Decide or Commit?

We make decisions everyday – it is an important part of being an adult. As a leader we likely make more decisions, often those that have an impact on many people.  There are skills we can learn to be a better decision maker, (I have an upcoming course here on LinkedIn Learning that focuses on that skill set for managers and leaders – we’ll announce it when it is ready) and those are skills worth learning.

Today, I want to talk about personal decisions and ask you a pointed question.

Are you deciding or committing?

There is a difference between deciding to lose weight and committing to lose weight.

There is a difference between deciding to get married and committing to a successful marriage.

There is a difference between deciding on a new job and committing to being a successful teammate.

When you are making a decision, usually you are deciding about your level of commitment too – even if subconsciously.

I’m challenging you to think about the commitment part consciously.  When you do you will get better results and have fewer regrets later.

Not every decision requires this clarification – I will decide later what to have for lunch today, and the only commitment required is to order it or make it.  But for many decisions, thinking about this will be very beneficial to you.

A Personal Example

Recently I was given access to the LinkedIn Newsletter feature. I was excited to share some of our work and ideas in this forum.  I decided immediately that we would have a LinkedIn Newsletter, but I wasn’t ready to commit yet. In other words, I decided to do it, but wasn’t committed to the needed work to sustain it – at first.

In order for us to commit, we needed a plan to meet our goals:

• Valuable and inspirational to readers
• Sustainable for us

After a few weeks, and some work by the team, welcome to the first issue of Remarkable Results with Kevin Eikenberry here on LinkedIn.

We’ve decided to and committed to deliver you great information, ideas, and inspiration each week – starting with a short thought-provoking article like this, followed by snippets and links to other great content, in a variety of formats, for you to benefit from.

I hope you will decide to subscribe, and truly that you will commit to reading what benefits you each week.

Whether you make that decision or not, I urge you to consider the question – am I deciding or committing? - more consciously and consistently in all aspects of your life.

You are Remarkable!

Kevin ??

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