How are your plans going? Are you getting the results you hoped you’d get?

I asked these questions to a group of leaders and one senior leader sheepishly raised her hand and said she wasn’t.

Her firm recently had to make a massive scheduling change to handle the demands on the organization. This change would require the team to work weekends for a few months. She and her colleagues needed their people to buy-in and support the change—to the extent it was possible to be enthusiastic about working weekends.

I asked her, “On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being extremely important, how important is it for people to buy-in to this change and not just begrudgingly comply?” Her answer was 8.

That’s pretty important.

“What’s the level of effort you are giving to get the result you want?” She thought for a minute, and to her credit, gave an honest answer… “4”

I didn’t need to say anything in response. She and everyone in the room knew the effort you put into something must match the result that you want.

Where are you not getting the result you want? What level of effort and energy are you giving?

This week’s leadership challenge is to honestly evaluate this for yourself and take one small action to move the effort needle up towards the importance of the result you want to experience.

For extra accountability, share your action step in the comments below.