How many times do you hear, “Someone needs to hold so-and-so accountable for their actions”? And the peanut gallery nods their head vehemently in agreement, “That’s right, it’s about time that so-and-so was held accountable for such-and-such.” People in a position of leadership (PIAPOL) are often fond of the peanut gallery, those that cheer them on in the execution of the leadership duties. Funny enough, the history of the peanut gallery comes from days past and referred to the cheapest tickets where the rowdiest vaudeville consumers heckled the performers. Needless to say, those in a position of leadership who only seek “yes men” to affirm their ever action seek the praise of those who are not fueled by vision or invested in progress. Magnified Plaid, or MxPx as they have come to be known, is a indie punk rock band from Bremerton, Washington and they have a fitting song entitled Responsibility, the chorus of which belts out, Responsibility? What's that? Responsibility? Not quite yet. Responsibility? What's that? I don't want to think about it; we'd be better off without it. If you like rock music with a splash of humor then you may find some enjoyment is viewing the video for MxPx Responsibility - see at end of article. It may also help serve as a sensory cue to invest in your accountability measures for your team, a rally cry of sorts. For many organizations, the attitude is the same with regards to a practical or effective approach to accountability. Leaders talk about accountability as though the only measure of such is a good tongue lashing, preferably in front of as large a group of people as possible. So, let’s see if we can answer the what, when and how of establishing accountability. Accountability? What’s that? “If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes,” says speaker and author of Necessary Endings, Dr. Henry Cloud. There is a progression in accountability, it does not appear out of thin air or materialize on its own. Accountability for a person and an organization comes from consistency in executing clearly established values. Effective accountability traces itself back to clarity in vision, communication of values and consistent effort from all levels within the team to live out those principles. As we have discussed many times, there are causes and there are effects or there are symptoms and there are sources, leaders are concerned with finding sources so that they can eliminate symptoms. Accountability is the natural consequence of consistency rooted in clarity and conversely a lack of accountability is the natural consequence of inconsistency that stems from a void in institutional clarity. For an organization to build accountability they must clarify their vision and consistently communicate, train and discipline around their values. If an organization says they value A and B and yet they hire candidates that value C or have leaders who believe in D then that organization cannot expect A and B to be communicated clearly, executed consistently or accountability measures to be effective. As Dr. Cloud notes above, there is a beauty to developing a culture because one of the fruits of a clear culture is that those invested in the vision will enhance accountability by setting a standard and holding people to it. Accountability? Not quite yet. Consistency means doing what you have said regardless of the obstacles or the opposition. How many positive efforts die before they ever grow legs, before they are ever put in motion and how many more die the minute there is opposition. Those in a position of leadership are tasked with the responsibility to identify and implement programs, systems and changes that will grow their team. The best ideas don’t have to be complex or innovative to move a vision forward but they will have to be combined with commitment and endurance. Changes, especially those that net long term results, require energy and resources, they will cost money, time and will have to adapt to the path that unfolds but they should not die because someone decides they aren’t comfortable with change or don’t want to put the work in to see something through. The peanut gallery cheers as long as they are not challenged, they heckle like petulant children when they don’t like something but they are not of the character to get in the trenches and move a team forward so their opinions should not be given value by those who are leading an organization from vision to action. When those in a position of leadership allow obstacles to deter them or fold under the pressure of internal opposition to change they send a clear message that their resolve isn’t set to defend their values. “A person who refuses to say ‘the buck stops here’ really isn’t a leader at all,” notes Dr. Travis Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, “Being a leader requires being confident enough in your own decisions and those of your team to own them when they fail.” Leaders must be open to input where those engaged in the mission are sharing insights of repute but complaining by those who want to defend the status quo should be quelled. A quick test to determine whether someone is complaining or providing constructive criticism is to simply ask, “Before you finish your statement – 1) if you are bringing me a problem are you also bringing me a solution and 2) if you believe you have a solution are you willing to put your skin in the game to see it through?” If the answer to either of these questions is no then it is a complaint and the person in a position of leadership should move on, quickly. No further discussion. (More on accountability – Conflict) Accountability? What’s that? Many organizations have vision and value statements but how many actually follow those words from top to bottom and from bottom to top? When an organization is clear on their vision and those in a position of leadership are consistent in their values and together they recruit, hire, train, discipline and build around those core items then there is a foundation for accountability (Video on discipline). Discipline is a key component of accountability. Yet, discipline is not just about yelling at people who aren’t doing their job or sending people home, or like one organization we worked with having a naughty board posted prominently in their employee center so that the record of team members failures could be observed by all, rather accountability flows from consistency and clarity. Patrick Lencioni, the author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, shares, “The best kind of accountability on a team is peer-to-peer. Peer pressure is more efficient and effective than going to the leader, anonymously complaining, and having them stop what they are doing to intervene.” The kind of accountability that Cloud and Lencioni talk about is of the type that we hear about in championship sports teams where captains from within the team, as well as the team as a whole, buy into the vision and hold each other accountable. When an organization brings people in that enhance the culture, people of value are inspired. When a person in a position of leadership stands up to opposition and silences complainers, people of value are invigorated. When the team is clear about the vision and consistently executes the values the key ingredients are in the soil for a culture of accountability to flourish (More on culture). I don’t want to think about it. We’d be better of without it. It’s so much easier to maintain the status quo. Yet, with the rate of change and the demands in the market, status quo is the most rapid path to total failure. Change is painful but death is permanent. Doing the hard thing of turning something around requires commitment to work through obstacle after obstacle and to consistently progress through opposition after opposition only to wake up and do it again. No more so-and-so needs to do such-and-such. Clarity. Consistency. Accountability.
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Part two in a series on the topic of accountability, to read Part one click HERE. How many times do you hear, “Someone needs to hold so-and-so accountable for their actions”? And the peanut gallery nods their head vehemently in agreement, “That’s right, it’s about time that so-and-so was held accountable for such-and-such.” People in a position of leadership are often fond of the peanut gallery, those that cheer them on in the execution of the leadership duties. Funny enough, the history of the peanut gallery comes from days past and referred to the cheapest tickets where the rowdiest vaudeville consumers heckled the performers. Needless to say, those in a position of leadership who only seek “yes men” to affirm their ever action seek the praise of those who are not fueled by vision or invested in progress. In our prior article, Accountability? What's that? v.1 we introduced the song "Responsibility" by MxPx as the back drop to our conversation on the topic of personal and organizational accountability. The chorus of this indie punk rock song goes like this: Responsibility? What's that? Responsibility? Not quite yet. Responsibility? What's that? I don't want to think about it; we'd be better off without it. These articles from IZ Ventures serve as the verses to the chorus which we hope will provide a sonic cue as well as a motivational soundtrack to your pursuit of creating a culture of personal and organizational accountability. Accountability? Not quite yet. Consistency means doing what you have said regardless of the obstacles or the opposition. How many positive efforts die before they ever grow legs, before they are ever put in motion and how many more die the minute there is opposition. Those in a position of leadership are tasked with the responsibility to identify and implement programs, systems and changes that will grow their team. The best ideas don’t have to be complex or innovative to move a vision forward but they will have to be combined with commitment and endurance. Changes, especially those that net long term results, require energy and resources, they will cost money, time and will have to adapt to the path that unfolds but they should not die because someone decides they aren’t comfortable with change or don’t want to put the work in to see something through. The peanut gallery cheers as long as they are not challenged, they heckle like petulant children when they don’t like something but they are not of the character to get in the trenches and move a team forward so their opinions should not be given value by those who are leading an organization from vision to action. When those in a position of leadership allow obstacles to deter them or fold under the pressure of internal opposition to change they send a clear message that their resolve isn’t set to defend their values. “A person who refuses to say ‘the buck stops here’ really isn’t a leader at all,” notes Dr. Travis Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, “Being a leader requires being confident enough in your own decisions and those of your team to own them when they fail.” Leaders must be open to input where those engaged in the mission are sharing insights of repute but complaining by those who want to defend the status quo should be quelled. A quick test to determine whether someone is complaining or providing constructive criticism is to simply ask, “Before you finish your statement: 1) if you are bringing me a problem are you also bringing me a solution, and 2) if you believe you have a solution are you willing to put your skin in the game to see it through?” If the answer to either of these questions is NO then it is a complaint and the person in a position of leadership (PIAPOL) should move on, quickly. No further discussion. As a counter point to this line of thinking, there was a thoughtful discussion initiated by Georgia Institute of Technology Graduate Research Assistant Robert Walters taking a look at the sentiment of, "Dont' bring me problems, bring me solutions," as a bad leadership characteristic (see the article and discussion HERE). Mr. Walters brings up a good point with regards to eliminating input/discussion from those who may need some assistance from those who are supposed to be providing it. Those in a position of leadership need to be wise in reading the needs of their team - 1) is this an instance where someone needs to find a solution or 2) is this a situation where someone is in need of assistance to make progress in their development? Accountability can create conflict as a strong culture will require everyone on the team, top to bottom and bottom to top, to work towards the same goals. As discussed in our article on conflict and disciplining according to values, people fall into four quadrants with regards to intersection of understanding and application: An organization must be clear about their vision, consistent in their execution and hold all team members accountable, the benefits of a culture of accountability as previously referenced is that the team by it's actions will hold each other to the standards they share. We want team members to understand and apply these values, if they don't we have to ask whether we have communicated and trained clearly or if there is a need to discipline (read more HERE). There is a progression in accountability, it does not appear out of thin air or materialize on its own. Accountability for a person and an organization comes from consistency in executing clearly established values. Where clarity is lacking there is no foundation for consistency. Where consistency is lacking there is no culture of accountability. Start with clarity of vision and values, then develop consistency in execution of those core principles and accountability will build as you uphold those standards. In our last post we included the music video for MxPx Responsibility, for those who may not be fans of punk rock below is a video of lead singer Mike Herrera playing the song acoustically. Perhaps you will enjoy this song as much as we do and it may provide a sensory cue to motivate you towards your goals of building a culture of accountability. Leadership is assumed, appointed or affirmed, which is the most effective? If you are in the tens of people who have read more than one of these IZ Venture's articles, you will have noticed that we refer to leaders as “people in a position of leadership” or PIAPOL. We all have seen and been around leaders who rest upon their appointed position as a means to exert their authority as well as those who have assumed their position as a means to elevate their responsibility. Let’s take a stroll through the leadership landscape and sort out a few myths and dysfunctions with regards to this catch word - leadership. Whether you think you are or you think you aren’t [a leader], you are right. Being in a position of leadership does not mean that I am a leader, the working definition of a leader comes in the form of activity – if you look behind you and people are following, then you are a leader. Leadership can happen at any level and the proper means to promotion in positions of leadership come as an organization recognizes values in action on the part of an individual and merely formalizes their role as a positive influencer. Leadership isn’t about title or role, you and I can lead (or influence) from anywhere. As noted by author and speaker John C. Maxwell in his recent book The 360 Degree Leader, “Leadership is more disposition than position—influence others from wherever you are.” As such, effective leadership starts with leading yourself by clarifying your values, living them out consistently and establishing accountability for yourself through trusted peers. The value of influence is immeasurable and influence can be generated at any level. Everyone has some level of influence, either I am actively working to expand my influence or I am devaluing it by either keeping it quiet or using it poorly. What types of “leaders” are the most annoying, for me two come to mind, 1) the self-appointed leader (SAL) who constantly repeats statements or performs actions they consumed without any context, depth or usefulness and, 2) the appointed leader (AL) who is the reason we have terms like “the Peter principle” where they have been promoted beyond the point of their effectiveness but they are clueless to their shortcomings. The SAL can quote leader after leader, often really good choices, but they are missing the life experiences and the values that shaped the outlook of those they are quoting (more). The AL is one who has slipped through the organizational cracks because someone needed to be promoted, they are the status quo of leadership and they are a reflection of the reasons that so many companies are just getting by. Leadership grows as life gains experience through learning via success and [mostly] failures. Perspective is one area that we have the most control over and yet under-utilize. We cannot control what happens around us but we can control how we respond to it and what we learn from it. “The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man,” according to the author of The E-Myth, Michael E. Gerber, “Is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse.” As noted in the previous paragraph, leadership is neither assumed nor appointed, leadership is an action that is affirmed by those who are following. Those that assume leadership place themselves in a role that is irrelevant to those around them, they talk leadership but are guiding no one (more). Those that are appointed to leadership may have the benefit of organizational authority but in order to affect any real change they will need to earn the respect of those in their charge. In leadership, affirmation is much more powerful than assumption or appointment. Going back to where we started this conversation, another key myth or dysfunction with regards to leadership is that we discount or devalue the everyday leaders who make a difference without having a position or an ulterior motive. The power of everyday leadership, of simply doing good and leading by example, is missed by those screaming for attention to assume a role or those fighting for authority to maintain a position. Leadership creates clarity around vision and values, builds consistency in execution and develops a culture of accountability (Accountability? What's that?). If you have 6 minutes, take a listen to this TED Talk from Drew Dudley on the impact of Everyday Leadership. What is the importance of listening? Is there a tool that is more effective for those in a position of leadership (PIAPOL) to engage their employees, develop their teams and communicate value than by simply listening? More on this in our article on the importance of listening to creating a good working environment (HERE). Creating a good working environment is not an easy task but it should be the goal for any company that wants to remain competitive in the current market where finding good people is often more difficult than finding good customers. Insights from Lola will help you as a leader, an employee and as a peer. Your personal development is in your hands, get motivated and get moving forward.
Read and see more 👉 Listening, you can also view our leadership fable on listening (HERE). Kids As Managers (playlist) break core principles down into their functional truth and provides insights that are simple yet deep. More to come in series Questions With Lola. Video by IZ.Media Music Summer Out In Cali by Wordsplayed from the album Clowntown |
AuthorThoughts on personal and professional development. Jon Isaacson, The Intentional Restorer, is a contractor, author, and host of The DYOJO Podcast. The goal of The DYOJO is to help growth-minded restoration professionals shorten their DANG learning curve for personal and professional development. You can watch The DYOJO Podcast on YouTube on Thursdays or listen on your favorite podcast platform.
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