You want to increase the commitment of your team

In many job markets today, the really talented people have more power than employers. How do you gain and keep the commitment of people when they have many options to move?

Money and perks? Up to a point. But what really distinguishes employers of choice is how much their employees are 'into' the business. Sure, external rewards help (for a price). But here's the crucial fact so often overlooked: human motivation is intrinsic. That mean that the way the best companies engage their people is not through trinkets and baubles. You have to get people involved in whatever is intrinsically interesting about your business.

Listen to Andy Bass on Dov Pollack's

Next Wave Leadership podcast

A three-step method to inspire your people to take ownership and get results

First, you’ve got to root out any Commitment Killers – behaviours that grow like weeds to undermine your best efforts. Then, apply the three-step ‘C.E.O’ method to bring out your people’s talents:

Andy lays out the approach in his book Committed Action, and teaches it to business leaders one-to-one and to their teams. 

In a business where people aren't fully committed...

• You have to come up with all the ideas to improve and grow the business.

• You miss out on insights from those closest to the action.

• You're paying for people who you know could be contributing more.

• You're more likely to lose people because they're not as fired up about this business as you are – to them, it's just a job.

• There's an 'us and them' feel to the organization.

• It's frustrating because you have all this enthusiasm and it feels like they're not joining in.