The Real Cost of “Winning at All Costs”
Every growing organization must have a healthy Committed dimension to passionately pursue goals and achieve outcomes—or get left behind in the marketplace. In this dimension, an organization is driven by production and committed to achieving goals.
Everyone is challenged to achieve more. The goals are established and become the primary focus of the organization. When companies rally around a goal, it can be energizing and motivating.
However, if the goal is the primary focus, then there is inevitably a letdown when the goal is achieved. Then they have to start over from square one to achieve the next set of goals. So they set another one, and the people rally behind that goal.
When out of balance, this dimension can quickly lead to burnout, disengagement, loss of talent, and myopic thinking. Motivation becomes difficult to sustain, and that’s the challenge for this type of culture: avoiding the peaks and valleys.
You see this type of culture prevail in sales organizations. The goals become the altar where everyone worships. When a Committed culture becomes unbalanced and overplayed, people eventually feel unconnected to the organization and feel their value is only what they produce.
They usually either burn out or leave for a culture that values them for more than just achievement. When goals and outcomes are the predominant values that drive culture, there’s a risk of a “win at all costs” mentality.
The Roller Coaster That’s No Fun
I have consulted with an automotive group for the past three years that suffers from what I call Committed Dimension Fatigue. As a sales organization, they are profit-driven. Everything is about the numbers, with everyone focused on hitting that goal. And every month when I meet with the twenty-two general managers across the organization, it’s like a roller coaster.
One month they’re celebrating with a jovial “we killed it!” vibe. The next month, they’ll be down in the dumps moaning about not being able to hit their goal. Then it’s back up to the top of the world again. And on and on and on.
When culture is driven entirely by high-performance achievement and effort, people can’t sustain it. For a time, everyone can rally around achieving a specific goal. The problem is when you win the Super Bowl, then what do you do?
Well, you could say that you go win another Super Bowl. But each time you do that, it becomes less and less motivating and inspiring. The only next thing is to set the bar higher, raise the sales goals, until people just get burned out. There has to be a greater emotional drive other than just achieving a goal.
How Does Committed Culture Need to Play a Part?
The prevailing thinking in a predominantly Committed culture is We can do this! Nothing is impossible if we set the right goals. Winning (getting results) is what matters, and success is found in beating the competition.
As a result, leaders act by challenging everyone to improve, make the extra effort. When a team is aligned, they are motivated by achieving these outcomes and are willing to push each other for the “win.” Everyone measures their success with a given set of metrics, and achievement is rewarded.
As a leader looking to motivate your team to buy in to the Committed Dimension of your organizational culture, recognize that there are some key motivating factors to leverage:
- Help team members understand What’s in it for me?, which can sometimes be aligned with goals being tied to incentives and bonuses.
- Encourage everyone to take personal pride in their achievements.
- Capitalize on team camaraderie as you all work toward challenging (but achievable) goals.
- Make sure big pushes are sprints, not marathons, to prevent burnout.
The challenge in the Committed Dimension is to not become so focused on meeting goals that all other elements of a healthy culture suffer. When a Committed culture is overemphasized, leaders begin to think achievement is all that matters and winning must happen at all costs.
They focus always on doing more, better, and they rarely if ever celebrate what is already good. Relationships suffer because the focus is entirely on an employee’s outcome and whether he or she is making the numbers versus making an impact.
In reality, success is all about having the right blending of the three positive Dimensions of Culture (Compliant, Committed, Courageous) for your organization. A sales organization is going to want to put much more emphasis on goals and benchmarks, for example, than a medical practice might.
As a leader, it’s on you to be aware of the blend necessary for your particular situation, and if organizational success requires you to have a primarily Committed culture, make sure you stay well-aware of the potential pitfalls as you strive to maintain the proper blend of the other Dimensions as well.