Commitment Chaos: How Overcommitment Undermines Leadership Influence

After focusing on listening over the last two months, we’re moving on to the next chapter in our journey to explore hidden leadership skills. Up next is overcommitment. We’ll discuss its hidden costs and why esteemed leaders avoid it.
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What do we mean by overcommitment? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary:
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overcommitment: to commit excessively, such as
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a: to obligate (someone, such as oneself) beyond the ability for fulfillment​
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b: to allocate (resources) in excess of the capacity for replenishment
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We see overcommitment all the time. From “I’ll get those updates to you by the end of the day,” the end of the day comes with no updates. Or: “We need to reschedule; I’m double booked,” usually occurring at the last minute. Leaders and managers commit their teams to deadlines without a solid plan or make empty promises to employees, such as, “We’ll get you promoted next year.”
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Whenever we make commitments without evaluating our ability to fulfill those commitments, we run the risk of overcommitment.
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If you pause and reflect on your professional and personal life, where do you tend to overcommit? What is the impact of those overcommitments? Is it commonplace in your organization?
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But why do we overcommit in the first place? I can think of several reasons:
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1. Tendencies to want to please people, especially leaders and managers, who impact our performance reviews and career trajectories.
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2. Difficulty saying “no”.
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3. Optimism bias in assessing time, capacity, and resources. (Guilty!)
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4. Fear of missing opportunities.
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5. The space between intention and capability.​
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In my experience, I didn’t intend to overcommit but later realized I had and then scrambled to deliver. It wasn’t until I studied the actual costs (many of which weren’t apparent at the moment) of overcommitment that I started implementing strategies to prevent or reduce overcommitment.
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Would you like to learn more?
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Join me on November 19th, Noon PST for a 60-minute deep dive into the hidden costs of overcommitment and tangible strategies you can implement to reduce the frequency and impact of overcommitment.

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