Performance is what pays the bills. Not loyalty. Not morale. What is needed is high job commitment. Commitment works a lot harder than loyalty, and gets more done than morale does. Commitment energizes. It empowers. It inspires creativity and pulls a persons true potential into play. That is crucial because the organization cannot get by anymore with mediocre performers. Commitment is self-nourishing it draws power from the spirit, it feeds the soul. Commitment gives meaning to work, and deepens ones sense of self-worth.



Be Passionate In Your Commitment

People always look at the leader when they want to take the pulse of an organization. Example says a lot. Commitment climbs when people see passion in the person in charge. They catch the feeling since commitment, after all, is a highly contagious thing. The more consuming your commitment, the more you draw your people toward you and toward the task to be done. Your intensity, your focus, drive, and dedication carries maximum influence over the level of commitment you can expect from others.

Like it or not, you set the climate. People always take a reading on the person in charge. So when it comes to building commitment, you must lead by example.

Provide a Strong Sense of Purpose

People do not care about working for a company; they want to work for a movement. Provide employees with a grand purpose, a mission with a larger meaning, a cause that transcends the dullness of their everyday duties. Give them a dream they can identify with and watch commitment climb. Build your cause around a concept, an idea or principle that can inspire people to go beyond their present limits.

It is worth noting that Martin Luther King did not say I have a strategic plan. He shouted I have a dream! And he created a crusade. Never under estimate the power of purpose.

Engineer and Honor Achievements

Commitment grows when employees have a chance to contribute. Create a work environment where people can achieve, and you create a climate of greater commitment. Employees want to know they make a difference. This gives meaning to their work, however mundane their accomplishments might seem to you.

Build commitment in your work group by giving people meaningful assignments they can carry to successful completion.

Delegate Power to Every Person

Give each employee full control and authority over some sector of work. Share the power. Delegate authority and let everyone be in charge of something. Position your people, as individuals, to wield a measure of influence over ideas and events. When people feel unable to shape circumstances and when they feel that everything is beyond their control, they learn to act helpless. Anytime people feel disempowered, commitment gets diluted.

Help your employees believe in their ability to affect their circumstances. Give them opportunities to shape their future. Look for chances to let them have a say in matters of personal concern, especially within their own sphere of influence. When the power drains out of your people, there is no strength left in the organization. Commitment dies for lack of energy.

Make Your People Feel Needed

Think how hard it would be to remain committed if your commitment was not needed. What if you did not feel like you mattered? If your efforts seemed insignificant, or if your work was not looked at as being worth much, why would you want to try?

Commitment cannot take root unless your employees feel like they count for something. If they come to believe it is no big deal whether they do a sloppy job or first class work, they get the idea that nobody really cares, the drive to deliver excellent results dies a slow death.

It is important to make every person fell like he or she really matters. See that each one gets to go home at night feeling useful ... relevant ...significant. Need your people as individuals. Let it show. Ask for their help. Lean on them.