders while getting the job done."

• "Reward people for their performance, but promote them based on their potential."

• "Tools and skills matter, but without the right mindset, they will never produce Transformative Leadership."

• "People owe leaders compliance. Commitment has to be earned."

• "Leadership development isn't an event. It has to become part of the everyday work of the organization."

• Transcript

  Of the top three reasons that our clients bring us in to support them, the top one, the biggest one, the main reason is that they have people in leadership roles that are just not equipped to lead. This happens in businesses that have not done a good job of developing leaders. Technical experts get rewarded with additional responsibility And that additional responsibility sometimes includes leading others. And they just don't have the expertise to do that. What ends up happening is that these leaders who are in these roles end up becoming super doers because they feel like doing more of what has gotten them to that point is probably what is needed. And as a result, they become a bottleneck to the rest of the organization.

  They want to have their finger in every pie. They want to micromanage. They want to be involved in everything. They want to prove their worth by doing more of what has gotten them to that point. So what ends up happening in most organizations to some degree is that people end up getting promoted to the first level at which they're incompetent. So this is known as the Peter Principle. So somebody is doing a good job. We promote them to the next level. They're doing a good job. We promote them to the next level. They eventually get to a point where they are no longer competent relative to the requirements of that role. Now, as we engage with our clients, we go through a comprehensive assessment to understand what the situation is and how they've gotten there and what we need to do to remedy the situation. There's just so many different things that we work with them on.

  too many to list in this video right here. But suffice it to say that some of the remedies include the following. Number one, it's important to do leadership development early and throughout the person's career, regardless of whether they're on a technical track or leadership track. It is important for any contributor, any person, even though they're an individual contributor right now, to be prepared to at least be able to lead themselves. There are certain habits that they need to take on even though nobody else reports to them. And eventually, as they get close to leading others, there are other skills and tools and mindsets that we need to equip them with. One of the mistakes that businesses make is that even when they take on leadership development, they equip people with tools. And sometimes they might even go beyond that and give them the opportunity to practice with some of those tools and develop the skills. But tool sets and skill sets, while very important and necessary, are not sufficient for a person to be what I call a transformative leader.

  What is necessary is the mindset of a transformative leader. So you may know exactly what tool to use, what form to use to provide feedback. You may have gone through the process to do it a certain way, but if you don't have the mindset that says, look, providing this feedback is intended to help the person grow. It's not intended to punish them, for example, for something they didn't do right, you know, six months ago and things like that. You have to have the certain mindset to be able to apply the tools and the skills that you have picked up properly and effectively. So again, there are a number of distinctions that we work with leaders on relative to their mindset. Here are some examples of the mindset of leadership.

  Leaders need to understand that their job is not to just get the job done, but to grow leaders in the process. They need to subscribe to McGregor's Theory Y that essentially assumes positive intent and recognizes that people want to do well. They need to recognize that people do not owe them commitment. They owe them compliance. Essentially, as a leader, I need to recognize that You know, I pay people and they need to do their job. And yes, they owe me that. But if I really want their commitment, if I want their discretionary effort, I need to earn that. And usually that is done through intrinsic rewards, not extrinsic rewards like salary and benefits. So these are just a few of the things that are important to recognize. And again, there's a whole host of distinctions that we work through with leaders to make sure that they

  not only understand and know about these mindset shifts, but they get to practice them in the real world and develop themselves into the kind of leader who is not only just competent relative to the technical understanding of what's going on, but they also demonstrate a certain character that causes people to trust them and It helps them influence people and essentially develop more credibility throughout the organization as a leader. Now, one of the remedies that help organizations avoid the Peter principle, if you will, is something that I learned when I was working for Procter and Gamble. I learned that we should reward people based on their performance, but promote them based on their potential. Now, obviously there's a certain amount of performance that is needed in order to get promoted, but just because you're performing well, doesn't mean you have the potential to go to that next level. In fact, one of the things that we used to do was we asked the question, if we were promoting a person to the next level, or we were considering that promotion, we would ask the question, is this person capable of

  being successful at the next level above that one. One of the other causes of leaders not being developed that I have seen and the remedy for that really has to do with founders or first generation leaders or some of the experienced leaders who are in leadership roles, but they got there because of their technical skills, for example, and they're not equipped. They don't have the right skills. tools or skills or mindset to develop other leaders. In those situations, it's important for that person to recognize that they are being the bottleneck in developing additional leaders in the organization and get themselves out of the way. This doesn't necessarily mean that they cannot be involved, but they've got to give the reins to someone else within the organization who's got

  the mindset and the attitude or the expertise to lead the leadership development. Now, in some cases, it might be appropriate also to involve an external resource for a period of time to accelerate progress. But the reason that does not happen oftentimes is that the person in charge, the person at the top, does not recognize that they are indeed slowing things down. So I would encourage you to think about your organization. Are the leaders in your organization, are people in leadership roles equipped to lead? Do they have the right tools, skills, and most importantly, the mindset to lead? How have they gotten there? What are some of the policies? What are some of the procedures in your organization that has actually resulted in this situation being the case where leaders are not equipped perhaps. And what are some things you can do with your reward systems, with your promotion process, with most importantly, instilling this mindset in leaders that once they are in a leadership role, their job is not just to get the job done, but to grow as leaders and grow others. What are you doing when it comes to

  putting in some leadership development programs and not just programs in the form of training sessions and things like that. What are you doing to build leadership development into the everyday practices? I'd love to hear your answers. If you want to comment on this video or you want to send me a DM, I'd love to know what's going on. And if you have some ideas and you would like some guidance, reach out to me. This is something that I do for a living, but I also enjoy doing it. I enjoy engaging with people who have passion for developing other leaders. So I wish you the very best in growing leaders in your organization, and I look forward to hearing from you.

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Silo mentality is one of the most common and costly challenges organizations face. Departments frequently become focused on their own priorities, metrics, and success measures, often at the expense of collaboration and organizational performance. While team-building activities can help temporarily, lasting change requires addressing the underlying causes that create and reinforce silos in the first place.

Based on my decades of leadership experience and consulting work, I’ve come to understand that silo mentality never just disappears on its own. People naturally focus on what they are rewarded for, and when a scarcity mindset takes hold, departments begin competing rather than collaborating. The solution has to go beyond simply asking people to work together more effectively. Leaders must intentionally create the conditions that make collaboration the natural choice.

The first requirement is a clear, compelling, and unifying vision that everyone understands and can connect to their work. The second is a reward system that aligns departments around shared organizational success, rather than encouraging competing priorities. I illustrate this with an example from Thailand, where conflicting departmental metrics discouraged cooperation until leadership introduced gross margin as a shared measure of success. The third requirement is encouraging peer-to-peer collaboration across departments, rather than forcing all decisions and problem-solving up the chain of command.

When leaders establish a unifying vision, align incentives, and create an environment where peers can work directly together, organizations begin replacing scarcity thinking with partnership. The result is stronger collaboration, better decision-making, and significantly improved business outcomes, every single time.

Key Points

1. Silo mentality is one of the top challenges organizations seek help addressing.

2. Organizations do not naturally collaborate. Collaboration requires intentional leadership and ongoing effort.

3. Team-building alone is not enough to eliminate silos because it does not address the root causes.

4. A lack of a unifying vision causes departments to focus on their own priorities rather than organizational success.

5. Many organizations have vision statements but not truly shared visions that people can clearly articulate and align with.

6. Misaligned reward systems often encourage departmental competition rather than collaboration.

7. Shared performance measures can help departments work together toward common outcomes.

8. Leaders sometimes unintentionally discourage collaboration by requiring issues to be escalated rather than resolved among peers.

9. Most cross-functional conflicts are executional, not strategic, and can often be solved through direct communication between peers.

10. Common objectives align individual success with organizational success, reducing internal competition and increasing cooperation.

Quotes

• "I never saw an organization that just naturally collaborated. It takes effort and intentionality to bring people together."

• "If the top leadership team cannot clearly articulate the vision, the rest of the organization certainly isn't clear about it."

• "Collaboration among peers between departments is absolutely key to breaking down silos."

• "When doing what's right for me is also right for the company, collaboration stops being a struggle and starts becoming the natural choice."

• Transcript

  One of the top three problems that our clients engage us in helping them with is silo mentality. The organization is divided into departments and they are doing their own thing and not working together. They're not collaborating. I can relate to this from my 31 years in manufacturing and supply chain leadership. I never saw an organization that just naturally collaborated. It takes effort and intentionality to bring people together. Otherwise, what happens is people just basically do what their department is rewarded for and scarcity mentality sets in and people get divided into silos. So I've seen this in my own operations and I certainly have been exposed to it in the last 10 years or so as we have consulted with many organizations. Sometimes people feel like, okay, if we bring people together, do some team building exercises and sort of teach people or appeal to them to play nice and work together, this is gonna take care of things. Yes, it is part of the process to do team building and have people share different perspectives and so on and so forth. But in my experience, the effect is temporary unless you take a deeper look at what is actually causing the silo mentality and the scarcity mentality that causes people to not collaborate with one another. In order to systematically uproot silo mentality and have people collaborate, I believe you've got to be intentional in at least three areas and take the time and effort to address these three issues. The first is lack of a unifying vision. Now, if you don't have a vision if the team does not know where they're going and how they're getting there. Naturally, they're going to do what they need to do that makes them look good or at least not look bad. They're not bad people. They're doing their job, but they're not doing it in the context of a bigger vision, something that brings all the different departments together or all the different people together, if you will. And so what happens is that everybody is doing something that they think will contribute to the greater good, but whether it does or not is left to chance. Now, in my experience, when I go to an organization and they complain about silo mentality and people not collaborating, I know in the back of my mind that lack of a unifying vision could be contributing to it. So I always ask, If they have a vision, if they have actually defined the vision, shared the vision, are people clear about what it is and how they fit into it? And almost every time the answer is yes. Oh yeah, sure, we have one. I remember a few years ago, I was working with this organization and the top level leadership. answer was immediately, oh, yes, we have one. So I asked them, so what is that vision? And so they started kind of looking in their papers and on their phones and all that. It's right here somewhere, which immediately made it clear to me that they really don't have a vision. They may have developed a statement at some point. It may have been posted somewhere. But if the top leadership team could not say, in very basic and simple terms, what that vision looked like, then the rest of the organization was not clear. And so we went to work on creating a vision that was clear and it was unifying and we spent some time to communicate that to the rest of the organization and showed them how they fit into it and how they could work together to make it happen. So that step made a difference. And that is step number one. The second key factor in breaking down silos and having people work together is take a closer look at the reward system. What are we rewarding people for? In many cases, different departments are rewarded for different things. And that is natural. Of course, if you are in sales, you're going to be rewarded for the revenue that you're bringing in. If you are in supply chain or product supply, as it is called at Procter & Gamble, you are rewarded for keeping the cost of goods down, right? And that is the way it should be, perhaps, in terms of the in-process measures. You know, what am I responsible for in my function? And I want to make sure that I deliver that. However, sometimes these measures are at odds. And while one department is pushing for one thing, the other department is pushing for something else. And a clear example of that to me that stands out is when I worked in Thailand, the business was reinventing itself in terms of the products that we were putting out and the sales department of course, wanted the more expensive products and R&D and marketing people were also for that. But the people who were making the products, myself included, were rewarded based on the cost of goods sold. So we were resisting naturally to say, look, you know what? Yeah, everybody is going to be happy, but you guys are going to still beat us up because our cost of goods went up because we were looking for products that were going to cost more, but they were going to bring in more revenue. Then a smart person said, hey, why don't we establish as part of our reward system for everyone, gross margin. Like if we are bringing in a significant amount of profits, even if we're making a more expensive product, we're not going to penalize the product supply people for that. And that paved the way for us working together to increase revenue and profits. The third reason why silos are formed and they persist is that the leaders at the top of those different departments discourage communication and collaboration between peers and That's not always done in a toxic way. Yes, there are some leaders who forbid their people from talking to those other people and so on and so forth. But a lot of times it's done with the best of intentions to say, look, we are responsible for making sure that we're doing our work and so on and so forth. But in the end, the result is the same. People are hesitant to speak to their peers in this other department and work through things. And that I found is the most effective way to encourage collaboration, not necessarily to send everything up the chain for it to be worked out at the top, but working through it among peers. Now, I'm not suggesting that we leave all the strategic decisions out there for somebody who may not have all the perspective to work through with their peer at a junior level in another department. But my experience says that most of those issues that are created are executional issues that could really go away by people talking to each other, giving each other some perspective and some information. Now, if there are some strategic decisions that really do need to go to the top levels of the organization, I believe that those are worked out a whole lot more effectively if they've already been discussed among peers where all the information is out there and some analysis has been done and a joint recommendation has been made to the leaders. So collaboration among peers between departments is absolutely key. in breaking down those silos. When I worked at Procter & Gamble, we talked a lot about this concept of common objectives, making sure that the needs of the employee and the company are aligned so people are not pulled in different directions and that doing what's right for me is also right for the company. Therefore, we have common objectives. Now, I have developed a model around common objectives that involves three different dimensions of common objectives, but that's another topic for another day. I will also make a video about that to dig into the three different aspects of creating common objectives

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In this video, I explore a leadership principle that has the power to transform team performance: treating people as if they are extraordinary human beings. I explain how many employees become trapped by "old tapes" or "Polaroids," labels and stories created from past mistakes or perceptions that limit how others see them and, ultimately, how they see themselves. When leaders allow these narratives to define people, they unintentionally reinforce mediocre performance and prevent individuals from realizing their potential.

Drawing from my own personal experience, I share the story of an employee who was widely viewed as a poor performer until a company bowling event revealed her exceptional talent. Seeing her excel in a different setting changed how others perceived her and how she perceived herself. That shift in confidence and respect eventually helped her grow into a leadership role. The lesson is that people often rise or fall to the expectations placed upon them, and leaders have a responsibility to create an environment where people can transcend limiting labels.

I also challenge leaders who blame poor performance entirely on their workforce. Using an example from a consulting engagement, I question the logic of labeling the majority of employees as "slackers." If organizations are hiring capable people from the community, then leaders must examine how their culture, systems, and leadership practices may be contributing to disengagement and underperformance. Leaders must take ownership for creating conditions that encourage initiative, enthusiasm, and personal growth.

Treating people as extraordinary does not mean ignoring performance issues or avoiding accountability. Leaders should distinguish facts from stories, provide honest feedback, offer coaching and support, and ensure employees understand expectations. When every reasonable effort has been made and performance still does not improve, it may be appropriate to part ways. Respecting people as extraordinary human beings ultimately means holding them accountable while preserving their dignity and worth.

Key Points

1. People are often limited by "old tapes" and "Polaroids" that define them by past mistakes or outdated perceptions.

2. Leaders can unlock higher performance by treating people as extraordinary human beings, regardless of their past performance.

3. People tend to rise to the expectations placed upon them, especially when they are seen and treated differently.

4. According to McGregor's Theory Y, most people want to do well and contribute, so leaders should examine what is preventing that desire from showing up at work.

5. Organizational culture can turn extraordinary people into ordinary performers if leaders fail to create the right environment.

6. Leaders must take responsibility for how people show up at work, rather than simply blaming employees for poor performance.

7. Treating people as extraordinary does not mean ignoring performance problems. Facts should inform coaching, development, role fit, and accountability.

8. Respect is not conditional on performance. Every person deserves dignity and honest feedback.

9. Withholding corrective feedback is actually disrespectful, because it prevents people from improving and succeeding.

10. After providing support, resources, coaching, and clear expectations, leaders may need to part ways with an employee who still does not perform.

Quotes

• "If we manage to help people shake off those Polaroids and old tapes and stories and snapshots and treat them as if they are extraordinary human beings, they begin to rise to the occasion."

• "Nobody starts a career, nobody starts a job with this aspiration of going to work every day and doing the minimum."

• "When we withhold corrective action or some feedback that the person really needs to hear, we're actually not respecting them."

• "We have to, as leaders, take responsibility for how people show up."

• "Don't hold people to those limitations that they may have created or others may have projected onto them."

• "People want to do well. But what happens is something gets in the way."

• "If you treat someone as an adult, if you treat someone as an extraordinary human being, you do what you need to do to ensure that they know what the expectations are."

• Transcript

  What if you had the superpower to turn every one of your team members into an extraordinary contributor, someone who is being engaged, doing their best, and making significant contributions? I wanna share with you one thing you can do that will help you tap into the superpower that you already have…That one thing is to begin to treat people as if they are extraordinary…Let me tell you, when I first started my career many, many years ago, there was this phrase that I kept hearing. People kept referring to old tapes. What does that old tape mean? The old tapes refer to…the behavior that that person was known for. Maybe they made a mistake at some point, or maybe they had certain habits at some point, but they couldn't shake it off. They had been labeled. A company that I recently worked with as a consultant…had a similar kind of concept, except they called it Polaroids. Oh, this person is just never gonna succeed. Why? Because there are too many Polaroids in the system about this person. Snapshots that at some point somebody got of that person, they just couldn't shake it off. See, the the truth is that this is not a silver bullet. Of course, there there are other factors that come into play when it comes to really causing everybody to bring their best and be excited and do well at work. But I guarantee you that if we manage to help people shake off those Polaroids and old tapes and stories and snapshots and treat them as if they are extraordinary human beings, they begin to rise to the occasion. I'll give you a very specific example of this from many years ago. I used to work in a plant, and we used to have this one person who just couldn't do anything right. In the eyes of everyone, they were just a slacker. Whatever they touched…

  just didn't work out. Except this one time, we went bowling. We had a team building activity, and it was bowling. Well, the person showed up with their own shoes and their own ball, and they started rolling, strike after strike. They almost bowled a perfect game…And everybody was astonished because in our eyes, I have to admit, in my own eyes, she just was kind of mediocre at whatever she tried, but she was totally excellent…at bowling. Well, we go back the next day, and people begin to see her differently. She begins to feel different. She begins to feel that she is competent and show a certain level of confidence. Make a long story just a little longer, this lady went on to become a team leader, which was…

  not in the cards as far as any of us were concerned. And that one situation that caused everybody to see her differently and caused her to feel differently and show up differently made all the difference in the world. We have to, as leaders, take responsibility for how people show up. I mean, if you subscribe to McGregor's theory y, that essentially says people want to do well, they want to take initiative as opposed to theory x that says people are just lazy and they wanna do the minimum. Then you have to take some responsibility for the person showing up at work and checking their enthusiasm and initiative and energy at the door and just coming in and doing the minimum. Nobody starts a career. Nobody starts a job…with this aspiration of going to work every day and doing the minimum. We all want to do well. But what happens is something gets in the way, and…that something leads to something else and something else. And before we know it, we just basically turn into button pushers. Right? We go to work and we wanna do our aid. We wanna hit the gate. We just wanna stay out of trouble, so on and so forth. And then other people begin to see us that way, and the old tapes begin to accumulate. And next thing you know, the person becomes a mediocre performer. So we've gotta figure out a way…

  to break that cycle…Now…this starts with the leaders taking responsibility for creating the kind of culture…that is conducive to everyone bringing their best and treating people such that they're not feeling like they're limited by their past mistakes and and perceptions. Let me give you one more example of where I've seen this. I was working with a company as a consultant, and all I heard from the leadership team was that their people were slackers. So the leadership team, when we started working together, was really unwilling to take responsibility…for shifting the culture. And they just felt like they're victims to the people because they're all slackers. So one day I asked them, what percentage of the people working on the floor are slackers? And they gave me a number like eighty percent. The average was about eighty percent of the people on the floor were slackers. So then I asked them a question. I said, you guys hire from the community here, right? Because as far as I know, you're not, like, flying anybody in, and most of the people working on the floor are not relocating for this particular job. They say, oh, yeah. Yeah. All of our people from this community. I said, so is it true that about eighty percent of the people who live in this region of the country…

  are slackers? Is that true? No. No. Of course, many of them grew up in that area. No. No. That's not the case. I said, oh, okay. So is it true that your…

  recruiting process targets specifically…those few people who are slackers, and therefore, you end up with eighty percent slackers in your workplace? They're like, well, no. No. That's not the case. I said, so the only other possibility could be that you hire extraordinary people, but you end up…turning them into ordinary or less than ordinary people. And that is something that you as a leadership team…have to take responsibility for…

  So my request of you…is to take one action coming out of this. And that is to make an inventory of the people that you work with, just the immediate circle around you. And be honest with yourself around what are some of these Polaroids…that you're holding on to about them? What are some of these old tapes that you keep running…over and over in your mind about them…Be intentional about letting that go. Letting those Polaroids go. Letting those old tapes go. And don't hold those people to those limitations that they may have…created or others may have projected onto them. And just see what kind of a difference that makes…

  I didn't wanna go off on too many tangents, but I thought about a couple of questions that I'd like to expound on. The first one was, well, okay, Amir, you say treat people as if they're extraordinary. But are we supposed to forget about the old tapes? Maybe they were true. What if the person really has poor performance? Do we ignore that? So that's question number one. The second question is, well, what if we…treat people as if they're extraordinary and they continue to have poor performance? What do we do then? So let me address the first question. When I talk about old tapes, I'm talking about the stories that people have made up. Some of these old tapes may have been rooted in some actual events. Something happened, and then people continue to talk about it and make up stories about it. It's important to distinguish between facts and fiction, which may have been born out of the stories that that have been made up. So I'm not suggesting that we ignore performance problems. I'm not suggesting that we ignore history that could actually inform us on how we can best set the person up for success. If someone has demonstrated repeatedly that they are not really good at certain things, we have to either give them the skill or we have to make sure that they're in a role that really is a good fit for them. Or we have to make sure that we coach them and support them in…

  shifting their their approach and their mindset, whatever the root cause may be. So real events, uh, inform our actions, and we should take them into account. For me, uh, treating people as extraordinary human beings is about respect. Respecting a person is not conditional based on their performance. In other words, a person's worth…is not dependent on their performance. They are a human being and these they deserve a certain amount of respect. Right? And when you respect someone, you are honest with them. So if they need to get some feedback that may not feel right at the time, assuming that it is delivered, uh, correctly with some level of compassion, it needs to be delivered. When we withhold corrective action or some feedback that the person really needs to hear, we're actually not respecting them. We're not treating them as extraordinary. I joke about this sometimes in my workshops. I say, you know, sometimes people say, oh, bless his heart. He's not gonna do any better. And and in that case, bless his heart, is not a compliment. It's essentially insulting the person. And in fact, what we're doing is we're letting ourselves off the hook and giving that feedback…

  Now the second question is, okay. So if we do that, let's just say someone has had a kind of a rough, uh, past and they, they have had some old tapes about them in the system, Polaroids, whatever you want to call them. And, um, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We work with them, do whatever we can to help them correct their behavior or their performance, and they still don't do that. So what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to…perpetually just sort of giving them more…uh, you know, opportunities and chances? And the answer is no. If you treat someone as an adult, if you treat someone as an extraordinary human being, you do what you need to do to ensure that know what the expectations are, that they know where their performance is relative to those expectations, they have the right resources, that they know you got their back, and you got their support. And at the same time, they also know that it is their responsibility to change their behavior or do better. So…

  at times, when you've done everything you could, you may get to a point where it is time to part ways. Once you get to that point where all options have been exhausted, it's totally fair to acknowledge that we have done everything we could and, uh, we are still not where we need to be and at times we need to part ways. I'd love to engage with you. If you have questions, send them to me or put them in the comments, uh, on LinkedIn…or a comment on the blog post. Whichever way, I'd love to get your thoughts on it and and share mine

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