Most of us can remember a time when we had every intention of accomplishing a specific goal, but didn’t follow through. Perhaps we were beginning to get serious about joining a group, learning a skill, or improving ourselves in some way—but when it came time to act on the idea, for some reason we lost interest.

My good friend Art Turock taught me that this behavior usually is the result of not knowing the difference between interest and commitment. We were very interested in the idea, but not committed enough to put it into action. We didn’t keep our commitment to our commitment.

Through the years I’ve had all kinds of people tell me they have learned a lot from my books. Of course, I am always grateful to hear that. But when I ask leaders how they have applied some of the Simple Truths they’ve learned from me, many can’t come up with an example. It surprises me how some people can read a book, and another book, and then another without actually using anything they are learning from those books. They are interested in learning about leadership, but not committed to putting their learning into action. I think that’s a shame. After all, effective leadership is about employing commonsense leadership principles that will help your people and your organization thrive.

So how can commonsense leadership become common practice?

In an effort to resolve this age-old question, in 2022 my coauthor Randy Conley and I published Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust. We wanted to show leaders how to incorporate simple but essential principles into their leadership styles. We were delighted when we started hearing stories from readers telling us about the positive differences the book was making in their leadership. What a joy to realize that leaders everywhere were beginning to not only commit to our Simple Truths of servant leadership and trust in principle, but also put them into action at work.

Feeling the need to help leaders embed the information even more deeply, Randy and I decided to take the next step. The result is Simple Truths of Leadership Playbook: A 52-Week Game Plan for Becoming a Trusted Servant Leader. It’s a structured workbook that allows leaders to craft their approach to leadership one week at a time. When a leader reflects on each of the 52 Simple Truths, responds to the prompts in their own words, and does the activities, that’s half the work. The other half is the call to action—the “Try it This Week” section—which is all about the leader implementing the lessons into their leadership.

Effective leaders are committed to learning—and the best leaders apply what they learn to their leadership. Any leader who reads Simple Truths of Leadership Playbook can acquire the practical skills and experience they need to put commonsense leadership into practice and reach their goal of becoming a trusted servant leader. Now that’s what I call keeping your commitment to your commitment!