Commitment and Consistency
Commitment and consistency is involved in my toolkit because creating stable expectations in the workplace can help followers focus on the task at hand and work with clarity. If a leader does not act consistent or fails to commit to a particular decision, followers can become confused and frustrated if they are unsure of expectations. By continuing to second guess a decision, a leader can halt any efficiency and leave employees puzzled. Leaders can evaluate their performance by reflecting on their commitment and consistency in decision making. Followers are greatly affected by the actions of their leader, which makes it vital for a leader to act consistently (Cialdini, 2009). By recording actions and reasons for certain decisions, a leader can look back and find any correlations between their actions and the performance of followers. Committing to one goal and often reflecting back upon the strategy and motivations of that goal will create a consistent and positive atmosphere for followers and ensures that everyone is on the same page (Lowe, 2014). In order to further improve commitment and consistency in the workplace, a leader can have followers anonymously write feedback and tips for the leader in order to allow the leader to view the perspective of others, in addition to their own.
Follow the following steps to learn more about your commitment and consistency to find areas to improve:
1. Ask others to provide examples of your past inconsistent behaviour and when you failed to commit, and how they were affected by your actions
2. Publicly state that you will work on your areas of poor performance. This will hold you more accountable for your actions and will motivate you to not seem like a hypocrite
3. Practice making small commitments that require little effort, in order to get you in the habit of following through with agreements
4. Ask others to give feedback on your progress