12. WHAT COMMITMENT IS
• Comes from the heart
• Tested by action
• Opens the door to
achievement
13. WHAT COMMITMENT IS NOT
• Merely an emotional response
• A negative obligation
• An unreasonable promise to
an unrealistic goal
• Enough motivation to carry on
if you don’t believe in it
14. COMMITMENT
IN
ATTITUDE
“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking
which, more than anything else, will determine its successful
outcome.”
~ William James, American Philosopher and Psychologist
15.
16.
17. WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL?
• Pick your favorite number between 1-9
• Multiply by 3
• Add 3
• Again, multiply by 3
• You’ll get a 2-digit number. Add the two
digits of your number together –
• With that number, see who your role
model is from the list that follows:
18. WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL?
1. Einstein
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Snoopy
4. Ronald Reagan
5. Bill Gates
6. Gandhi
7. Brad Pitt
8. Babe Ruth
9. Lynne Woida
10. JFK
25. COMMITMENT IN ACTION
• Commitment always precedes
achievement
• Action is the only real measure of
commitment
• Do I follow through?
• Obstacles and opposition
30. REFERENCES
• IAAP Web Community –
Succession Planning Training
• Joan Burge, CEO of Office Dynamics
– “Underneath It All”
– “Star Achievement Series”
31. “The quality of a person’s life is in direct
proportion to their commitment to
excellence, regardless of their chosen
field of endeavor.”
~ Vince Lombardi
32. Or A Pig?
Wisconsin Division Fall Education Conference
Presented by
Lynne Woida, CPS/CAP
Notas del editor
Mull question over and we’ll discuss meaning periodically throughout presentation – may even change your mind a couple of times.Before we get started, I’d like you to write down two things: #1 – Some giant Wish List sort of thing – dream big!; #2 – some annoying little thing that you have to do, should have done, need to do regularly, etc…. nothing flashy, but it has to be done. We’ll come back to those later.
Now, we’re talking commitment: It makes most men break out in sweat, young girl squeal, makes a loan officer drool, makes almost every one of us take a deep breath first. Commitment! Today we’re going to discuss:What is commitment? How do I show it? How can I develop it?To each person, commitment means something different.
To Daniel Webster, it means “an act of committing to a change or trust; an agreement or pledge to do something in the future; the state or instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled.”
To the boxer, it’s getting off the mat one time MORE than he’s been knocked down.
To the marathon runner, it’s finishing the last 10 miles when her strength is gone.
To the soldier, it’s going over the hill, or across the river… not knowing what’s waiting on the other side.
To the missionary, it’s saying goodbye to self-comfort to make life better for others.
To the admin, it’s all that and more because everyone you support in every facet of your life is depending on you.If you want to be an effective parent, admin, leader, PERSON - you have to be committed many times over the course of your life to different things. They will believe in you only if you believe in your cause. Otherwise, (change slide)
You’re just an annoying salesperson.Are you a chicken or a pig? Not sure yet? I’ll elaborate some more as we go on. (Change slide)
The true nature of commitment is more than involvement. To illustrate: I need some volunteers, by pairs.1st pair??Audience participation in handshake, ribbon or yarn to wrists, handcuffs, Superglue-After each demonstration ask – Are these people involved or committed? End: Can you see how circumstances and other people can change to alter our perception of involvement or commitment?Again I ask, “Are you a chicken or a pig?” Not sure what I’m talking about yet? I can simply illustrate the difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’. (change slide)
Martina Navratilova once said, “Commitment is like a bacon and eggs breakfast: The chicken was involved. The PIG was committed.”First, let’s talk about what commitment IS:
You can develop it, but you cannot fake it. Some people pretend to commit to something without a valid motivation from within. You know those people – “the check’s in the mail” or “Sure, I can help with that project!” or “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” ?? Other people want everything to be perfect before they will commit themselves to anything. But commitment ALWAYS precedes achievement. If you wait for everything to be perfect before you commit, you’re cheating yourself out of personal and professional development.It’s one thing to talk about commitment – it’s quite another to do something about it. The only REAL measure of commitment is action. How are you doing when it comes to following through on your commitments?After you have committed, after you start a plan of action – you’ll face plenty of obstacles and opposition. There will be times when commitment itself is the only thing that carries you forward…. Because the work has to get done.
An emotional response to some motivation or high pressure technique – that’s the Hallelujah factor after a rousing speech or presentation, or to a sales pitch… this often leads to buyer’s remorse????? Anyone? Also known as the guilt trip. … designed to enslave you to a person, a cause, or a course of action. Inevitably leads to resentment.This is the “hidden agenda” – you’ve got something to prove, either to yourself or someone else, and by golly… you’re going to do this if it kills you…. And it probably will.If your commitment is based on any of these factors, it will NEVER be enough motivation for you to carry on or accomplish your goals if you don’t believe it what you are doing.So now that we’ve defined commitment, we’re going to explore three main ways to develop, maintain, and demonstrate commitment. It’s the Triple A method. The first is (change slide)
Oooo – BIG ONE. I love quotes, because I’m a word nerd. You’ll see them peppered throughout this presentation, and I hope you find them as motivating as I do. “You’d better change your attitude, Missy, or I’ll change it for you!” “You need an attitude adjustment”. I don’t know how my parents thought my attitude was connected to my butt as a kid, but apparently that was the first line of attack to improve my attitude.**Read Insert Z**I’m going to take a couple of minutes to read this and hopefully affect your attitude. (change slide)
Read Story
Moral of the story:There is tremendous happiness and empowerment in making others happy, despite our own situations. As the proverb goes, “Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.” If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy.The blind man, without even knowing it and regardless of his financial, medical, professional, or personal status, was rich with good attitude and acted as a role model for people around him.Do you have a role model? There’s a fun way to find out who would be a good role model for you – it’s simple math… let’s get a pen and paper.
It’s crazy how accurate this is! (read slide)Remember your number and match it up with the role models on the following list:
I know.....I just have that effect on people.....one day you, too, can be like me.....Believe it! Stop picking different numbers!! I AM YOUR IDOL, JUST DEAL WITH IT!!!!!! Humor goes a long way, too!Being a role model, either to ourselves or others, is mostly about attitude.
How can we control our attitude or build a good one? Do we really need to work at it that hard? Buddha said, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.”Eggs & Attitudes™ - by Joan Burge, CEO of Office Dynamics and author of Star Achievement Series and “Underneath it All” What do eggs and attitudes have in common? Imagine an egg in its natural state. It is fragile, delicate, and can easily be cracked or broken. This egg is susceptible to outside forces such as you. It is the means to an end. In other words, you can do many things with it: fry it, scramble it, or make an omelet, soft- or hard-boil it. Your attitude is like the egg. It is fragile and delicate. It can easily be broken by a poor self-image or become hard and cold. It can become scrambled when you don't know what you are doing or fried when someone really upsets you. Like the egg, your attitude is susceptible to outside forces such as family, co-workers, supervisors, and society. Attitudes are an important basis for our health, relationships, and performance. If you don't take care of your attitude, someone may fry it or break it. Your attitude can greatly affect your work and productivity; if you're busy feeling hurt, angry, or put down, you cannot do your job. So be sure to guard your attitude!Attitude adjustments may mean realistically assessing the situation, facing and overcoming our fears (whether they are realistic or not). It is NOT rose colored glasses or a “la la la” moment, but it’s a “What can I do about this?” mentality. Attitude has more influence on physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial well-being than most people give it credit. You CAN think yourself to a better place. We’re going to pinpoint the next quality together – [change slide]
Do you know people whom you consider to be committed to any cause – charity, faith-based, or IAAP? What other causes are people committed to? What qualities or natural abilities do you think it takes to stay committed to any cause or person? [write answers on flip chart]From all these suggestions, which one do you think is the most important quality that demonstrates commitment? [ask for answers] I would like to propose a quality that I believe is the crux of commitment – all of these are excellent and appropriate answers, but none of these make any difference without this quality: (change slide)
All those other qualities, abilities, and skills manifest themselves to others only if we make them available by making ourselves available. YOU ARE THERE. The fantastic thing about this quality is that EVERYONE HAS IT!! Are you breathing? Then you’re THERE! Woody Allen once said that 80% of success was showing up. It’s a simple, but powerful, truth. AVAILABLE (from the dictionary):1. Present and ready for use; at hand; accessible: You’re physically THERE.2. Capable of being gotten; obtainable: You’re physically AND emotionally there.3. Qualified and willing to serve or assist: You’re physically, emotionally, and mentally there.Mean that we volunteer for everything that comes down the pike because we're "committed"? No, but neither does it mean that we routinely sit back and figure that someone else will do it - it's human nature, tho, isn't it? {change slide}
***Read Autobiographical example – IAAP involvement/commitment***I wasn’t trying to be noncommittal – that almost comes naturally to most people, doesn’t it? The work is involved after you begin the process of commitment. First Attitude, then Availability, THEN comes the ACTION. Which leads us to our final hallmark of commitment:(change slide)
Change slide immediately
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Remember we discussed the basis for commitment previously – it always precedes achievement.Everything won’t be perfect before we’re willing to commit, or we’re cheating ourselves out of personal and professional development. The only REAL measure of commitment is action.How is our follow-through? What happens when we face obstacles and opposition? Can we overcome them? Or do we give up? Are there times we should give up? (change slide)
Read TestimonialWHY did I tell you this incredibly personal information? Because it was the most powerful way I could think of to demonstrate that there is no “magic” in commitment. It’s not a “flashy” quality. When things are going well. It’s easy to stay committed…. And there’s not much glory there. When things get hard, you just plug along – doing ordinary things, but with extraordinary character. Every one of you has your own package of obstacles and adversity – and you are still here. No magic, but there are miracles every day as a result of personal commitment. Adversity isn’t a reason for abandoning your commitments – it is a case for strengthening them. (change slide)
Sometimes action comes in great strides, and sometimes in baby steps. But it’s still forward progress.
What are some other adversities that may present a challenge to our commitments?Lack of commitment by other people: *co-workers, employers, family, friendsPersonal issues: *divorce, kids, parents, financesWorld situations: *economy, war, natural disastersJust like our participants’ reactions may have been different depending on the level of commitment between the handshake, the ribbon, the handcuffs and the superglue, our responses to various events and opportunities in our lives will also be tailored to those specific circumstances and the people involved.
Generally speaking, these three hallmarks can be applied most times when we are analyzing a potential commitment to something. We go through this process naturally when the commitment is considered normal or routine, or if we are relatively comfortable with the entire scenario. The work comes when we have to consciously THINK about it.Nobody has the right or qualifications to look at someone else and judge whether or not they are committed to their career, faith, cause, family, etc. but we each have the right and the obligation of honest self-examination if we want a good touchstone about our level of commitment to anything. The Triple A principle works with nearly every situation, and they must be used together. Read Triple A Know your own personality. Do you want or need the "big picture"? Or does it overwhelm you? Is it easier to break it down into little steps? (Mind map, checklists, delegation) Sometimes we make way more of a commitment beforehand than is actually the case.Remember the two things your wrote down at the beginning? Think of the smaller one and how you could apply the Triple A process to your advantage. For example, Taking out the Trash. (read Insert X)change slide
As I said, I love quotes, because other people say exactly what I wish I could, so I thank IAAP HQ and Joan Burge, among other individuals quoted for their pearls of wisdom.John D. Rockerfeller said, “Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” Remember there is no magic in commitment, but it produces little miracles all the time.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Vince Lombardi, who is probably rolling over in his grave this year, but that’s a link to another story about commitment, isn’t it??Read quote. Change slide
Whether you are a chicken or a pig, or some scientific experimental combination of the two, YOU have the Powers of Commitment.Thank you.