I often hear managers lament that their teams are, “so lazy” or that their employees are “out the door at 5 pm.”  These managers are struggling with a common workplace problem, a lack of commitment.

When I ask more about the teams, I usually hear about micro-managing and a tightly controlled environment and then I have to share truth that is unsettling for many managers.  There is a correlation between commitment and the amount of control a person has in performing an activity.  For some of you, this will be the last thing you want to hear, because you like to hold the reins tight.  I’m not suggesting that you suddenly let your employees run free, but just begin to think about this commitment-control correlation.

Try it on for yourself a moment.  Have you ever been in an extreme situation where you had no say in the outcome and you were simply expected to complete a task by following some specific steps.  Memories of summer jobs may be coming to mind at this point and that’s a pretty good analogy.  How committed are most summer workers?  Alright, you can make the case that they are teenagers and therefore the very definition of uncommitted, but I’ve known some pretty diligent teenagers who were put-off not by the work, but how little control they had over it.  How many adults do you know that especially like being told what to do?

So, it’s important to keep in mind that the more control a person has over a task, the greater their investment in the outcome of that task.  You give them the opportunity to take ownership, to get invested in the outcome.  Take a look around your organization and notice those symptoms of lack-of-commitment.  Brainstorm for a bit about what you can do to give employees more ownership in these areas.  Also consider how you will monitor the situation after this change.  If your employees have been tightly corralled, it may take some time for both and you and them to adjust to the change.

The purpose of any communication falls into one of two categories: to inform or call to action. When people talk to each other, it’s either to share information or to ask someone to do something. When there is a call to action, it can either be through a direct request or it can be implied.

In case you’re wondering, an implied call to action is along the lines of, “I’m thirsty.” In this case the person may very well want you to get them something to drink or would at least be receptive if you offered them something to drink.

In business, communicating to inform and call to action are ongoing activities that are not always clearly separated. If an employee shares a story with you about a problem they are having, do they want you to be aware of the problem or do they want you to do something about it? It can be a tough call.

As you communicate with your employees, they are faced with the same challenge of determining what you want them to understand or do. The best way to clear up that ambiguity is to start by being clear about your own intentions.

When talking with an employee, what is your purpose? Is your goal to inform or call to action? Do you want them to understand something, do something, or both? Notifying someone of a policy change, for example, is likely to be driven by the need for them to be aware of the change (inform) as well as to incorporate that information into future behavior (call to action).

If they don’t comply with the policy change you may have an understanding issue or a buy-in issue. Start by making sure they understand what is expected. If they understand, but have chosen not to follow along, you have a buy-in issue. Now you’ve got your work cut-out for you, because for some reason they are not in agreement with you about the course of action they should take. Begin a discussion to help you bridge the gap between where you are and where they are.

An important part of a leader’s job is empowering others.  Your goal is to have employees that are, for the most part, self-sufficient.  You are, of course, there to help them as needed, but the key to having great employees is having empowered employees.  Offering positive feedback is an important part of the process.

#1: Focus on behaviors, not accomplishments.  Instead of offering “Great job” accolades, focus on the behavior that you like, “I like your perseverance.”  This is a great way to ensure that you see more of this behavior from the employee in the future.

#2:  Be specific.  Let them know exactly what they did right so they get a clear picture of what you expect.  Instead of something vague “I like what you did in this report,” offer up the details on what you liked specifically, “I like how you how you used diagrams to visually support your findings.”

#3: Do it immediately.  If you see an employee doing something right, let them know this immediately.  Catching them in the moment allows you to be more specific and it gives the employee an immediate boost.  Why wait until your next scheduled meeting when you can catch them in the act of great behavior.

Many managers believe that it is their responsibility to exert as much control as possible over their employees to create the desired results.  In reality, is it truly possible to control another person?  Ever dealt with a toddler having a melt-down in a store?  How’d it go when you tried to control that situation?

The truth is that even when dealing with full grown adults, we can’t control other people.  They are free to melt-down, act out and think for themselves, even if we don’t want them to.  When it comes right down to it, the only person we can control is ourselves.  This is not always the easiest idea to accept, but I see it as an incredibly powerful position.  Here’s why.

First, when I get it that I can only control myself, I stop wasting time trying to control other people.  My father-in-law likes the phrase, “You can’t teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and it frustrates the pig.”  This is exactly the situation you are in when you try to control someone else, everybody ends up unhappy.

Second, now that I know I can’t control other people, I am free to think about what I can do to influence them.  Because that’s the real talent, isn’t it?  While we can’t directly control other people, we can, often very effectively, influence them.  Let’s go back to the toddler melting down in the store, the parent may not be able to force the child to stop making a scene, but they may have some pretty powerful ways to influence that situation and get things back on track quickly.

This is a great brainstorming opportunity.  Look around your organization and think about all those areas where people aren’t doing what you want them to do.  Consider all the things you’ve done to try to alter their behavior.  Then brainstorm ways that you might begin to influence this situation and get things moving in the right direction.

How motivated is your team?  And by this, I mean how inspired are they to do what you want them to do?  Top performers know that true leadership is about getting people to want to do what you need them to do.  In fact, if they think it’s their idea, you’re just fine with that.

Because this is a beautiful thing when you have created an environment where everyone is passionate and driven to deliver on the vision that you have created.  If this doesn’t sound like your team, you’re not alone.  And here’s the trick that so many managers miss, they think it is their job to motivate their team.

7 percenters understand this important point, they know that it is their job to provide the inspiration, the direction and the environment that gets people totally committed to following them.  Their team is then responsible for providing their own motivation.  And this become the easy part, because when you are inspired, you have direction and you’re in an environment that supports you, what is the natural by-product?  That’s right motivation.

So, if when you look at your team, you find them lacking motivation, guess what?  It’s time to look at the inspiration, direction and environment you are providing.  If you’re caught-up in the day-to-day stuff, remember to take time to do these important big picture things so your team stays motivating, effective and efficient.

I’ve always said that people will even things out when they think there has been an injustice.  For example, you lower someone’s pay, whether they admit to it or not, they will adjust something in the relationship with the orgranization to compensate.  This may take the form of slower work, more sick days, a bad attitude, you name it, but they will even things out, if you’re lucky.  I say if you’re lucky because they may punish you far beyond what you have done to them.

Research at the University of Chicago by Boaz Keysar reinforces this idea.  Participants in the study played a game where one was the dictator and the other the subject.  The dictator in some cases started with say $100 and could give some of that money to the subject.  In other cases the subject was given the $100 and the dictator could take however much they want

So, with a starting amount of $100, the dictator giving the subject $50 is the same thing the same as the dictator taking $50 away from the subject.  At least it’s the same financially.  It turns out that people are much more unhappy when you take stuff from them.  The researchers found that subjects rated the dictator more harshly if the dictator took $30 from them (the subject now has $70) than if the dictator gave them $50 (the subject now has $50).  Did you catch that?  The subjects were happier with less money simply because something was given to them, not taken from them.  Remind you of taxes? 

Plus, it gets even better.  When the roles of dictator and subject were switched, those who felt they had been treated unfairly when they were the subject, were even more selfish when it came time for them to be dictator.  This has some really interesting implications in management, don’t you think?  Framing is everything.

The best way to develop an effective workforce is to hire well.  That is to say that you should hire well then pay well, train well, and promote from within.  How else are you going to retain these fine folks?  One of the challenges of promoting from within is that the skills that made someone successful at one level may not be the same skills required for success at the next level.  This issue is also known as the Peter Principle which, as you may well know, states that people are promoted to their level of incompetence.  Competence, however, is a variable condition.  Think about it, if you had your current position 10 years ago, would you have been able to handle it and do it as well as you do now?  Competence is not fixed and is based on the knowledge, skills, and ability at a given point in time. Change any one of those and the game changes.

Developmental psychologist Karen Adolph studies learning and cognition in infants and toddlers and I think her work is relevant here as well.  She found that as babies learn to crawl, they learn about edges and how it would be dangerous to crawl off an edge.  That is to say they know the rules of acceptable behavior at that level of development.  However, as they transition to walking, that knowledge does not translate.  Even though they knew the dangers as crawlers, as they upgraded to walkers, that previous knowledge was no longer used as they navigated the world.

As you promote from one level to the next, you can’t assume that because they thrived in their previous position that they will thrive in their new position.  It is a different set of rules. They can learn them, they just may need to some time and some coaching so they can learn the new rules.

Here’s an exercise that’s a real eye opener.  For some of you, this may even leave a bad taste in your mouth.  Take a look at the results your team is getting.  Make list of the results, good and bad, and begin to think about what these results tell you about your team.

Specifically, you are looking at their results and their behaviors to determine what is important to them.  What do they value?  What habits have formed?  It is vitally important to the success of your team, your company and you that your team build supportive habits.  But step one is figuring out the habits that already exist.

As you look over the list of results and behaviors, what values and habits begin to jump out to you.  Do they value getting results?  Is there a habit of taking responsibility?  Do they want to be liked more than they want to do what it takes to get things done?  Do they play it safe, take too many risks or have they developed a habit of finding a healthy balance of taking strategic risks and avoiding unnecessary risks?  Do they value doing the same thing or are they innovators?  Are they in the habit of being successful or unsuccessful?

Theses are tough things to consider, but to begin to move in a new direction, you need to know where you’re at right now.  More than likely your list will include both habits that support and do not support your team in being successful in their environment.  This list is the first step in moving them in the direction of being even more effective.

It is often said that failure is life’s greatest teacher and I think there is a lot to learn from our mistakes and our failures, but research shows that this is not the case.  MIT researcher, Earl K. Miller, and his associates have identified that success, not failure, has a bigger impact on our learning and on future behavior. 

In a study of monkeys, the researchers identified that when the subjects completed a task correctly, they were more likely to perform the task correctly in the next trial.  When they got it wrong, there was no improvement in their ability to perform the task correctly.  As the researchers stated, “Success breeds success.”

Often times as managers and leaders, we focus on the negative rather than the positive. We focus on what someone is doing wrong rather than right.  After a while, we may only make a comment when something is wrong.  After all, don’t they know that I think they’re doing a good job?  Maybe, maybe not. 

But based on this study, pointing out what they did wrong will have little impact on future performance.  They may fix it in the moment, but they won’t perform any better in the future because of it.  That being said, does that mean that you should never point out mistakes?  Of course not.  Just don’t think that pointing out mistakes is the same as giving effective feedback and encouraging future success.  If you want someone to perform better in the future, point out what they did right. You should also point out what they could do even better next time but by getting them to feel good about their performance, they are going to be naturally drawn to focus on making it even better.  We focus on what makes us feel good and we avoid what makes us feel bad.

A seminar participant was lamenting that she has to watch her employees like a hawk.  She said that if she didn’t watch them all day long and tell them what to do at each step of the way, they wouldn’t get anything done.  Can you see the problem with this situation?

What are these employees even buying her?  She clearly gets little done except for managing them.  Unless her entire job description is about managing these people, she may be letting some important things slip through the cracks.

From the employee’s perspective, how would you like to be watched all the time and told what to do all day long?  I’m guessing you wouldn’t find it to be a very stimulating environment.

My advice to her was simple, train these people to do their jobs.  If they are untrainable, find people who can do the job effectively.

When someone takes a new position.  There’s a lot to learn.  It is a bit like learning how to ride a bike.  Remember, when you first learned to ride a bike, you probably needed a parent’s help or perhaps you used training wheels.  Remember those days?  They helped you stay on track while you got the hang of things.  At some point, you develop the skills necessary to ride the bike on your own without assistance.

Imagine for a moment that you kept the training wheels on or if your parent had to help you every time you wanted to ride your bike.  Probably not the ideal situation for either party.  The same holds true for a manager/employee relationship.  Training wheels until they develop the ability to do it on their own.  Anything more than that borders on being a “helicopter” manager.  Does that mean you give free reign and don’t check in?  Of course not.  Help them develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful, monitor and guide them, and then get out of their way.