“Conviction is the difference between checking the box and making an impact”
-Nathan Jamail, Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author
Conviction is determined by belief:
“If you believe you will achieve” is cool to say, and even inspiring- but to be great– it goes way beyond a quote. As leaders and contributors, how well our organizations do will be based on our conviction, which will determine what we will do well and what we will just do to check the box. As leaders we deal with people who are just doing an activity to check the box, and as an individual- no matter our position, we have internal struggles with just checking the box. The observation of this is easy to see in organizations, but to actually address it and correct it requires our own belief and conviction in order to hold others and ourselves to do “it”- with conviction. I will share with 3 separate cases where this issue lies and how we as leaders must correct it.
Going beyond the why:
In leadership we have all heard that if people know the “why” they will do the “what”. As leaders it is our responsibility to share the why with our people, but as many of you know that is not always enough or even possible. Sometimes, as followers, we have to trust our leaders- and leaders we have to ask our followers to trust us. But to have conviction we must have more than just trust, we must have belief- and as leaders we must have so much conviction that we are unwilling to accept less.
This means we have to not only know the why, but believe in the why. For example; if you truly believe that using a CRM makes your people better you will ensure everyone uses it because you have conviction that it makes them better no matter how good they currently are (in other words you don’t just have the under performers use it).
I have the same belief for practicing and scrimmaging (role-playing). I believe that no matter how experienced or talented a person is, if they will scrimmage 2 or 3 times before an actual meeting, they will do better- 100% of the time. Because I have this conviction, I mandate all my people do it and I do it myself. My intent is by mandating it, others will see the value and benefit and they will go from doing it because they have to, to doing it because they believe in it too. But as a leader, if I did not have the conviction for scrimmaging- I would have never mandated it.
Checking the box:
Checking the box is not an employee problem, it is a leader problem. Checking the box can only exist if the leader of the employee allows the employee to check the box. This issue is even a bigger problem when a leader of leaders allows it. Because now the checking the box behavior is passed down. This is where we have leaders and employees merely doing activities vs being productive. This issue applies to activities in leadership and coaching.
Common box checking activities for some leaders:
- One on ones
- Team meetings
- Pipeline inspection
- Scrimmaging & Practicing
- Inspection of employee’s activities
Are you doing it because you believe it makes your best players better, or because it is what you think you are supposed to do? And are you REALLY doing these activities, or just half-assing them to check that box?
Common box checking activities for some sales people:
- Updating weekly activity reports
- Using any and all CRM’s
- Prospecting or asking for referrals
- Updating and building pipeline
- Practicing or scrimmaging
Are you doing it because you believe it makes you better or because you have to?
What this can mean
When it comes to belief and conviction we must follow a rule, “Change the people or change the people”. This is not about being mean or flouting our authority, it’s about creating a team culture that is strong and committed. All of the team, not just some of the team, must have conviction to be the best team. So if there is a team member not committed you need to figure it out:
- do they need to be convinced (changed) with additional support
- or do they need to find another job elsewhere and you put in a new person who will believe with conviction
It is a tough spot- but it is something that needs to be addressed, with compassion, and is good for all; including the person who needs changed (who wants to be a in a job they don’t like or do well anyhow?).
Final Thought
Seeing one’s conviction in their personal life is pretty easy to see and do because it usually pertains to their personal beliefs or desires and, their actions. We see people have conviction for working out, eating healthy, being a great parent, or for helping others. When we do what we have conviction for we tend to have fuller and more meaningful lives. The key for our personal conviction is not to let the excuses and the outside (or inside) noise get in our way. In business this conviction is harder because have to have conviction for an activity or expectation that someone else tells us to do, or we need to do it because it might make us better. But until we align the business activities with our personal desires and interests we will not have that conviction. In business we must use the conviction if we have the desired result of being better, being more successful, being happy- in order to do the difficult and sometimes painful activity or discipline.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing with conviction!”
