ACTivity/ Commitment to Lead
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Photo by Thao Le Hoang on Unsplash.
Manila, 13 October 2021 — What’s your leadership commitment score?
Story
It happened in 2021. It’s about the leaders who joined the Grow3Leaders Challenge and led their Collabs to the finish in eight weeks. Several of them didn’t stop there but continued. In anticipation of the next round, they stepped forward to become mentors. And as they prepared together for that role, something became very clear: their commitment to lead and grow more leaders around them.
In earlier posts, we discovered that leadership requires more than a big dream and a sense of purpose. Much of your leadership work is about repeatedly showing up with behaviors that will, over time, bring results. We also saw how leadership needs grit, defined as the power of passion and perseverance. All of that is needed to deliver change, and that is what leadership is about: a process of influencing change.
When we compare the change you want to influence with a rocket, then we know that even the best-designed rocket won’t take off without fuel. That, in my metaphor, stands for the commitment you need to make change happen as a leader. No matter how many good ideas you have for change, you won’t get anywhere without commitment. Are you ready to explore that further?
Challenge
Why do we face a shortage of leaders in our world today, while we can see people with bright ideas and good intentions everywhere around us? When you reflect on that, what answers do you come up with? I would love to hear. In my experience, it has a lot to do with commitment. If that’s the case, what’s so difficult about commitment, you might ask.
From my coaching work and experience in Grow3Leaders, I observed three obstacles that hold people back from commitment. First, when they lack a clear vision, it’s difficult to find a purpose to be committed to. Second, they might have a vision but lack focus. We see that a lot these days, in people with too much to be interested in and be concerned about, to the point of feeling a sense of overwhelm and not being able to decide what to commit to. Third, they might have a clear vision and a sharp focus but lack strong and consistent habits. They know what to commit to, and struggle to put their commitment into action.
Which of these obstacles resonates with you as you build your commitment to lead? I’m interested to know, so do reach out and share. The way we unpack commitment here has everything to do with one of my favorite models for leadership: the DAC model, standing for Direction, Alignment, Commitment. You notice commitment comes at the end. It is the essential part for your leadership ‘rocket’ to take off and keep flying day by day.
Question
My question for you this week is to evaluate your commitment to lead in your workplace. What score do you give yourself for your commitment to lead and make change happen, on a scale of 1 to 10. Be honest with yourself.
I will be honest with you too. In my experience, any score below 9 means that your rocket might not take off or will fizzle out and crash soon after takeoff, like most new year’s resolutions. As a reasonable person, if that happens you will have an explanation of why it didn’t work. However, what I learned from my fellow coach Judee Quiazon is that leaders choose not to be reasonable people: they don’t live by reason. Instead, they make change happen with commitment and without reasons and excuses.
Still with me and committed? The good news is that commitment is easier to boost and keep up when you work together with other leaders. Commitment is contagious: it inspires others and fires up your own motivation to keep digging deep inside your own resources and resolve. That’s what we practice in the Grow3Leaders Challenge. The commitment to lead is, like martial arts, best practiced together.