I just published a blog on Linked-In about the importance of creating commitment in your organization. I thought you might like to read it and watch the thirteen minute video.
Category Archives: Leadership
Commitment: The secret power of the 21st organization
How do you build successful sustainable performance? Focus on the commitment of your employees. Commitment to an organization arises when the organization provides employees with opportunities to satisfy their needs and desires.1
The needs and desires of employees are determined by the stage of psychological development they are at and the needs of the stages of development they have passed through but have not yet mastered. In other words, commitment arises when employees are able to get their survival, safety and security needs met, and when their work gives them a sense of meaning—when they can meet their desire for self-expression, connection and contribution.
Commitment to the organization is enhanced when the leaders, managers and supervisors embrace democratic principles, treat employees as equals, listen to what employees have to say, deal with employees fairly, and give employees opportunities and challenges to grow and develop both professionally and personally. Commitment is further enhanced when employees believe the leaders, managers and supervisors care about them and their families, and care about the local community in which they live. Commitment continues to increase when they feel they can trust the organization, its leaders, managers and supervisors to always do the right thing.
The bottom line on commitment is this: When you feel a sense of commitment to an organization, you identify with it; and whatever you identify with you care about. However, you will only feel a sense of commitment to an organization if you feel supported by that organization in meeting your needs.
Bob Chapman, CEO of the $1.7 billion manufacturing company Barry-Wehmiller, has created a world-class company with off-the-charts moral, loyalty, creativity and business performance by adopting the principles outlined above. The company rejects the idea that employees are simply functions to be moved around, “managed” with carrots and sticks, or discarded at will. Instead, Barry-Wehmiller manifests the reality that every single person matters, just like a family.2
How does commitment show up?
You can recognize commitment in an organization in the following ways.
- At the first level of consciousness (survival), commitment shows up as willingness to do what is necessary (legally) to secure the financial stability and health of the organization, and the health and safety of employees.
- At the second level of consciousness (relationship), commitment shows up as a deeply engrained loyalty—a steadfastness of belief in the organization and its leaders and what they are attempting to do—and as heartfelt connection and camaraderie among employees.
- At the third level of consciousness (self-esteem), commitment shows up as a willingness on the part of employees to go the extra mile whenever it is necessary. When employees are committed, they bring their discretionary energy to their work.
- At the fourth level of consciousness (transformation), commitment shows up as a willingness to adapt and change—let go of old habits and change who you are, change how you operate, and change how you do what you do for the benefit of yourself, your subordinates and the organization. Commitment also shows up at this level of consciousness as a willingness to try new ideas, take risks and innovate.
- At the fifth level of consciousness (internal cohesion) commitment shows up as passion for your work and enhanced creativity.
- At the sixth level of consciousness commitment shows up as a deeply held desire to connect with others so you can make a difference in the world.
- At the seventh level of consciousness commitment shows up as devotion to selfless service—a profound sense of interconnectedness, a focus on the common good, and the desire to leave a legacy.
Continuous transformation
Whilst all these aspects of commitment are important, the most important is the ability and willingness to adapt—continuous transformation. The most successful organisms and species have always been those that learned how to adapt to their changing environments. Evolution has never been an exercise in long-term, strategic planning; it has always been an exercise in emergent learning.2 Emergent learning along with a predilection and facility for adaptation lies at the core of all successful evolution and cultural transformation.3, 4
Successful organisms have always evolved by making continuous real-time adjustments to their way of being based on feedback from their internal and external environments. This is why organizations that display a high level of internal cohesion are able to survive and prosper more easily than those that do not. The interpersonal connectedness that arises from internal cohesion enables an organization to act as a single organism, thereby facilitating emergent learning, adaptation and agility. The key factor in creating internal cohesion is interpersonal trust.
This means that the most successful organizations in the twenty-first century will be those that not only understand how to build internal cohesion, but are structurally agile enough to adapt to the changing needs of society and the changing needs of the market place. They will be working with free-form, flexible organizational structures that create high levels of employee engagement and empower people to focus their energies on innovation and continuous renewal.
The role of the leaders, managers and supervisors will be to create a values-driven culture based on democratic principles and create working conditions that support employees in meeting their deficiency and growth needs—thereby engendering high levels of employee engagement. When the culture and working conditions are right, employees will bring their hearts and souls to their work and release their creative and discretionary energies.
Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey call such organizations “deliberately developmental”. A deliberately developmental organization is organized around the simple but radical conviction that an organization will best prosper when they are more deeply aligned with people’s strongest motive, which is to grow. This means going beyond consigning “people development” to high-potential staff. It means fashioning an organizational culture where supporting people’s development is woven into the fabric of working life and the company’s regular operations, daily routines and conversations.5
In addition to caring about the needs of employees, the successful twenty-first-century organization will also care about the needs of the organization’s external stakeholders—customers, suppliers, investors and the local communities and societies in which they operate.6
To achieve all these objectives, the leader of the organization will need to: (a) build an inspiring vision and a purposeful mission for the organization that goes beyond making money; (b) manage the values of the organization by getting regular feedback from employees, customers, suppliers and society at large about how the organization can meet their needs; (c) manage his/her way of being/operating by getting regular feedback from colleagues and direct reports about how they can change their way of being/operating to enhance the performance of the organization; and (d) require that the directors, managers and supervisors in the organization do the same.
In summary, in order to be successful in the twenty-first century, the leaders of organizations will need to embrace a new leadership paradigm—a shift in focus from “I” to “we”; from “what’s in it for me” to “what’s best for the common good”; and from “being the best in the world ” to “being the best for the world.”7
Notes
1 Richard Barrett, The Values-Driven Organization: Unleashing Human Potential For Performance and Profit (London: Routledge), 2014.
2 Bob Chapman, Raj Sisodia, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like a Family (New York: Portfolio/Penguin), 2015.
Marilyn Taylor, Emergent Learning for Wisdom (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 2010.
3 See George E. Vaillant, Adaptation to Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 1977, which traces the history of 100 Harvard graduates to determine the key factors that led to their success or failure in life.
4 See also Richard Barrett, The New Leadership Paradigm (Asheville, NC: Fulfilling Books), 2011, p. 21 for the results of the study of Harvard graduates cited in the previous reference.
5 Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, An Everyone Culture: Becoming A Deliberately Developmental Organization (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishg), 2016.
6 John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating The Heroic Spirit of Business (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press), 2012.
7 Richard Barrett, The New Leadership Paradigm (Asheville, NC: Fulfilling Books), 2011, pp. 13–22.
A crisis in leadership
In my book, The New Leadership Paradigm, I talked about the crisis in leadership. Although I was writing about business, the need for a new leadership paradigm clearly applies to politics as well; not just in the UK but also in the US. Let’s also not forget about the political crisis in Brazil.
What is being called forth in business and politics is a global paradigm shift. A shift from a world focused on fear and self-interest to a world focused on compassion and the common good. Such a shift would represent a shift from short-term thinking to long-term thinking; from “what’s in it for me” to “what’s best for everyone:” from being the “best in the world” to the “best for the world.”
Basically most of our political leaders have little integrity. They fan the fears of voters to make themselves seem important—not just the right-wing but the left-wing also: And, the current form of combative democracy supports them. What happened to dialogue based on “truth.” What happened to giving due consideration to our future generations.
Let’s face it most politicians care little for the truth. They focus only on the short-term and the messages that will get them elected and then re-elected. Once they are in power, they change their tune and deny what they stood for. They dodge and weave to keep themselves popular. That’s because they live and breathe self-interest. Watch the debates in Parliament or Congress if you want to see pure self-interest in action: All the energy goes into scoring points by putting down the opposition. If all this energy went into constructive dialogue we might be able to respect our politicians.
When are things going to change? When will we see a shift to a higher level of consciousness where integrity, intelligence and compassion rule?
In Love, Fear and the Destiny of Nations, I plotted the level of fear in a nation against the level of democracy. Fear-driven nations are the most authoritarian. Compassion-driven nations are the most democratic. In the UK and the US our politicians are taking us in the wrong direction. They are fanning the flames of fear to meet their own ends. They are leading us backwards in history, not forwards. It takes courage to move forward with integrity. When the going gets tough, only fear-driven cowards retreat.
The “change-the-world” generation
Let’s face it, the world is in a mess. I find myself wondering why we are not more concerned about the future of our young people. Why are we not more focused on the livelihood and well-being of our future generations?
I believe it is time for the “me” generation to give way to the “us” generation. We need to act now. Not acting now will incur more costs later. The cost of not acting will result in delays and failure to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals.
We have the potential to change life conditions for every individual on the planet in one or two generations. This is the challenge to the youth of today—to take ownership of the achievement of the UN’s development goals.
To find out more about the New Leadership Paradigm, leading self, leading a team, leading an organization and leading in society go to:
The challenge to our current leaders is to support and empower every young person in fulfilling their potential as part of the “change-the-world” generation.
How can we do this?
Here is a seven-point plan that we have developed with PA Consultants that every organization can sign up to:
- Support and partner with local communities to make them sustainable and safe for young children.
- Give young children a secure start in their lives.
- Support youth in learning about sustainability and values-based decision-making.
- Provide youth with ways of pursuing their independence and expressing their identity through developmental learning programs that focus on leading self.
- Grow young people’s awareness of the opportunities and challenges of becoming financially responsible and accountable.
- Facilitate youth’s choices regarding key financial milestones—education, starting a family and deciding a career path.
- Support and empower youth to make informed decisions about every aspect of their lives.
Link to full presentation at HR Congress in Brazil with results of survey of HR professionals
You can find my full presentation on Building a Values-Driven Organisation which I will present this afternoon in Rio de Janeiro. Click here to see presentation.
Contains some interesting data on HR professionals perspectives of what is working and not working in Brazilian companies.
Also, you will find information on the launch of our new internet-based New Leadership Paradigm (TNLP) learning module — Leading Self. Full details on the new learning platform will be available at the BVC International Conference. You can also find out more about TNLP by clicking here.
Culture, values and leadership for HR professionals
I will giving a keynote address to 800 HR professionals in Rio de Janeiro next week and have put together a presentation for them. I will also be launching two books in Portuguese, The Values Driven Organisation and The New Leadership Paradigm.
If you click here you can see the English version of the presentation.
I will post a fuller version of the presentation next week after the keynote address.
Free broadcasts on I Tunes
My Broadcast Series with David Gibbons is now available on I-Tunes
Click to access I-Tunes broadcasts on The Values-driven Organisation: Unleashing human potential for performance and profit
Click to access I-Tunes broadcasts on What My Soul Told Me: A practical guide to soul activation
Values and culture highlighted as critical issues in the demise of the Coop
Martin Palethorpe, a CTT consultant and a member of the PRAGMA Group, has distilled the eight key lessons from Sir Christopher Kelly’s report on the Failings and Management of Governance–an independent review of into the events leading to the Co-operative Bank’s capital shortfall. Click here to see Martin’s summary.
Key among the lessons are:
Live your values
Make your values live and stick. Live them in all initiatives and embed them in behaviours. Translate your values into meaningful guidance. Make sure too that your espoused brand matches how you actually operate.
A healthy culture
Consciously and strategically develop your organisational & Board culture. The Coop had a culture that focused on good news, lacked accountability, tolerated underperformance, lacked transparency, discouraged challenge, and deferred problems.
Transparency, openness, debate, challenge, clarity & accountability are critical values needed in any successful Board or Executive team. These values will fundamentally impact how your Board works and how it makes decisions, which can be the difference between long-term sustainability & success and utter failure.
These issues come as no surprise to those of us involved in doing cultural values assessments and supporting cultural transformation.
Values-based Leadership: Leading from the inside out
Becoming a successful leader—someone who is able to build a long-lasting, high-performing team, organization, or community—is not about what you do, although that is important; it is about how you do what you do—it is about living your deeply held values.
What my research and the research of others shows is that values-driven teams, organizations, and communities are the most successful on the planet.Values-driven organizations generate higher earnings; they are more customer-focused and more productive, and they have higher levels of employee engagement, higher retention rates, and lower absenteeism. Because employees feel cared for, they willingly bring their creativity and discretionary energy to their work.
To read the whole article click here.
The New Leadership Paradigm
In this interview for Conscious TV I describe the shift from “I” to “we” which is at the heart of the new leadership paradigm.
Click here to see the interview
Click here for the New Leadership Paradigm website.
Richard Barrett 