Hi, everybody. I’m Mike Staver. This is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people just like you. Here’s this week’s question.
“Dear Mike, our management team makes commitments to do things differently. We are well-intentioned and smart. Seems that no matter what we do but we find ourselves back in the same spot. What is your advice?”
Well, stop doing it. Just kidding. Here’s what I suggest. There’s a lack of accountability. I’m just telling you there is something going on on your management team that makes that commitment not really a commitment.
What you’re doing, my guess is, is you’re making a commitment that sounds like this. We’re committed as long as it’s comfortable. We’re committed as long as something else doesn’t happen. We’re committed as long as the circumstances work, and I’m telling you that’s not a commitment. The only way change happens on a management team and a family and a relationship is when the commitment is made and there’s execution. You see, most of the time what you see happening in organizations and management teams is there’s an intention, and then there’s a gap and then there’s execution.
What you’ve got to do is close the gap and here’s how you do it. You stack hands on the idea that no matter what we’re either going to make a commitment stick to it or we’re not going to make the commitment. That’s really critical. Make the commitment stick to it or not make the commitment at all. That’s what’s really important. If not, we’ve got to figure out how do we go about doing the things necessary to create a space where we actually execute, and usually, that means accountability. Usually, that means going around the table and saying, ”Are we or are we not committed, and here’s the piece, what do we do if we’re not, right? If we’re not in alignment with our commitment, what are we going to do? How are we going to get back on track?
There’s the commitment, there’s looking at each other and saying, are we really committed or not? Then what is going to happen when we fail to meet our commitment? That has to be the final piece, the other parentheses. Because if you don’t, then you’ll slowly get atrophy and go backwards and you don’t want that. I hope that was helpful.
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