>> A Note From Rand

>> Feature Article: Commitments — "Be Your Word" in 2006

>> Additional Thoughts: The Big Questions™ and The Brutal Truth™

 Note From Rand

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were enjoyable and that you were able to make a difference in the lives of others. So, here were are: new year, new challenges, new opportunities.

My two articles this month ought to help you get off to a positive start. The first reflects upon the haphazard commitments we make in our lives and suggests an approach to doing something about that. If you take my advice to heart and take action, I guarantee you'll see an improvement in the quality of your life.

The second discusses the priority of objectivity in decision-making, the difficulty in arriving at the real truth and the need to conduct deep inquiry to transcend our individual preconceptions. Both of these pieces focus on issues I encounter in helping entrepreneurs and executives define and achieve sustainable, successful performance in all areas of their lives. Are there opportunities for you to improve your own performance? If the answer is yes, call or drop me an e-mail to discuss whether our collaboration can make 2006 your best year yet. 

 Feature Article

Commitments — "Be Your Word" in 2006

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a corporate chieftain, a teacher or a carpenter, if you dedicate yourself to keeping all of your commitments in 2006, you'll have a more successful year than you did in 2005.  If you're sitting there thinking, "I did a good job of this in 2005," review the following examples and then reconsider:

• John was invited to attend a dinner to be held on November 1st. He received the invitation and responded in the affirmative on October 1st. On the day of the dinner, John realized that he didn't really feel like going, so he called and "begged-off."
  
  
• As a sales executive, Allison had to commit annually to achieving a revenue figure for the following year. In October of 2004, she committed to producing $10 million in 2005. By June of 2005, it was apparent to Allison that there was no way she was going to hit her number so she began creating excuses for her boss. "The competition's pricing was too aggressive; our product line isn't diverse enough." Yada, yada, yada — you get the idea!
  
  
• My voice-mail message had the following greeting, "Hi, this is Rand. I can't take your call right now, but if it's before noon I'll get back to you by the close of business today. If it's afternoon, I'll return your call no later than noon, tomorrow." After about a month, a couple of my clients reminded me that I hadn't, in fact, returned their calls per the guarantee in my message. My initial reaction was: "So what; what's the big deal? I got back to them each within a day." One of them reminded me that I have no right to vigorously insist on her keeping her commitments if I don't. She was right.

Most of us don't make a habit of keeping each and every commitment we make. Frequently, we say we'll do something or be somewhere when we really mean that we'll do that thing or be at that place if it suits us or unless a better opportunity or higher priority comes up. Much of the time, we quietly dismiss the need to keep our commitments with excuses like these:

• "They won't care if I don't show-up. Plenty of other people will be there. I won't be missed."
• "C'mon! Nobody keeps all of his commitments. It's not that big of a deal."
• "So what if I was late for the appointment. Nobody got mad and other people were late also."
• "I know I told Sarah I'd have her performance appraisal done by today. Other stuff came-up; she'll understand."

Keeping promises is a matter of integrity and good manners. Dumbing-down our behavior to the popular norm or creating excuses for ourselves doesn't change that. I promise you that paying attention to all of your commitments will make you much more successful and fulfilled, so my question to you is,

"Do you want to follow the example of others or be the example for others?"

Beginning right now, decide that 2006 will be the year you make a priority of keeping all of your commitments – every one. Don't make 'em if you're not sure you can keep 'em. Don't tell your kid you'll be at her soccer game if what you mean is you'll be at her your soccer game if work doesn't interfere. Live by the following credo: "In 2006 and forever thereafter, I will do what I say I will do, the way I say (or imply) I will do it, when I say I will do it – every time." The times that you fail (and you will) don't let yourself off the hook. Question yourself to discern the real reason for the transgression and make the appropriate adjustments in your commitments, your follow-through or both.

The rewards that will accrue to you will be beyond what you thought possible.

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• What else has to happen?
• Who has to do what and by when?
• What obstacles must be overcome?
• What organizational and individual strengths must be leveraged?
• What unintended consequences will/might occur as a result of our planned actions?

• What are my distinctive capabilitities?
• What talents, attributes, skills and knowledge underlie those capabilities?
• During the times in my life that I've been fully and energetically engaged what was I doing?
• What are the answers to each of the previous three questions for key members of my team?
• Do I gravitate to working in my business rather than on my business? Why?

The answers to each one of these questions provokes additional, more specific and detailed questions, but you get the idea. The human mind cannot ignore a question. It may choose not to answer a question, but it can't ignore a question.

As a business leader, it's incumbent upon you to make decisions as objectively as possible. Sounds easy; it's not. We all create our own reality (the subject of next month's lead article). We interpret, judge and impute our own subjective meaning to facts. The result is each of us creates our own individual version of the truth. So how does one arrive at the truth or a reasonable facsimile? Rigorous inquiry. Here's a personal example:

I was working with a financial services client that distributed its products through independent salespeople. In a session during which corporate strategy was being crafted, I was facilitating the discussion. An executive made the comment that "our agents love us."

I waited .... and waited ... and waited for a follow-up comment by someone, but all was quiet. The discussion had moved on when I asked to return to the prior point about "our agents loving us." The CEO gave me the go-ahead and I continued with the following questions: 

• How do you know this for certain?
• Do all of your agents love you?
• If so, is that a good thing?
• If not, which ones love you and which ones don't?
• What criteria and metrics have you established to categorize and quantify this?

As a leader, you have to distinguish facts from legitimate intuition and, most importantly, from guesswork. My associate Mark Akerley and I call this process "asking the big questions™ to arrive at the brutal truth™."  The big questions cut through assumptions, preconceptions and conventional wisdom. The brutal truth is a condition resulting from rigorous inquiry that gets as close to the facts as is humanly possible. ITT's late Chairman Harold Geneen called these the unshakeable facts. CSI's Gil Grissom would say that "the evidence doesn't lie." We call it producing results by reducing the noise™ and it represents the difference between being OK and outstanding.

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 About Rand Golletz

© 2006 Rand Golletz & Associates, All rights reserved.

Please pass "Performance Digest" along to your colleagues just keep it intact. The author of Performance Digest is Rand Golletz. Contact him at rand@randgolletz.com or Rand Golletz & Associates, PO Box 5305, Laytonsville, MD 20882; 301-482-2598.

If you would like to read earlier copies of the online Performance Digest, you'll find them on our Web site. Here's a direct link: http://www.randgolletz.com/newsletter.html.