Commitment and the Leader

This week, I had a Skype conversation with the owner of a company in the US. He was experiencing an issue very similar to one I am experiencing in Nigeria. There must be something happening that crosses continents and culture. This Owner/President/CEO started a new business about eighteen months ago. He has been in “the business” for three decades, always working for someone else. He committed to running his own business, He want to build his own successful business instead of continuing to build successful companies for other people. He wanted to make critical endpoint leader decisions for himself. He went all in. He took his savings and retirement and started his “life’s dream”. When he called, he shared his concern that his employee’s did not share his commitment. They demonstrated no “commitment” to the welfare of the business. He describe them as “indolent”.

I asked him what he meant when he said they had no commitment, though I had a suspicion. He responded that they did not seem to care whether the company succeeded or failed. He observed that people were not putting in the time or effort that the business demanded. They were not “committed to it becoming successful. “What is in it for them? What is their return on investment?” I asked. He seemed stunned as if the answer was obvious. “Well, they are getting a paycheck and we’ve been great about paying people regardless of what stress this new company was experiencing at any point. I do not get it; I am spending twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week here to make a go of this business. There just isn’t enough time in the day. The staff are leaving as soon as the clock strikes 6:00 pm. They don’t want to work.” Well, I thought I saw the problem; his commitment was not their commitment. It seldom is true that the motivation of an employer and an employee are the same. They have different levels of “skin in the game”. While this is obvious when we focus on the point, when we are in “the moment”, it gets lost in the day-to-day. Leaders and followers do not necessarily have the same goals and objectives. Followers follow a leader because they believe that leader will help them achieve their own goals and objective. The effective leader aligns his goals and objectives with those of his followers so that all come out ahead.