Don’t sweep doubts under the carpet

Srdan Mahmutovic, CEO of Platformax.com, Slovenia

Commitment is a slippery concept; more often than not, the intensity and depth varies from time to time, situation to situation and people to people. As the team evolves, it quickly establishes fixed routines, norms, and ways of interacting. These behaviour patterns may not be useful, and sometimes these can even be self-destructive, here are some tips to manage it:

Stepping out of commitment zone

Whenever you ask people to change, you are asking them to step out of their comfort zone to try something that may be new or unsettling. Before your team members can offer their commitment, they must first acknowledge that they have reached a critical pain threshold that is they must believe that the discomfort of trying out new behaviours outweighs the distress caused by the current situation.

It is understandable that some members of your team may feel some anxiety about tackling team performance problems. Some people may believe that they don’t have the time to take on additional responsibilities or projects, or they may think the problem under review is too large or complicated to tackle. To others, the problem may appear too sensitive to be resolved through team discussions. Still, others may have placed the responsibility of shoring up the sales numbers on the shoulders of the sales manager.

Capturing team commitments

Capturing team commitment means getting all your team members to acknowledge that they are all responsible for making the numbers happen. They must understand that the sales manager or you as the CEO or departmental head may provide necessary guidance and direction but cannot carry the full burden of changing the direction. Team success will depend on the best efforts of each member of the sales team.

Some of the team members may hesitate to openly express concerns and reservations about the proposed team improvements or change initiatives to shore up the sales numbers, but it is important to allow them to do so. The best way is to acknowledge from the beginning that there are certain reasons why it may be difficult to attack the problem. You might want, to begin with, an introduction like this.

“Before we continue, I think it’s important for us to openly discuss any concerns or reservations we might have about our ability to move forward in the current situation. I will be the first one to admit that we are in a tough situation and we have decided to eat the frog first, the approach taken by us to keep our business running requires a lot of our extra time, commitment, and effort. Our families will have to support us during this time because we will be eating into their time. What I would like to do is to go around the room and listen to any concerns that you might have. As you talk, I will post the comments on the flip chart for our review. If you don’t have anything to say, just say pass, and we will skip you for now, but check again with you by the time we get to the end of this session. As a ground rule, I am going to ask you not to comment on anyone’s concern until we have everything listed on the board.”

All commitments are not equal

It’s mission critical that you calibrate your team’s commitment levels because team members respond differently to the need for change and their level of participation to make it happen. Unfortunately, the team members with the most severe reservations do not state their views openly; instead, they prefer to express their concerns indirectly through sarcastic comments or half-hearted participation after the company has started moving in the direction of change. By calibrating the commitment, you will be able to get the full range of support from the team.

A simple way to do this is to ask each team member to give you a number ranging from 1 to 10, with a 10 representing 100 per cent level of commitment to tackling the situation at hand and a 1 indicating the minimal level of commitment. After posting these numbers on the flipchart for review, invite the members who expressed low levels of commitment to share their concerns.

Next, ask them the following question “What actions could we take that would enable you to raise your level of commitment?” 

By using these tips the leader will be able to build team commitment.

— Column inputs courtesy Yostartups.com