Commitments Count! (Guest Post)

This week's post is contributed by friend and business partner Carole Sacino of Turning Point Institute. Carole's "Get it Done" approach was the wind beneath her wings as a successful sales executive and serves her now as a business leader and Motivation Factor® Alliance Partner. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Carole!

Commitments Count!
Carole Sacino, Principal, Turning Point Institute

Have you ever stopped to really listen to what people say? More importantly, have you listened for what they don’t say?

The other day I was sitting at Starbucks and was overhearing a conversation that brought back memories for me. It seemed to be a conversation between a client and his coach and it went something like this:

Client: “….yes, it was great to spend time together discussing the possibilities for my new business ventures…”

Coach: “great when can you get me the follow-up documentation?”

Client: “Geez, you know, it is the last week of summer and there’s a lot going on. I will get it to you after Labor Day”.

Coach: “Okay, let me know and I’ll talk to you soon. Enjoy the week”.

Were you listening? What do you think is going to happen after Labor Day? Though we can’t say for sure, there is a pretty good chance that the follow-up documentation won’t be sent.

“Commitment Language” separates the leaders from the followers. It is a language that moves people into a special category: the category that gets the biggest promotions, most recognition and the best return on their efforts.

As a sales champion for myself and others, I was clearly differentiated from my peers and other “competition” in my field because I said what I would do and did what I would say. Every time. I under-promised and over-delivered early and often. And, as I learned the power of Commitment Language, I shared this concept with others (those who worked with me would say I drilled it!): That how we show up in the world matters!

Take the coach/client conversation above. With Commitment Language it would go something like this:

Coach: “Great conversation today, we covered a lot and I really look forward to getting the business outline including the ideas we agreed with today. When can I expect to see it?”

Client: “I agree and thank you for helping me today. I will get you a draft document by Thursday at 10am. Will that work for you?”

The chances are good to great that it would be delivered on or before Thursday at 10.

People notice when someone makes a commitment and follows through on what they promised. Clients will definitely notice how you always come through and can be counted on for delivering. Management will model your actions as a “teaching” opportunity for others to follow in business and, for sure, the chances are very good that you will feel satisfied, accomplished and rewarded for saying what you will do and doing what you say.

The more specific you get with 

the deliverable, the date and the time

the stronger your commitment is to making it happen.

It takes 21 days to change a habit and I would challenge you to begin today using commitment language with your family, friends, colleagues and clients and see what changes for you. At the end of the 21 days, reflect on what has changed and pay it forward to others.

"When you get down to the root of the meaning of the word success, you'll find that is simply means to follow through"… F.W. Nichols

"The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it."…Mack R Douglas

Carole Sacino, Executive Business Leader who drives results from the inside out and Principal of Turning Point Institute, a consulting company that creates custom solutions when the goal is to Engage, Commit and Motivate individuals and teams toward a common purpose with results.  She spent 20 plus years in the publishing/media industry in multiple sales, marketing and executive level positions driving business and change in the market with a passion for mentoring, coaching and developing the high potential "athletes" in our industry. Carole is a certified Professional Coach, Master Practitioner in Energy Leadership, Certified Emotional Intelligence provider and Alliance Partner for Motivation Factor®.  Her motto is:  keep it simple, engaging, efficient and highly effective! and you can reach her at carole@turningpointinstitute.com

Anyone Up for a Cup of Organize? (Guest Blog!)

Dear KNOTHOLE readers...
I recently had the pleasure of meeting and working with LaNette Parker at a recent Motivation Factor certification program. An accomplished change agent, LaNette is both inspiring and grounded - a rare combination indeed! She is this month's guest blogger. Enjoy!

Anyone Up for A Cup of Organize?
LaNette Parker, ACC, CEC

My 4-year old arrived at my bedside one recent morning, put a toy cup to my lips and declared, "Mom, you need to drink a cup of organize." Then, he ran from the room, off to get me more ‘organize.’

Who couldn’t use a little more ‘organize’? Ask anyone about their lives and you’ll hear a common thread: pulled in so many directions, we rarely spend our time doing what we love to do. This leads to a feeling that we’re lacking something – respect, money, material belongings, control, etc. – at home and/or at the office. The elements of our circumstances crisscross into a tangled web until we scarcely recognize how we got where we are or even who we are.

And, when we do have the occasional moment to raise our heads above the fray and realize we’re suffering, we resolve to "organize." We pull out our Franklin planners and unweave the web into a nice, tidy plan - fitting each day’s debris into the neatly printed rows of hours.

Stack one day against the next and the next…to what end?

A cup of organize contains three powerful ingredients: Purpose, Energy and Intention. Once you know your purpose, you can focus your energy toward your intentions.

If this sounds lofty, it’s actually quite straightforward:
• Get clear: Know your value and what you value
• Get clearer: Assess where you are right now against the answers that came to you
• Get moving: Rid yourself of what’s holding you back
• Get ‘a cup of organize’: Put your day together intentionally, so that you are energized, grounded and fully satisfied that you're making the difference you’re here to make.

And, when you’re in the thick of changing your life, remember that others care, that you can ask for support, that you matter.

Above all, drink up and expect the best.

Contact LaNette at lanette@lanetteparker.com and 415.317.3371.

LaNette Parker, ACC, CEC, is an easy-to-talk-to coach and Motivation Factor® certified partner, specializing in helping individuals and teams get clear and act boldly once they do. In addition to lots of “character building” life experiences, she has nearly two decades of human resources and communication consulting experience bringing clarity to employees at some of the world's most renowned companies. LaNette is one of just 4,000 coaches worldwide who has earned the International Coach Federation's credential and one of 6,000 global Collaborators on The Difference Project, an international movement aimed at opening humanity's heart.

We're Built Wrong!

I just read an excellent article: The False Theory of Meritocracy.  The entire article is a great read and one point really resonated with me: "Native American tribes often had different chiefs for peace and war... We all have unique capabilities that must be constantly reassessed in a world of shifting priorities." 

This concept is more critical to successfully navigating business today and the economy we now work in than I think we realize.  In fact, WE ARE CURRENTLY BUILT WRONG to support the economy we are living in today and which we will be working in for the foreseeable future.

The industrial era may have been well supported by the vertical ladder of hierarchical meritocracy and by producing students/employees trained to climb it but these are outdated concepts today.

Our current school system was designed to staff a budding industrial economy.  As we moved from agrarian to industrial work, it became an urgent imperative to learn up the farmers' children in readn' writn' and 'rithmatic.  Jobs were to be had, money was to be made, an industrial revolution was to be led and we didn't have a population equipped to run the equipment. Enter K - 12.

Then came management.  First it was the folks who worked their way up from the assembly line.  Showing aptitude for the numbers and the metrics, understanding the workings of the plant and eventually becoming leader.  This scratch and scrabble path often produced the been-there-done-that, I'll-tell-you-how-it's-done, you-can-succeed-me-when-I-die method of career progression.

To bypass this long, involved, dues-paying process we encouraged our children to get-good-grades, get-into-a-good college so you can get-a-good-job-with-benefits. Enter the 4 year degree.  This of course often produced the I-went-to-Harvard-so-step-off method of progression.

Unfortunately, our current economy cannot accommodate such a plan any longer.  In an information/services economy new qualities like flexibility, comfort with ambiguity, creativity, resilience, application of individual talent and the like are more valuable than ever.  The concept of different chiefs for peace and war is spot on. Understanding what our skills, resiliencies (or lack of them), and talents are and being able to articulate and apply them appropriately should be something organizations demand and individuals expect to deliver on. 

 But where are we asking students or employees to identify, develop, practice and articulate these qualities in themselves? Unless specifically sought out as an elective, most students can sail (or struggle) through school and their first job search never having explored what their skills are, where are they more or less resilient?, what are their unique talents and can they articulate them?  What jobs require those talents?
And I'm not talking about life-purpose jobs - any job.  There's a guy who makes a boat load of money designing labels for wine bottles.  That's it!  There's the woman who opens her own sandwich shop.  There's my friend who cleans houses - LOVES to CLEAN HOUSES.  Look, when you have a talent, it feels good to use it (our brian is actually wired this way).  If we use our talents at work, we'll feel better at work and the work will be better.

This is so important to figure out.  The current school system was designed specifically to support the budding industrial economy.  We need to build something new.  Current organizational effectiveness efforts need to focus more on individual accountability and purposeful engagement - demanding it and/or training people to develop it.  What we want to engender is more: I'm-good-at-this-and-you're-good-at-that-right-now-so-let's-make-this-thing-sing kind of career.  Of course we may end up with the I've-got-a bigger-portfolio-career-than-you-so-step-off kind of career progression - but I think that might not be so bad.


Of course this concept upsets a number of foundational elements in the academic and working worlds: how do we teach kids to develop these new qualities?, How do we compensate employees for applying their skills and talents appropriately and moving to new work when the circumstances change? How can we better equip ourselves to match jobs with the right people and vice versa?   Hmm...where to start....

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