Why You Need Buy-In

Steve Wilcox
Aug 20
4 min read

Updated: Aug 20

Author, Steve Wilcox, is a Senior Business Advisor with The Resultants.

To learn more about Steve, visit our Team Page or connect with him on LinkedIn.

“I'm extremely skilled at passive-aggressive behavior.”

Now, that would look ridiculous on a resume, but it perfectly describes a hidden challenge that quietly undermines organizational effectiveness across America.

I've spent 27 years walking into boardrooms, plant floors, and meetings, and I can tell you this: many leadership teams have moments where they slip into partial commitment.

They nod their heads, cross hands on decisions, and walk out the door with every intention of doing exactly what they've always done.

The question I ask every leadership team is simple: Are you ALL IN or just partially in?

Because what sabotages change initiatives more than anything else is lukewarm agreement at the top.

The Continuum of Commitment

You can plot people’s reaction to proposed changes along a spectrum.

Resist > Comply > Commit.

Resist: This is a natural starting point for many. A lot of people don't like change, and they resist it until they understand what's happening and why.
Comply: Once people understand the change, they may move to compliance. They'll follow the new rules, but they won't be enthusiastic about it. They're just doing their job.
Commit: This is the destination. Commitment means they're not only on board with the change but are also actively working to make it succeed. They've bought in.

On the leadership team, you're expected to be at the Commit stage when you walk out of the meeting.

You've discussed the issue, debated solutions, and reached a decision.

But what happens when a leader only moves to the comply stage?

The Ripple Effect of Half-Commitment

A half-commitment doesn't stay contained in the meeting room.

It creates a domino effect of cultural problems.

The Snowball of Resistance

When a half-committed leader goes back to their team, they don't sell the new decision with conviction.

Instead, they might say something like, "Guess what the leadership team just decided for us."

This single action instantly turns their team's initial hesitation into a stance of resistance.

What started as one leader's lukewarm agreement becomes a snowball of resistance rolling downhill, gathering speed and size.

The Water Cooler Decision

A culture of half-commitment leads to a culture of passive-aggressiveness.

Instead of trusting the decisions made as a team, leaders will have side conversations at the water cooler to complain or undermine the new initiative.

The decisions that really matter are made in private conversations after the meeting, not during it.

This behavior erodes the trust that is essential for a high-performing leadership team.

Losing Your A-Players

A-players are the kind of employees who view their work as a career or a vocation, not just a job.

They are driven, passionate, and committed to excellence.

A-players will only tolerate a siloed, dysfunctional environment for so long.

When they see a lack of alignment from leadership, they will get frustrated and leave.

Losing your A-players is a direct and significant hit to the bottom line, and a culture of half-commitment is often the root cause.

The Cure for Half-Commitment

So, how do you fix it?

The key is to address half-commitment head-on and build a culture of full buy-in. Here’s how.

Call It Out

As a leader, it's your responsibility to observe and address non-verbal cues.

If you see a leader who is checked out, call them on it in a respectful, professional way.

You might say, "John, I see you're not leaning in on this. Your input is important, so let's hear what's on your mind."

This gives them a safe space to voice their concerns.

The key is getting to the root cause of any hesitation.

Is it a lack of understanding?

Do they have a valid point that the team overlooked?

Or is it "little red wagon" thinking – old grievances that are preventing them from moving forward?

Make Commitment the Standard

Keep probing until you understand what's driving the resistance.

And don't let anyone leave that room until you've achieved 100% commitment from the team.

A leadership team decision means change is going to happen.

And when you walk out of that room, every leader’s job is to lead with conviction and bring their teams along on the journey.

Embrace Fearless Leadership

This kind of direct communication makes a lot of people uncomfortable. I spend most of my time working in the Midwest, where passive-aggressive behavior is practically a genetic trait.

In many organizational cultures, we've been conditioned to avoid conflict, to let things slide, to hope problems resolve themselves.

But hope is not a strategy.

Addressing half-commitment requires leaders who are willing to have difficult conversations.

It requires what I call "fearless leadership" – the willingness to speak honestly, even when it makes people squirm.

We attack issues, not people.

But we attack them directly and surgically.

The Mathematics of Commitment: 1+1=3

Here's what happens when you get this right: you move from one plus one equals a half to one plus one equals three.

When you have the right people in the right seats, fully committed to the decisions they help make, you get a multiplier effect.

Instead of organizational friction slowing everything down, you get organizational momentum accelerating everything forward.

But when you have half-commitment, you get the opposite.

Decisions get delayed, implementations get sabotaged, and initiatives die slow, painful deaths.

Every leadership team faces this choice:

Will you demand full commitment and create the difficult conversations necessary to achieve it?
Or will you settle for the comfortable dysfunction of half-commitment?

There’s no middle ground.