What if you didn't feel like you mattered? What if people thought your contributions were insignificant? Why would you want to try?

Dedication requires a foundation of belief. It can't take root unless people feel like they count for something—that comes through acknowledgment. If folks doing sloppy work get by along with those doing first-class work, if nobody cares, the urge to deliver excellent results dies. Everyone needs to know they are essential.

When a manager or an experienced peer discounts people's worth by ignoring them, taking them for granted, or giving the impression that they are readily replaceable, employees begin to act less worthy. They become less valuable. They begin living into a self-fulling prophecy and start to detach from the organization mentally.

Your job, as a manager and a peer, is to make every person feel like they matter. See that each one gets to go home that night feeling useful and relevant.

Need your people—as individuals. Let it show. Ask for their help. Lean on them.

Dedication comes from feeling necessary—or, better still, from feeling that one is critically important to the organization's mission. Convince every person that their contribution carries weight, and dedication will start to increase.

Sometimes an organization ends up with more people than it needs. Changing circumstances mean employees need to be let go or reassigned.
The survivors of change can easily misinterpret the situation, taking it as hard evidence that people don’t count. Truth is, they matter more than ever.
Make sure people get that message.
Dedication comes from feeling necessary.

To perform well while under pressure, we need to develop habits to work more effectively. Making the right decisions, engaging with others effectively, learning to manage our own emotions takes practice.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.

Collaboration encourages sharing.

Give each employee full responsibility and authority over some sector of work. Share power—delegate authority. Let everyone be in charge of something. Position your people, as individuals, to wield a measure of influence over ideas and events.

The thought here is not so much to make employees feel powerful but to keep them from feeling powerless.

Power feeds the ego more than it builds dedication. Someone might have rank and a lot of clout without gaining an ounce of effort or dedication. What you want to do is prevent powerlessness, the helpless feeling that disarms commitment. Even a small portion of power might keep an employee from giving up and mentally checking out.

Powerlessness produces despair, a “What’s the use?” attitude, that suffocates enthusiasm and drains energy. When people feel unable to shape circumstances, when they feel whipped about by forces beyond their control, they learn to act helpless. If they decide the future is not only unknown but also dangerous, they start believing in their own weakness. That belief, in turn, becomes their reality.

Help your employees and peers believe in their ability to affect their circumstances. Give them opportunities to shape their future. Look for chances to let them have a say in matters that impact them, especially within their sphere of influence. Solutions for improving the organization lies with them, not you. They are living closest to the problems that require solving.

When the power drains out of your people, there’s no strength left in the organization. Dedication dies for a lack of energy.

You can give power to others without ending up any less powerful yourself. Real leadership is the power within, not power over.

Change often leaves people shaken, with a wounded sense of self-worth.
Reconfirm them by providing a change to achieve. Let personal accomplishments restore their faith in themselves.
Otherwise, the organization can end up with hollow people. And people who don’t believe in themselves deliver little of their potential.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.