Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Why Commitment Trumps Compliance: Why Commitment Is More Important Than Ever -- Even the Most Successful Organizations Don't Operate at Their Full Potential -- It's a Question of Now or Never -- Most Leaders Confuse Compliance and Commitment -- Generating Commitment Requires Great Courage -- Chapter 2: What Is Strategic Commitment?: If It's So Important, Why Don't I Know About It? -- There's Commitment and There's Commitment -- What Drives True Commitment? -- The Heart of Strategic Commitment: Content and Context -- The Drivers of Context -- The Characteristics of a Strategic Commitment Environment: Why Should You Care That They Don't Care? -- You Might as Well Find Out Where You Stand Before Reading On -- Chapter 3: Working Back from the Future: How to Generate Strategic Commitment -- We're Not Here to Stick Our Toe in the Water, We're Here to Make Waves -- Barriers to Assessing the Current Reality -- What Are the Warning Signs? -- Diogenes Searching for the Honest Man -- The Picture Emerges from the Mosaic -- Are You Your History or Your Future? You Really Have a Choice -- Crafting a Bold and Compelling Future -- Chapter 4: Pushing Through the Thermal Layer: How to Engage Middle Managers in Strategic Commitment -- You Can't Lead Without Light -- Avoid Strategic Limbo -- Offer to Listen, Then Demonstrate That You Have Listened -- Involvement Is Magic -- Why Slow Is Fast -- Chapter 5: Leading from the Front: "Follow me!" (Not, "I'll Be There in a Minute . . .") -- The Résumé of the Senior Leadership Team: Ten Essential Leadership Competencies and Qualities -- How Leadership Behavior Has Changed to Less Leadership -- Why the Trusted Few Can't Be Trusted -- Cold Cruel World: Commitment from Key Outsiders.

Chapter 6: Taking a Stand-The Key to Strategic Commitment: Why the Aztecs Put a Stake in the Ground -- Putting a Stake in the Ground Means No Retreat -- People Are Not "Goaled," They're Committed -- When the Going Gets Tough, You're Finally Making Progress -- Success and Failure Ebb and Flow, but Courage Cannot -- Dedication for Him Isn't Necessarily So for Her: Tailoring Commitment -- Chapter 7: Building and Restoring Trust: Essential Competencies for Generating Strategic Commitment -- What Is Trust, Anyway? -- The Real Question: How Is Trust Built? -- The "Building Trust Dialogue" -- Five Steps to Recovering and Building Trust -- Moving Forward -- Chapter 8: Return on Strategic Commitment: On Competitive Edge and Profit Margins -- Financial Performance -- Customer Service, Satisfaction, and Loyalty -- Quality -- Safety -- Innovation -- Cross- Functional Collaboration -- Integration of Cultures (Mergers and Acquisitions) -- Employee Morale, Loyalty, and Satisfaction -- The Drivers Working Every Day -- When Strategic Planning Meets Strategic Commitment -- A Strategic Plan Fit for Strategic Commitment -- Doing It Right -- Chapter 9: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way-HR at the Crossroads: The Role of HR in Generating Strategic Commitment -- To Be or Not to Be: Can Your Human Resources People Actually Help? -- HR as Chief Commitment Officer: The Best of All Possible Worlds? -- Building Potential: HR Can Help, but Needs Your Help -- I Won't Dance, Don't Ask Me: Jettisoning HR as an Impediment -- Stormy Weather: The Role of Strategic Commitment in HR Transformation -- Chapter 10: Strategic Commitment as Organizational Lifestyle: Integrating the Process into Organizational DNA -- You Get What You Pay For: Creating the Proper Reward System -- The Metrics of Commitment: Focusing on Output, Not Input.

Picking and Choosing: How to Hire Talent That Thrives on Commitment -- Communicating Commitment: Changing the Nature of Feedback -- Choosing Your Friends: Alliances, Vendors, and Contractors in the Fold -- Chapter 11: The Diversity of Strategic Commitment: There Is No Such Thing as "But We're Different" -- Nonprofits Are Not a Synonym for "Unprofessional" -- Rules for Gaining Strategic Commitment in Nonprofits -- Educational Institutions Need to Learn Something -- Government Agencies Can Actually Achieve Operating Efficiencies -- Volunteer Organizations Require Strategic Commitment More Than Others -- Start-ups: Strategic Commitment in the Petri Dish -- Afterword: Strategic Commitment Is Essential in Volatile Economies -- Appendix: Tips, Techniques, and Tools for Generating, Monitoring, and Addressing Setbacks Related to Strategic Commitment -- The Strategic Commitment Scorecard: Finding Out Where You Stand (Chapter 2) -- Four Conversations That Will Tell You Where You Stand or Fall (Chapter 2) -- Working Back from a Future State: Getting "Unfrozen" (Chapter 3) -- Crafting a Bold, Compelling Future State (Chapter 3) -- Leadership Team Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment Instrument (Chapter 5) -- Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment Recorder (Chapter 10) -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z -- About the Authors.