commitment Archives - Page 3 of 4

04
Feb 20
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Building Super Teams Creates More Magic

Tags : commitment effort magic super teams time

Is it all a matter of effort? Are you building super teams or only just going through the motions?

Will the time and commitment make a difference?

Creating Magic

Major events require a lot of effort. The Superbowl is a good example.

Planning across many months, perhaps even a year or more. People steering the arrangements, the motivation, and creating something that looks nearly perfect.

For many involved it is a one-shot deal. A once-in-a-lifetime, that special moment with millions of people watching.

The stakes are high, yet so are the chances for success. Not because it is easy but because the effort across time makes it look easy.

The investment yields a high return.

The same is often true for the well-manicured landscape, the wedding cake, or the handcrafted wooden boat.

It is all a culmination of effort, skill, and commitment put together across time.

It is definitely not for everyone. That is part of what makes it appear magical.

Building Super Teams

There are very few overnight successes, yet many appear as such.

Where and how you spend your time will produce an outcome.

When it comes to your workplace, your team, or the business that you own are you working smart and hard towards perfecting your craft?

Is what you produce a Mona Lisa or just a paint-by-number?

The effort and time you put in will have a significant impact on what comes out.

Is what you’re working towards today going to be worthy? Will it be super?

Magic often appears with great effort across time.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

09
Jan 20
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Workplace Impact Requires a Commitment

Tags : commitment human capital impact investment workplace

Are you interested in workplace impact? Not just occupying a place and receiving a check, true impact?

Many businesses measure their bottom line by simply comparing revenues and expenses. They can show you, “Here are our sales and our expenses.”

Simple enough.

Yet simple enough doesn’t define the organization. The culture defines the organization and most culture is developed across time and through commitment.

The new hire wonders if they’ll make it through the first day, then they’re happy about the first week, the first month, and so on. What is their goal? Six months, two years, or are they planning to just go with the flow?

How will the organization measure the employee’s success? Is there a cultural fit, mutual respect, and engagement?

Is this person making an impact? They probably know what they cost.

Impact requires a commitment.

Workplace Impact

Your background and expertise aren’t built in a couple of months. You don’t learn everything required for a high school or college education in six weeks.

When you want to really make an impact, you’re going to have to view it across time. Sure, there will be moments of impact. What led to those moments was the result a longer-term commitment.

Businesses with the best cultures aren’t measuring people by what they cost. People are not an expense. They are an investment.

It brings two words to the front of my mind: Human Capital.

Yet, you can’t just say it. You need to live it.

Daily. Across time.

For the employer and the employee.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

03
Jan 20
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Decision Commitment and Deciding What to Do

Tags : accountability belief commitment decision

Sometimes the best thing to happen next is to decide that you are going to decide. Decision commitment can be a stumbling block. Are you ready to leap over the obstacles?

Often it is not about a lack of options, it is about a lack of commitment to decisions.

If you’re in sales, you’ll want the customer to decide. Your goal is to close the deal. You’re in the business of helping other people decide.

Selling It

Isn’t everyone in sales? Can you sell to yourself?

Sometimes we have to sell it to ourselves. We have to take the big leap. Create the contract and stay committed.

In my consulting practice, the biggest obstacle I often see for clients is their inability to decide. They want something different, bigger, or better. They can see it, but their next decision means commitment and they may not be ready for it.

Decision Commitment

It feels so final. You contemplate over and over about the pros and cons? Will it work or will it crash and burn in disaster?

At every entry point you have a chance to decide that you will decide.

Here is the thing. It doesn’t have to be final. Your choice can be fluid. You can ebb and flow, make adjustments, take a break, or start again. If the number is too steep, adjust. The timeline is too fast (or slow), adjust it.

Procrastination and a lack of making a decision is often a crusher of momentum and certainly productivity. You know time is money. The inability to make a choice may be costing much more than the risk you’re contemplating.

Trust Yourself

A decision often starts with trusting yourself.

Is that something you can feel confident about? Do you trust yourself?

Your next decision may be a big one. The heat of the moment may not be the best time to decide, and sometimes a decision to do nothing is still a good decision.

You must decide.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

12
Aug 19
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Stretch Goals and a Commitment to Achieve

Tags : C-Suite commitment confidence stretch goals

In your career, for yourself, or for your team, do you have stretch goals? Are goals something your boss decides? Do you have input? Thinking of goals is there anything you would do differently?

Winning is a great thing, it also creates new expectations.

Winning Achievements

In sports, when you win the opening game there is an expectation that you’ll win the next one too. The pressure and commitment shifts, it changes, it gets more serious.

When you close the sale, it is expected that you’ll do it again. Next time it may be bigger. Next week more, and the week after even more.

Winning streaks change things. They change the mindset of the team, the competitors, and the results. Tackling the giant is always a challenge, doubt enters the minds of those seeking to dismantle the hero. The win streak seems unstoppable.

We’ve seen it in football, in soccer, and even in motorsports. The longer the streak goes on, the more confidence that comes through.

Stretch Goals

In the workplace people are sometimes irritated with stretch goals. The salesperson thinks, “How much more can I be expected to achieve?”

The same is often true for the C-Suite reporting to the board of directors. The numbers and expectations are lofty, the likelihood of success initially feels slim.

Yet building on one success after another. Bringing in each small win adds up. There is momentum to accumulation. Actual versus goal, the gap closes, the stretch shrinks, the streak broadens.

Confidence is built one step at a time.

Commitment starts at the beginning and accelerates as the gap narrows.

A stretch too far to reach is more probable for those who quit before they begin.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

12
Jun 19
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Making Personal Changes for a Better Workplace

Tags : commitment doubt future personal change

Many people want to make personal changes for a better workplace. Are you one of them? We often spend a lot of time trying to figure the how. Yet sometimes, we lose sight of the why.

Have you ever questioned, “Am I in the right spot?” You know, are you in the right relationships, hanging with the right people, or actively employed in the right company?

We may even question if we studied the right stuff in school or if we are living in the right city or state. Has this, ever been you?

Everyone’s circumstance is situational. It is like the FAE, our actions and behaviors may best be judged by considering the situation, not labeling the person.

Personal Changes

Making personal changes can be challenging. We often think a lot about the new place we want to be, yet we often skip the concept of what we will give up.

If you want to give up a bad habit, it can be simple. Quit smoking, or quit eating donuts. You know what we have to give up.

What if you just want a better outlook for your future?

Did I marry the right person?

Did I choose the right career path?

Am I working for the right company?

Sometimes the best thing to give up is your doubt.

Instead of continuously questioning where you are at, instead be convinced that you are in the right place, right now, at this time. Commit to your place, give up the doubt.

It changes everything.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

11
Mar 19
-

In Your Workplace Daylight Savings Still Requires You

Tags : commitment daylight savings discipline workplace

People may ask, “Do we move the time forward or do we turn back the clocks?” Confused they may say, “Are we losing an hour or gaining an hour?” Are people asking you about the effects of daylight savings time?

I have two grandmother clocks in my home. They don’t run on electricity or batteries. You must pull the chains to raise the weights every week. The pendulum must swing and then the hands of the clock spin.

Telling time then is not accomplished through a digital display. There are not buttons to push or indicator lights.

Most importantly, the time setting in these clocks is accomplished manually. You can’t tap “Settings,” and then, “Date & Time,” and toggle, “Automatic.”

An Excuse

Surely, as the official time change occurs during the weekend people will show up at the correct time on Monday.

No, not everyone. A few will find it a convenient excuse to be running late.

Although we are in a digital age. An age where most of our cellular phones and computer devices will automatically spring forward, people still have something to do.

In your workplace, the people are going to need to spring forward. They are going to need to bring the energy, put in the effort, and bring the change to life. It won’t happen automatically. It’s not a digital setting.

Daylight Savings

Our digital age is part of society. Things happen for us and we barely even notice. It is all so automatic. Beyond that it is thoughtless, no real effort required. Follow the time on your phone or computer and you’re set.

Our lives benefit from technology. Things making life easier, simpler, and requiring less background knowledge to navigate.

On the human side of daylights savings, we still have a job to do. Spring forward will only happen when we pull the chains, raise the weights, and turn the hands.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

08
Oct 18
-

Productivity Fact or Perfection Myth, Which Is It?

Tags : commitment discipline perfection productivity

Productivity is important for every workplace. The idea is that efficiency drives profit. Are your daily habits driven by the productivity fact or the perfection myth?

What is the difference and where are you spending, or wasting your time?

Perfection Myth

People spend a lot of time and money on perfection.

There are hours spent on perfecting the product. It happens with goods and it happens with services.

There are hours and hours of fine tuning and making it just right. Hours are spent on the meetings, the waiting for decisions, and on rejected work.

In extreme cases, work is produced that is never used. It is only discarded, no longer needed, or locked in the closet being viewed as too risky for release.

We do it with our written communication to the CEO, the board of directors, or for the project proposal.

We may spend 80 percent of our time proofing, rewriting, and tweaking. In the end, much of that 80 percent of time was wasted because the initial 20 percent of time fulfilled 80 percent or more of the requirement.

All of this lends credibility to the idea that perfection is a myth. Perfection means more time wasted, less time producing.

Productivity Fact

What about the productivity fact?

Kittens and puppies are picked every day not because they are perfect, but because people aren’t judging for perfection.

Your best friend probably isn’t perfect. Your favorite book isn’t perfect. The car you drive, nope, probably not perfect.

Your house may be clean, or the lawn may be cut, but neither are probably perfect.

The work that we do, the product we produce or service we deliver, is probably good enough long before it is perfect. Sometimes everything beyond good enough, is productivity wasted. Time spent that we’ll never recover.

Perfect is often a self-developed illusion. One that we can’t live up to, and one that wastes our time.

Productivity fact is much more important than the perfection myth.

Do great work, but keep moving. The clock is always ticking.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

28
Jun 18
-

Should Commitment And The Handshake Return?

Tags : commitment handshake risk trust

Trusting relationships are often cited as the path for mutual success. In a World of hustle and bustle, everything digital, and artificial intelligence should the handshake return?

Many people strive to become trusted by fitting in, finding agreement, and playing the right kind of politics. It is a surface trust, a trust that often ends in a letdown, and one that only matters if both parties have a need.

In highly political workplace currents people strive not to stand out, they hunker down, and don’t bring any unnecessary attention to themselves.

Doing the opposite may threaten the status quo, upset organized labor, and get you shunned from the group. The underground consensus is, get along with the crowd to get ahead.

Commitment is Risk

Trouble often develops because the mutual need doesn’t last. The handshake is missing. What is good in the moment may not be good for the rest of the day.

Colleagues let colleagues down, they drop balls, don’t pick up their toys, and they kick down castles in the sand.

Clients and vendors are for purpose only. Win at all costs, cut everything until you win, keep winning.

Trust is about a promise, so is a handshake. When we trust, promises are kept, commitments are honored, and people do what they say.

Often our clutter is because the handshake is missing. More email messages to confirm, more phone calls to ensure its real, more anxiety because no one knows for sure.

Handshake Return

Should the handshake return? Should everyone be more committed to doing what they say and saying what they’ll do?

Making a promise you’ll keep is risky. Something better may come along. A better deal, a new opportunity, a cause for your promise to be broken.

When winning at all costs is what matters the most, the handshake feels like it carries too much risk. The extra effort and commitment required make it easier to skip or be forgotten.

Bring back the handshake.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

09
Jun 17
-

your true potential Appreciative strategies

Your True Potential, No Regrets

Tags : coaching commitment motivation perseverance

What is your true potential? People sometimes carry talents and skills that are taken for granted by others. Perhaps sometimes even taken for granted within their own mind.

I had the great pleasure of discovering a talent that blew me away recently. Joe Everson, a man who can sing and paint on canvas at the same time and in front of thousands of people. If you are in doubt his fantastic talent, you can see him here.

Watching his performance had me wondering. What untapped talent do people carry with them and what can they learn when they decide that they truly want more?

Workplaces and Everywhere

I see it often in the workforce circles that I travel. I meet with workplace leaders who describe for me unmet goals, deficiencies, and missed opportunities. It comes out with coaching clients who might struggle with seeing next turns or how to unveil their own potential that feels locked up inside.

From my experiences, there is one thing and one thing alone that makes the difference for those who achieve and those who do not. That one thing is desire. Desire leads to commitment. Commitment leads to perseverance, and ultimately to success.

Many people talk about change. They discuss roadblocks, failed attempts, and sometimes find circumstances or situations that will accept blame for shortcomings. Any of those or all of them are only an excuse when they stop you.

For those who are committed and have the desire to change those challenges might signal the edge. The edge of the end of what they want to leave behind and the edge of the beginning of where they are destined to be.

Your True Potential

Change might not happen in an instant, but it starts in a moment. The moment you decide.

Success for individuals, success for a team, success in life, a business or in sports happens when you have enough desire to be courageously committed.

Have you ever wondered about your true potential?

We might regret what we never try.

No regrets.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

29
Mar 17
-

Are There Any Silver Bullets?

Tags : commitment expectations motivation silver bullets

Society seems convinced that there is an easy path. Many people believe in the lottery approach, the short cut, and silver bullets. Are they correct?

It happens every day. People fill seats at seminars or spend time with a coach hoping that magically right before their eyes the silver bullets will appear.

The harsh reality for many is the day they discover that for most problems, especially big ones, silver bullets don’t just appear. They are created.

Don’t get me wrong, people leading seminars or a professional coach can provide you with tremendous value and save you years of wasted time and effort. Converting any of that, or all of it into a problem solved or new found success will require more. It will require a commitment, a lot of effort, and the tenacity to achieve.

Expectations

Expectations created from stories of the magic of the universe, or the lucky chance of meeting the right person at the right time, and the appearance that it all happened overnight might lead to disappointment.

The real story is that those things happen for those who work for them.

Dump the jigsaw puzzle on the table and the pieces are there, but you still have to place them together. Once completed some might suggest that’s the magic of the universe, others recognize someone worked to put them together.

Work hard to meet new people, be active and engaged, and always look for new opportunities. Some might suggest this is your lucky chance, others recognize that you created your own luck.

Day after day, putting in a consistent effort, analyzing, regrouping, learning, adapting, and working hard will create something. One day you’ll get up, look back, and realize that overnight you’ve made a lot of things happen.

Absolutely you have to have the right attitude, you have to be positive and confident, and you need to not waste time on things that don’t matter or don’t work. That includes tools, processes, and people.

Silver Bullets

You can find the silver bullets as soon as you realize that the Wizard of Oz is a myth, along with flying monkeys, and get-rich-quick schemes.

Arm yourself with knowledge, take calculated risks, and accept failures and success. Be sure you learn from both.

Most importantly work hard at it across time.

Those are the silver bullets.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: commitment

Feb 20

-

Creating Magic

Building Super Teams

Jan 20

-

Workplace Impact

Jan 20

-

Selling It

Decision Commitment

Trust Yourself

Aug 19

-

Winning Achievements

Stretch Goals

Jun 19

-

Personal Changes

Mar 19

-

An Excuse

Daylight Savings

Oct 18

-

Perfection Myth

Productivity Fact

Jun 18

-

Commitment is Risk

Handshake Return

Jun 17

-

Workplaces and Everywhere

Your True Potential

Mar 17

-

Expectations

Silver Bullets

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