1) The ability of the promise maker and
2) The integrity of the promise maker
Commitment is defined as the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc., An engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action, dedication, devotion, allegiance, loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity, adherence, attentiveness, a bond, engagement, responsibility, obligation* the Free dictionary.
As leaders, what are some of the ways that we demonstrate commitment? How do we foster an environment of commitment for staff and colleagues? How does demonstrating commitment help us navigate “working short.”
Here are a few thoughts:
1. Value every relationship – Whether you are talking to the CEO or the janitor, there is a relationship behind every title. You have the chance to impact people’s lives by the way you interact with them. This demonstrates commitment.
2. Put the team first – Would you be willing to jump if needed to allow a weary team member to go home? How do you behave when the heat is on, when everybody is working short? Thinking about the team’s needs first demonstrates commitment.
3. Grow your people – Providing training and development opportunities demonstrates commitment. It captures your peoples’ best discretionary efforts and inhibits mediocrity. It challenges them to bring their “A” games.
4. Give credit publicly – When the team accomplishes a goal, give them the spotlight, and let them shine. Got to bat for your team with senior leadership. When working short, honest recognition equals retention.
5. Own the blame – If you and your team fail to meet a goal, the blame stops with you. Never ever throw them under the bus for the sake of your ego. If your people need feedback about performance, give it privately 1:1.
6. Remain willing – Never say “That’s not my job.” It may not actually be your job, but in the present environment it is poison for retention. You are not likely to end up in a long term contributor role, but the team needs to see your commitment in the short term. Do what needs to be done even when nobody’s watching.
7. Character matters – Leadership is less about skills and more about living by your values. Don’t be a weasel. You don’t want your leadership brand to be the one people think is dishonest, underhanded, and unethical. Your team will not follow a leader they cannot trust. Respect takes a long time to earn but a second to lose.
We never seem to hear enough about the really great leaders who have impacted millions of lives positively. These are the leaders of great organizations who succeed at business and life without avarice and cupidity. They have both exceptional ability and integrity on display.
Their employees still have good jobs. Their retirement accounts are still intact. Their shareholders still have equity in the company that hasn’t vanished in a cloud of smoke. They are honest and not self-serving leaders.
Sadly, we have seen many examples of ability without integrity, they include:
In 1919, Ponzi came up with a plan to trade international reply coupons (IRCs). These are coupons that can be exchanged for postage stamps. He believed there was an opportunity to buy discounted IRCs in Europe and then exchange them at face value in the United States. He raised money from investors, promising a 100% return within 90 days.
The scheme quickly gained traction and he was easily able to raise more capital. At one point he was attracting as much as a million dollars a day, about $16 million a day in today’s money!
Although his scheme very quickly became too big, too fast to be sustainable, Ponzi found that he could easily pay the promised returns to existing investors from new investors. This massive flow of money into his fake investment scheme permitted Ponzi to live an extravagant lifestyle – for a time.
The scheme collapsed within a year when a series of articles in the Boston Post caused investors to demand their money back. Ponzi ended up serving time in Prison, but amazingly launched another scam as soon as he was released. He added to our language what are now known as Ponzi schemes.
Amongst the many causes of the housing market crisis of 2008 is a long list of unethical behavior, conflicts of interest and corporate fraud. Rating agencies were paid by issuers to give very risky securities investment grade credit ratings. This created a conflict of interest as rating agencies had a financial incentive to deceive investors about the real risk that a security carried. They used a market derivative called collateralized debt obligations (CDO) that were backed by a pool of loans and sold to institutional investors.
Mortgage loan originators were aggressively selling “no documentation” home loans and getting paid their origination fees without care or concern for what happened downstream.
Banks sold securities to investors that they knewto be incredibly risky but were labeled otherwise. In some cases, banks were shorting against the very same securities they were aggressively promoting to fund managers. Some banks also used hedge funds to cushion their bet against the mortgage market.
Lehman Brothers used loopholes in accounting standards that allowed them to use repurchase agreements to hide the true extent of their leverage and debt. They filed for bankruptcy when they could not be bailed out (by US taxpayers). All of these companies had ethical issues that contributed to the crisis, which resulted in a major stock market crash and recession.
WorldCom was the second largest telecommunications company in the US in the 90’s. In 2002 the company collapsed after wide ranging accounting fraud was uncovered. In 2006, WorldCom’s CEO, Bernhard Ebbers, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Enron was founded in 1985 by Kenneth Lay. In the early 90’s, congress deregulated the sale of natural gas. Enron lost exclusive rights to operate its pipelines. Jeffrey Skilling became the company’s chief operating officer. Andrew Fastow was the CFO. Both misled the Enron board of directors and investors.
A series of criminal events resulted in the collapse of Enron. It held more than $60 billion in assets and was one of the biggest bankruptcy filings in US history. It also led to the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, one of the largest auditing and accounting firms in the USA. Arthur Andersen was responsible for allowing the accounting fraud to happen at Eron and elsewhere by looking the other way.
So, what is the value of commitment?
How different things might have been if these gifted people had applied their talents and abilities with integrity. Millions of jobs, and billions of dollars shareholder and retirement account equity might still be here today. The lesson is trusting sustainable relationships flourish when ability is on display – with integrity.
Lee Hubert is a professional leadership trainer, coach, facilitator and speaker. He is the founder of iTrainManagersforSuccess and affiliated with Voltage Leadership Consulting.
