Christian Whamond. Key Leadership. Executive coach
Christian Whamond - 0408 322 176
  • Home page
  • Resume
    • Career Summary
    • Education
    • Reference's
    • Personal
    • Documents
  • Leadership
    • Effective Leadership
  • Learnings
  • Referance Material
  • Social Profile's
    • DiSC
    • 360 degree feedback
    • Hogan Profile

The word commitment meant something; it was our word of honour

5/2/2013

Comments

 
We have destroyed the meaning of the word commitment. It used to be a significant pledge, a vow, a duty. The word commitment meant something; it was our word of honour. Today, we are consumed with trying to sort through real commitments versus casual, throwaway promises.

We make far too many casual promises. And we speak with little or no regard for carrying out the words we communicate. You put your integrity in the balance every time you commit. Others judge the fabric of your character by whether you keep your commitments and follow through on them in a timely manner. Casual promises and broken commitments are the quickest way to undermine your credibility.

You cannot be 100% accountable if you do not honor your commitments and behave in a way that is consistent with your words. Your relationship to commitments—both big and small—defines your character and decides your fate. It determines the sustainability of your committed partnerships. Leaders eventually fail when they leave a trail of broken promises and diminish their word to the point where they are no longer trusted.

When it comes to assessing leadership effectiveness, there are only two legitimate measures: the business results you produce and how others respond to your leadership. Your effectiveness as a leader is based on the extent to which others perceive you as credible and trustworthy, which, in turn, is what inspires confidence and generates results.

Agreements, commitments, promises, pledges, and pacts—call them anything you want. When you say the words “I will,” you are promising something to someone. The words commitment, promise, and agreement are pledges to do something. Respecting your word and honoring your commitments are expressions of your integrity and values. When your word means something, you can create anything. People whose word is respected are perceived as trustworthy, reliable, and credible. It takes strength of character to consistently demonstrate that your word is your bond.

Credibility is a multidimensional construct that consists of your expertise and your trustworthiness. If you are credible, people believe the truthfulness and correctness of what you say. Credibility is based on trust: can others count on you to do what you say you are going to do? You may be the best in your field with regard to knowledge and proficiency, but if you avoid making commitments or treat commitments casually, people will not trust you. When you do not keep your word in all matters, you destroy confidence. Your credibility at all levels in the organization is determined by how you relate to commitments. All people have is your word. What else is there?

A leader’s credibility requires living by his or her word. If you are of the misguided opinion that it is acceptable to break small commitments as long as you keep the big ones, you are heading for a huge fall—a fall in credibility. You might classify “I’ll call you tomorrow” as a small commitment that is not worthy of worry or angst should you neglect to follow through. But your thinking is flawed. It does not matter how you think your broken commitments will impact others. The only relevant data is the experience others have when you break your commitments.

Use any classification system you want, but when you separate important commitments from the not-so-important ones, you are creating a false dichotomy. When you say “Yes, I will do this,” you have committed. Your words carry weight, and you lose credibility each time you break or irresponsibly revoke a promise. The people around you tally commitments the same way one maintains a debit or credit ledger. 

When you break a commitment, others put a check mark in the debit column. When you keep a commitment, they put a check mark in the credit column. From the perspective of others, you are either a leader who keeps his or her word or one who does not. There is no gray area. The question you must answer is “Do you have the courage to live by your word, and to recover quickly and responsibly when you do not?”
Great leaders cut through the nonsense and do not tolerate disingenuous behavior, nor do they accept “reasonable” excuses as a substitute for business results. When leaders hold others accountable for their commitments and performance, not for activities and effort, they hold people to a higher standard and most will change their behavior.

When leaders change the rules of the game and raise the bar on how people are expected to behave, a few may leave the organization, but the overwhelming majority will stay and become passionately engaged. People want to do their best, and tolerating poor behavior in some lowers the standard for everyone.

Words are actions, and we use the words accountability, integrity, and commitment as if we are sprinkling sugar on cereal, adding a splash of flavor with no real substance. The words that represent our highest ideals and values no longer have potency. Without recognizing it, we accept a low standard of behavior that undermines business results.

In a culture of accountability, your word is your bond. Individuals and teams are caretakers of their promises, and they do not give or take commitments lightly. They treat commitments with respect and do not let circumstances or challenges stop them.
Your relationship to the words that come out of your mouth determines the extent of your power. If talk is cheap, and words are empty and hollow, then committing is not a powerful action. On the other hand, when commitments are kept or responsibly revoked, they are the linchpins for producing business results and the keys to greatness.

A person who keeps his or her agreements, commitments, and promises without excuses is living 100% accountability. Yet how many times have you been late to a meeting and dismissed it due to traffic or forgetfulness or blamed it on another meeting that went longer than expected? How much integrity do you have in keeping your word to yourself and others? As a leader, you are always sending a message to others. When you habitually break your commitments, you are saying “You are not important. Circumstances dictate my behavior.” There are legitimate urgent circumstances that justify breaking or altering a commitment. However, when circumstances determine your behavior daily, others will not trust your leadership.
Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2015
    January 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    7 Habits
    Abraham Lincoln
    Abuse Power
    Abusive
    Accountable
    Achievable
    Achieve
    Action Plan
    Adaptability
    Alexander Graham Bell
    Ambition
    Ambitions
    Angry
    Annual Reviews
    Apologize
    Apple
    Approval
    Attitudes
    Axioms
    Bad Behaviors
    Bad Boss
    Basic Principles.
    Behavior
    Believe
    Boss
    Bully
    Bureaucracy
    Burn Out
    Busy
    Candor
    Care
    Career
    Career Development
    Cause
    Ceo
    Challenges
    Challenging
    Change
    Chaos
    Character
    Charisma
    Checklist
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Churchill
    Clock Builder
    Coaching
    Coaching Action Plan
    Coca Cola
    Cold Call
    Colin Powell
    Colorose
    Commitment
    Communicate
    Communication
    Communicators
    Competence
    Competition
    Competitors
    Conflict
    Confrontation
    Connect
    Connectivity
    Consistency
    Conversation
    Courage
    Courageous
    Creativity
    Credibility
    Criticism
    Culture
    Customer
    Customers
    Dalai Lama
    Dale Carnegie
    David Thodey
    Decision Maker
    Decisions
    Decisiveness
    Dedicated
    Delayering
    Delegation
    Developing
    Development
    Differentiation
    Difficult Employee
    Dilutions
    Diplomacy
    Disc
    Discipline
    Discouraged
    Doers
    Dream
    Effective
    Effectiveness
    Effective People
    Ego
    Emerging Leaders
    Emotional
    Emotions
    Employees
    Employment
    Empower
    Empowering Leader
    Empowerment
    Enemies
    Engage
    Engagement
    Enthusiasm
    Entrepreneurs
    Ethical
    Ethics
    Expect
    Expectations
    Experts
    Facebook
    Fear
    Feedback
    Firing Someone
    Focus
    Foundation
    Friends
    Friendship
    Game
    Geniuses
    George Washington
    Goals
    Google
    Gospa
    Gossip
    Growth
    Habit
    Harvard
    Helping
    Hobbies
    Honesty
    Hope
    Horstman's Laws
    House
    Hr
    Humility
    Idea
    Idea's
    Identity
    Influence
    Insanity
    Inspiration
    Inspire
    Jack Welch
    Jim Collins
    Jim Rohn
    Job Performance
    Job Satisfaction
    Job Seekers
    John Maxwell
    Lead By Example
    Leader
    Leaderning
    Leaders
    Leadership
    Leadership Qualities
    Leading
    Learn
    Learning
    Legacy
    Lessons
    Lessons Life Taught
    Listening
    Lou Holtz
    Love
    Loyality
    Management
    Manager
    Managers
    Managing
    Managing Up624f2380c5
    Manipulative
    Marketing
    Mark Twain
    Martin Luther King Jr
    Meaning
    Meeting
    Mentoring
    Micromanages
    Mission
    Mission Statement
    Mistake
    Mistakes
    Moodiness
    Motivate
    Motivation
    Multidimensionality
    Myers Briggs
    Network
    One On Ones
    Opportunities
    Oprah
    Organization
    Organizational Commitment
    Organizations
    Overachievers
    Passion
    Passionate
    Passiveaggressive4cb939360a
    Pattom
    People
    Performance
    Performance Management
    Persistence
    Persuasive
    Peter Drucker
    Petty People
    Pip
    Pitch
    Planning
    Poor Performers
    Positive Attitudes
    Positive Leadership
    Power
    Prepair
    Pride
    Priorities
    Proactive
    Productivity
    Professional
    Promote
    Purpose
    Pursuit
    Push Back
    Quotes
    Recognize
    Relationships
    Reputation
    Respect
    Responsibility
    Resume
    Richard Austin
    Ridge
    Risk
    Roosevelt
    Sacrafice
    Sacrifices
    Sales
    Sales Team
    Secrets
    Selfconfidence
    Selfconfidenceef32ab1bf4
    Selfmasteryb72a7fe0f0
    Selling
    Simon Inek
    Simplicity
    Six Sigma
    Skills
    Smart Goals
    Smile
    Social Media
    Sorry
    Speaking
    Staff
    Staff Meeting
    Star Performer
    Start
    Stephen R Covey
    Steve Jobs
    Stress
    Success
    Succession Planning
    Support
    Tact
    Tasks
    Team
    Team Leader
    Teams
    Team Work
    Technology
    Thankyou
    Theodore Roosevelt
    The Truth About Leadership
    Thomas Jefferson
    Thought
    Tim Cook
    Time Management
    To Do
    Todo List86df8ef42f
    True Selves
    Trust
    Truth
    Twitter
    Uncertainty
    Value
    Valuebased Leadership
    Value Proposition
    Values
    Vision
    Visionary Company
    Visulizing
    Who We Are
    Why
    Willingness To Sacrifice
    Willingness To Take Risks
    Win
    Winners
    Winning
    Win People
    Win-win
    Wisdom
    Wise
    Work
    Work Life Balance
    Workplace
    Worry
    Yes-men

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Christian Whamond
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.