Page 66 - Fearless Leadership

The Blind Spots That Derail Leaders 53

have is intellectual commitment or compliance. Charlie, the CEO of a
business operation in the oil services industry, ran into the latter problem.
Charlie supported a new model for shared services that would be imple-
mented in North America first and then expanded to global operations.
It appeared that everyone on his senior team was aligned until it came time
to implement the model in their geographic area. As soon as leaders had
to make the tough decisions in their areas and change what was going on,
they resisted. The implementation came to a standstill as individual areas
failed to adopt the new shared services model. Charlie became increas-
ingly frustrated and irate, which did nothing to alter how his leaders
behaved. He was furious and felt betrayed. The model, projected to save
the company $18 million in the first year, did not get off the ground until
several years later.
What Charlie did not recognize was the difference between intellec-
tual commitment and emotional commitment. He assumed he had both
from his leaders, but what he had was only one—intellectual commitment.
Blaming his leaders for the lack of authentic alignment was not an effec-
tive approach. Charlie needed to take accountability for the lack of align-
ment, learn how to identify the difference between emotional and
intellectual alignment, and how to gain both.

The Impact of Withholding Emotional Commitment. When you claim
to be aligned or supportive but withhold your emotional commitment, oth-
ers perceive you as disengaged and disingenuous. People know when you
are not fully on board. They see it in how you behave and how you speak.
How can you be emotionally honest with others if you are not emotion-
ally honest with yourself? When you withhold your energy and enthusi-
asm, others do the same.
You gain respect when you tell people the truth, such as “I am not com-
pletely on board. I have reservations.” You must have the courage to tell
the truth instead of covering up what you are really thinking.
Without full emotional and intellectual commitment, you will not be able
to weather the storm and achieve the results you want. It is the strength of
both emotional and intellectual commitment that allows you to effectively
engage people in the face of challenging circumstances. (In Chapter 9, we
explore how to gain authentic emotional and intellectual commitment.)