Page 65 - Fearless Leadership

52 FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

This blind spot is like breathing; it is invisible until we raise our level
of awareness and focus our attention on it. You may not recognize how
much you engage in conspiring against people and initiatives. Everyone
does it, and it is easy to overlook. But if you add up every time you lis-
tened to a negative conversation about another person and said nothing,
you will have a long list. Chances are you engaged in a conspiracy against
a person or idea in the last 24 hours. (In Chapter 6, we discuss how to over-
come the automatic behavior of conspiring against others through work-
ing in partnership.)

Blind Spot 8: Withholding Emotional Commitment
When we examine commitment, we must take into account two factors:
intellectual and emotional engagement. The presence of intellectual
commitment without emotional engagement results in compliance. But
when an organization can capture both “hearts and minds”—emotional
and intellectual commitment—people engage and focus their energy on
implementing change.
Emotional commitment—being inspired and passionate—unleashes
the discretionary effort of people. When economists use the term discre-
tionary income, they refer to the portion of your income you can use after
paying fixed and necessary expenses. Discretionary effort works in the same
way. It is the portion of your effort and energy that you personally control
and that cannot be mandated by the organization.

Symptoms of Withholding Emotional Commitment
• Complying and going along with the decision
• Resisting change and withholding support
• Withdrawing your passion and enthusiasm
• Not being moved by the passion and commitment of others
• Going through the motions—waiting to see if change is really
going to happen

There are two manifestations of this blind spot. One is when leaders
withhold their emotional commitment and do not authentically align. The
second is when leaders think they have alignment from others, and all they