Turbo Leadership Systems^™

Starting is half done

Gerry, newsmill shift coordinator for a paper mill in northern Ontario, Canada, told Session 7B of the Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

"At Session 3 of the LDL when I got my 5X red dot to remind me to apply five times more enthusiasm to a project I was falling behind on, I knew immediately where I needed to demonstrate more 'commitment in action'. My level of engaged commitment to the activities of the Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) needed a decided improvement.

Last year I volunteered to be a management representative on the JHSC. The whole truth is that I had been performing to the strict minimum required. I had been using time restrictions as an excuse for not fully living up to the requirements of being a meaningful member of the JHSC.

Part of the duties of each member of the committee is to produce one article per year for the Did You Know newsletter promoting safety awareness. I had proposed and gotten acceptance at the annual meeting that the co-chairs would publish monthly articles and that all articles for the year were to be delivered to the Safety department by the end of January. At the subsequent monthly meeting the requirement was reduced to one article per member per year.

I applied 5X more enthusiasm to promoting safety awareness and here is what happened. Instead of continuing to be stressed out about how long it would take to produce an article I just sat down to do

it. Before I knew it I had produced not one, but three half page articles for the newsletter. The two extra ones I written can be used as reserve in months when no articles are submitted.

Almost as quickly as they were submitted, the three articles were greeted with a very pleasant and somewhat surprised 'thank you'.

The lesson I learned from this experience is that when I apply myself with the focus that we call 5X more enthusiasm, I can get more done in less time. It really doesn't take any more effort. In fact, it takes less effort than the wasted energy I was using worrying about getting it done.

The action I call you to take is to set yourself up to be an example of the standard you expect. Make big commitments and keep them. Stop worrying and start working. Working with five times more enthusiasm really isn't work.

The benefit you will gain is others will soon follow your lead and live up to the high standards you have set. You will help create a world, a culture of peak performers."

In our culture change interventions, many companies decide to start publishing a periodic newsletter. Often it is 'start publishing one again' — they have published a company newsletter in the past and given up because they couldn't get people to contribute. Never give up on a valueproducing project just because you meet resistance.