Self-Leadership #6 Be Fully Committed

There are several characteristics that you must develop to build your character to become an effective and successful leader. First among equals in achieving this is commitment. Total commitment implies a lack of concern for anything except the task at hand. Total commitment means no loafing, idling, standing around, hanging out, or lazy doing. It means accepting sacrifice, suffering, hard work – in other words, whatever it takes to reach your goal!

The essence of commitment is the act of making a decision. The Latin root for decision is “to cut away from,” as in an incision. When you commit to something, you are cutting away all your other possibilities, all your other options. When you commit to something, you are also cutting away all the rationalizations, all the excuses. Like Brian Tracy’s book title: “No Excuses!”

Steve Jobs build Apple from a garage startup into a billion-dollar public company but this was not without difficulty. Years later, he lost a battle with the board about the direction of the company. The company stock fell and lost billions of dollars. Steve was fired and was in ‘exile’ for 12 years until his return. In one of his speeches, he stated his commitment to do great thing regardless of his circumstances: “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life… Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” Before, during and when he came back to Apple, Steve Jobs never stop producing “Insanely Great” products until his death.

Singleness of purpose – total commitment and intensity – is something all leaders can develop. Part of it lies in believing in what you’re doing. Jobs fervently believed that what he was doing was very important. Because of it, he radiated an intensity and commitment that was electric.

Here are three (3) techniques to up the “commitment quotient” in your team or organization:

Start With Yourself: Inspire those around you with your own level of commitment. When leaders go the extra mile, their followers will follow.

Talent Only Gets You So Far: A person with 100% ability and 50% commitment can throw a wrench into the whole system through inattention, inconsistency and laziness. Don’t take or hire those who lack commitment.

Weed Out the Uncommitted: Team or organization that wins is populated by winners. Weed out the uncommitted by applying the 80/20 principle: Get rid of 80% and only keep the last 20% of the committed team or focus working with them.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.