Stepping Forward Together: Creating Trust and Commitment in the Workplace. Mac Ph.D. McIntire
commitment,” I suggested. “The same is true at work. Unfortunately, employers make the mistake of assuming employees are making a vow of commitment when they accept a job offer. That would be wonderful if it were true. But people don’t automatically commit to something – to a task, to an organization, to a team, to a manager, or anything else – even if it that thing is something they themselves chose.”
“I accept that a lot of marriages end in divorce,” Paul countered. “But I’m not ready to buy the premise that newlyweds aren’t committed to each other on their wedding day. It seems more likely that they lose that commitment over the course of their relationship. I’d argue the same is true for employees. Why would anyone apply for a job and then not want to do it?” Paul asked.
As he verbalized the question I could tell the gears were turning in his head. His push back was a way of confirming or denying my premise in his own mind, thereby firmly grounding his understanding. I did not respond.
“I think that, at my plant, almost all my employees showed at least some initial enthusiasm for their work in the beginning,” Paul suggested. “But I’m shocked at how quickly that wanes. I just hired a supervisor who looked, sounded, and acted great during the interview. He seemed motivated and genuinely interested in the position. But once we hired him, that motivation just evaporated. I guess you just need to weed them out early.”
“No!” I countered. “Don’t start weeding, start nurturing. You need to start building real commitment early in the relationship.”
I explained that when couples make vows at the marriage altar or a job candidate accepts an employment offer, they’re not at the top of the Ladder at COMMITMENT. They’re at the bottom! They’re in the unstable, scary, I-hope-everything-works-out-okay stage. They hope it will be a good marriage or a good job. They hope everything will work out – ‘Please let her be a good wife’, ‘Please let this job be a good one’, ‘Please don’t let my boss (or husband) turn out to be a jerk.’ In the early stages of a relationship what people actually experience is hope; not commitment. It would be great if people started out on the first day of a marriage or new job at COMMITMENT. But most people don’t. When two people look into each other’s eyes across the marriage altar or the interview desk and say yes, it is only the beginning of the commitment process. It’s not real commitment or total commitment. Not yet.
Prudent managers seize the opportunity at the early stages of a person’s job to consciously secure lasting commitment from an employee. Wise newlyweds turn their initial hope into long-lasting reality by moving up the Ladder as fast as they can. Sensible parents anchor the commitment of their children to family values and parental teaching while their children are young, knowing they have to start early if they want their influence to last.
Paul nodded as he thought about this. “So how do you get people to the top of the Ladder?”
“When I’m done explaining the entire model you’ll see how everything fits together,” I replied. “But, first, let me tell you how I would conduct an interview if I was hiring a person for a job. I want to test the job applicant’s commitment early on, during the interview. I want to know exactly where he stands. I don’t want someone taking a job and then finding out later he didn’t want to do the work. I also don’t want someone to take a job he doesn’t want, just to get his foot in the door. When I interview someone for a job I want him to be committed to that job. So this is how I would conduct the interview. . . .”
I turned in my seat and faced Paul so I could model my mock job interview. I looked directly into his eyes, acting as if he were the job candidate. I then began my interview role play.
“If I owned a restaurant and was interviewing you for a pot washer position, this is what I would say: ‘I noticed you applied for the pot washer position, Paul. Are you interested in a job washing pots?’”
Paul played along, nodding his head and saying yes.
“‘Just to be sure that you understand the job, let me explain what a pot washer does. A pot washer washes dirty pots. These pots are huge, heavy metal pots that usually are very greasy and sticky. Sometimes the pots have burnt stuff stuck to the bottom that is extremely hard to scrape off. Your job, as a pot washer, would be to scrub those pots clean, no matter how dirty they get and no matter how yucky they become, and return the pots completely clean to the cook. Then, after you’ve worked hard scrubbing those pots, guess what the cook is going to do with them? He’s going to get them dirty again. You might get those same pots back three or four times during your shift. It’s your job to clean those pots again and again no matter how many times they come back to you, no matter how dirty they get, and to wash them cheerfully without complaint. Does that sound like something you want to do? Is this the job you’re interested in?’”
Paul smiled. He knew during an interview people will say and commit to almost anything in order to get the job. He said yes.
“‘That’s good,’” I said, continuing my example. “‘So you’re saying you’ll commit to wash the pots as I’ve explained. That’s your commitment. And in return the company will make a commitment to pay you for washing those pots. That’s our commitment. See the connection? You wash pots . . . and we pay you. Your pay is directly connected to your washing pots. As long as you keep your commitment to wash pots we’ll keep our commitment to pay you for working. How does that sound? Does that seem fair to you?’”
Paul and I agreed an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work is a reasonable agreement. We both knew, however, it doesn’t take long to discover some new employees have no intention of keeping the commitment they made during the job interview.
“So how soon do you find out they aren’t keeping their commitment?” I asked.
“Not long,” Paul replied with a laugh. “Sometimes you can tell within days. Sometimes you don’t find out until after the 90-day probationary period when the employee starts to slack off. It’s like they think they can be fired after that.”
I smiled and asked, “Yet even though the employee is no longer keeping his commitment, what does he still expect the company to do?”
“To pay him!” Paul exclaimed.
“I don’t get that part, do you? Why should the company have to keep its commitment to pay the employee when the employee is no longer keeping his commitment to work? Personally, I think a manager should be able to go up to an employee during the workday and say: ‘I’ve been observing your performance today and noticed you’ve rendered six hours of behaviors that we pay for and two hours of behaviors that we don’t pay for. Consequently, you can expect your paycheck to reflect your effort accordingly. We’ll only pay you for the six hours that you actually worked.’”
“That would be great!” Paul chuckled.
“I agree. But I know a lot of employment lawyers who won’t let you do it. They’d sue you if you tried. That’s because the employment laws say you have to pay people for their time at work, not for working at work. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for some employees to realize all they have to do at work is put in their time, rather than work, to earn their paycheck.”
Paul nodded his head in disgust, knowingly.
“So, let’s talk for a minute about what you would like your managers and employees to be committed to at your plant in Las Vegas,” I said. “What commitments do you expect from them?”
“I expect them to do their jobs,” he said. “I also hope they’ll be committed to the goals of the company. I want them to do a quality job and to provide good customer service. And I expect them to work as a team.”
I wrote down on my notepad the words company goals, quality, customer service, and team on my Ladder diagram just to the left of the COMMITMENT level.
“Do you also expect your managers and employees to be committed to you as the general manager of the company?” I suggested. “Would you like them to be committed to following your leadership, accepting your direction, and doing what you ask?”
“I