It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"Commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in." Patrick Lencioni
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
We're looking at the each of the dysfunctions that Lencioni describes in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
We looked at TRUST the first week, then last week looked at the FEAR OF CONFLICT We're working through all five dysfunctions this month and identifying some areas we might need to pay special attention.
I'm assuming this is a refresh, but I'm still surprised by the number of people I run into who have never walked through Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions Model. If you're one of them, stop reading my summaries and read his book. It's worth the read!
I love this quote on commitment because it's so simple, yet as a leader, I can't count the number of times I asked people to COMMIT without having the clarity around the project defined and without giving people the opportunity to BUY-IN.
LACK OF COMMITMENT is Lencioni's third dysfunction.
Years ago a good friend invited me to serve on his Board. I responded quickly by saying yes, then I asked some questions about expectations and what value he thought I could bring to the Board. His reply was simply to come and engage and then we'd work that all out.
I attended my very first Board Meeting, and we were all challenged to do some things for the organization that surprised me. They wanted me to donate financially a specific amount, they wanted me to commit to raise funds, and they wanted me to take a specific role in a capital campaign.
I was surprised at the expectations, and at the first break of the meeting, I pulled my friend aside, who was the President, and asked him why he hadn't shared these expectations with me earlier. He simply replied, "If I had shared these with you earlier, you wouldn't have joined the Board."
My response: I resigned at the end of that first day of meeting, and I'm sure I was the shortest serving Board Member in that organizations history. My reason for resigning was that I wasn't given the opportunity to AGREE to what was happening, but had been expected to just follow along.
Lessons learned:
If someone asks me to serve, I ask many more questions today than I did before, even when the request comes from a friend.
While I can't know everything, due diligence is really important so that I can make an informed decision.
After asking questions, doing the due diligence, I'm then able to commit and buy-in to what I've been invited into.
If there's any questions or concerns, I don't just move forward, but I address those head-on and work towards clarity first, then I respond.
Do you have any stories like mine where you made a decision without having all the needed information? What was the result of that?
DEEPER STILL:
Have you ever been on a team that keeps picking up the same conversation and decision every meeting, never moving towards solving the issue, but simply to continue to discuss it? Lencioni would call this a waste of time and an unessesary meeting. I used to call it "just another normal meeting!"
Here's how you address the issues of CLARITY & BUY IN:
CLARITY:
Answer peoples questions until there aren't any more questions. No question is wrong. Take the time to work through all the questions.
Repeat the decision again and again, ensuring that everyone knows exactly what is being decided and why.
Assign action to people. Clearly define who is doing what by when. Don't leave anything hanging. As the leader, either you assign it or you own it, but nothing is left unanswered.
"Cascade" the decision throughout the organization. Don't assume everyone knows. Go above and beyond to communicate it clearly to everyone.
BUY IN:
Buy-In doesn't mean agreement with the decision, it means agreement with the decision as a team. Once someone is given the opportunity to ask questions, to share their true feelings, a decision needs to be made. Buy-In means you agree with the team decision whether you personally agree or not.
Buy-In means that you defend that decision, you work towards its success and you do all you can to support the action.
Buy-in is really a commitment to the TEAM and it's your action to support every decision and move that comes from your team.
It's so easy to expect people to simply agree without giving them the opportunity to find clarity and then to buy-in together.
How will you put this into practice in your next meeting when a decision is required? (This also applies to families, couples & friends making decisions together!)
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
I'm reading this book The Power of Moments slowly... really good thoughts and application for things I do in my life and leadership regularly. I'll probably do a deep dive on this in coming months.
OK, here's something fun, but you need to spend some time digging into it. Check out The Singing Bible. Find scripture, listen to the different styles and scripture is presented in a whole new way! Very fun.
I spent some time reading to my 4-year old grandson this past week, and these books were wonderful. Tacos! An Interactive Recipe Book. Don't miss: Pancakes, Pizza, Cookies, Spaghetti and Cake.
I'm listening to Neil Young Essentials this week on Apple. Really good music over the years!
Gina and I visited this camp on Catalina Island back in 1985, and just recently we reconnected with them through Barnabas. Check out all that Campus by the Sea has been doing for the past 75 years to help people "Come Away, Meet God, And Be Renewed".