From Compliance to Commitment: Recruiting People into Ideas

TL;DR:

• Compliance delivers effort; commitment delivers energy.

• The best leaders recruit people into ideas rather than assigning tasks to them.

• Ownership begins when people see their reflection in the idea.

• Influence scales when leaders focus on belief rather than control.

Working with High Performers

I have noticed a distinct pattern: high performers default to “telling” early in their leadership careers.

Those who continue to get promoted learn to recruit through the skill of influence.

I was having coffee with a stellar executive leader, prepping for a high-stakes meeting. This particular leader is highly regarded, very capable and has a track record of success. In this scenario, though, they did not have hierarchical power.

They planned to go into the meeting with a series of fleshed-out solutions for the stakeholders to choose from.

I asked a simple question, “Is there a common understanding of the problem?”

The premise being, if everyone understood the problem like this leader did, would the solutions the leader envisioned be obvious? 

Together, we reorganized the agenda to open with a question of the stakeholder group: “What is your understanding of this problem and the impact if we can’t solve it?”

The stakeholder group emerged from the meeting, aligned, motivated and fully bought into the strategic direction.

That is the power of recruiting over telling.

The Problem with “Telling”

Leaders who have built their success on decisive action often default to direction. 

It’s faster, cleaner, and seemingly efficient, until it isn’t. When leaders rely too heavily on telling, they get compliance, not commitment. People execute tasks, but they don’t engage their full creativity or energy.

Most strategic initiatives fail not because the strategy is wrong, but because people are told what to do rather than being recruited into why it matters.

Recruiting People into Ideas

Recruitment is the executive skill that separates influence from authority. Great leaders don’t push ideas onto people; they invite others into them.

Recruiting people into ideas means helping them see themselves in the story. It’s about connection, not persuasion. As Daniel Pink writes in Drive, the deepest motivation comes from autonomy, mastery, and purpose. All three require that people feel ownership over their contributions.

You can’t mandate ownership. You can only create the conditions that encourage people to volunteer.

How to Recruit, Not Direct

To build commitment, leaders must make a few critical shifts:

• From directives to dialogue: Replace “Here’s what we’re doing” with “Here’s what we’re trying to achieve, what would it take to make it work?”

• From tasks to purpose: Frame initiatives around outcomes that connect to meaning, not just metrics.

• From control to curiosity: Ask more than you answer. Curiosity is an act of respect that signals belief in others’ judgment.

• From buy-in to belief: Buy-in is transactional; belief is emotional. People who believe in an idea defend it even when it’s hard.

  
  

Influence Funnel

With my partner Colin, we built the Influence Funnel in an attempt to systemize the process of influence.

Leaders learn the fundamentals of influence and the confidence to apply it to recruit highly energized teams that operate with purpose, not just compliance.

The Cost of Compliance

Compliance might look efficient, but it breeds dependency. Teams wait for direction instead of anticipating. Creativity drops, and the leader becomes the bottleneck for all decisions.

Commitment, by contrast, creates momentum. When people invest in ideas, they take initiative, adapt more quickly, and recruit others to support their efforts. It’s the difference between a machine running and a movement growing.

The Executive’s Role: From Commander to Convener

Executives who master recruitment act less like commanders and more like conveners. They gather talent around a shared vision and create space for others to co-author it.

As Jim Collins reminds us, the leader’s ultimate job is to get the right people on the bus, but once they’re there, the real work is ensuring they choose to stay on and drive.

Recruiting people into ideas is how strategy becomes culture. When people see themselves as part of the idea, they don’t need to be told what to do; they do it because it feels like theirs.

Leadership Takeaways

• Compliance delivers effort; commitment delivers energy.

• Recruit people into ideas by connecting purpose, autonomy, and meaning.

• Curiosity is one of the most underutilized leadership skills for influence.

• Create dialogue, not directives; belief consistently outperforms instruction.

  
  

➡️ Practical step: In your following leadership conversation, resist the urge to explain the plan. Instead, ask: “What would it take for this to feel like your idea?” Watch how the energy in the room shifts from compliance to commitment.