acount leadership - david irvine – the leader’s navigator · accountable leadership | 10 you...

Accountable LeadershipTake The Challenge

AccountAble leAdership | 1

“For every thousand hacking at the leaves …

there is one striking at the root.”

Henry David Thoreau


I learned years ago from Ken Blanchard that there’s a huge difference between

interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you

do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you

accept no excuses, only results. Over the past quarter century I have made

thousands of presentations to clients who are interested in accountability. Over

the years, I’ve followed up my presentations with coaching and consulting

in organizations who are committed to foster a no-excuse, results based,

accountable culture.

Now, for those who are committed, I have an online program to support

you, with a down-to-earth, hands-on approach – to make accountability both

inspiring and practical. Below is an outline of my approach to accountability.

What follows are four additional e-books that outline what we call The Four

Pillars of Accountability™, the four agreements that make you a great leader in

today’s complex, demanding workplace.

It’s okay if you are interested. For those who are committed, thanks for

embarking with me on this journey.


The Story

In 1982 I began my first career when I opened up a private practice as a

marriage and family therapist. During those early years, when working

with very troubled families, I began to understand the critical importance of

accountability within a family. Parents brought their children to me with a

variety of presenting problems, including drug addiction, depression, breaking

the law, lack of motivation to do the chores around house, and difficulties with

their peers and in their classrooms. Many were referred by the courts or by the

schools. While I was able to make an impact on many of the families and youth

I worked with, so many others didn’t need a therapist. What they needed was

to be held accountable for facing the challenges of life without being rescued.

They needed to be inspired by a vision beyond themselves. What they

needed was accountability.


It was in those early years of my career that I began formulating a philosophy

of accountability and an approach to help families foster an accountable culture

in their homes. I learned that accountability is not about blame or fault-finding

or increased punishment. Accountability is about the ability to be counted on.

Accountability is about ownership, initiative, duty, personal responsibility,

and consequences for the choices you make. Accountability is about creating

a no-excuse culture that supports people and makes it hard not to keep your

promises. Accountability is about results. It’s about doing what you say you are

going to do. It’s about the self-respect you get from living a life of integrity. It’s

about earning credibility and the trust of others by developing a reputation of a

person who can be counted on. Accountability isn’t just a parenting philosophy

or an approach to leadership. Accountability is the foundation of a fulfilling

life.

Accountability is about the ability to be counted on.


Many parents who came to me for help with their kids in those days were

executives in corporations. After learning to cultivate accountability with their

children, I began getting invited into their organizations to apply the same

principles for fostering accountability in their organizations. As a

result, I soon became so busy working with leaders

in organizations that I let go of my family therapy

practice in 1989 and began to work full time in the

organizational development field. It was in the early

1990’s that I met Bruce Klatt and Shaun Murphy,

who had been developing an accountability approach

to business for the past decade. Together we wrote

our first book: Accountability: Getting A Grip On Results.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Bruce and Shaun, along

with our colleagues Murray Hiebert, and George

Campbell, for immersing me in the world of business

and for helping me gain a deep understanding of the

world of organizations. Fostering accountability in

organizations has been the foundation of my work with

corporate culture now for more than twenty years.


Accountability is not about rhetoric. Accountability is

about results.

With everyone talking about the need for more accountability in the work

place, why is it that accountability is so likely to turn people off? Why is it so

difficult to inspire people to be accountable? Why is accountability in such

high demand today? Unless we clarify accountable to whom, for what specific

results, and with what consequences, accountability remains an illusion. The

principles of accountability stay just out of reach and it’s potential hovers just

beyond your grasp. You have to get to the deep meaning and application of

accountability. If you don’t, it becomes a hammer to blame and punish people

or at best, just another organizational buzzword.


Accountability is not a “program” to be “installed” throughout an organization

or a “flavour of the month” management fad. Accountability is a philosophy

for life. Regardless of your own method for ensuring accountability in

your organization, it should deliver five essential results:

1 Clarity - about your role, the direction you are going, and expectations

and promises to each other;

2 Alignment – with people you depend on;

3 Communication - at a right depth, with the right focus;

4 Energy – to build sustained engagement; and

5 Trust – the one thing that changes everything.


What we offer is an inspiring, fresh and powerful view of

accountability that:

• Fosters ownership, integrity, and trust with your team;

• Eliminates blame, entitlement, and fear;

• Inspires your high performers, deals effectively and respectfully with

your “non-performers,” and gets everyone in your organization more

engaged;

• Closes the gap between intention and performance;

• Gets a grip on results that matter.

When people accept accountability, life in an organization or in a relationship

is straightforward and productive. No one needs a pack of dogs eating their

homework or a fresh pile of excuses to explain incomplete tasks. People do

what they say they are going to do, and paradoxically, accountability creates

enormous freedom and the opportunity for creativity.


Accountability starts with you

It’s inspiring to be around accountable people, people you can count on. You

earn credibility and bring energy to any relationship when you decide to be

accountable.

To illustrate, try a short exercise: Make a list of the accountable people in

your life: people you can count on, people who show initiative, and people

who keep their promises. Now ask yourself what it’s like to be around such

accountable people. What’s it like to be around people you can trust? It doesn’t

take much to realize that accountability is a powerful, productive force.


You can now turn this exercise around and use it to assess yourself. Ask

yourself honestly whose list you have earned the right to be on. If I asked your

boss, your colleagues, your customers, those who depend on you, to make a list

of the accountable people in their life, would you be on their list?

It’s a whole lot easier to see a lack of accountability in others than it

is to see it in ourselves. It’s easy to blame others when they fail to keep a

promise, when they show up late for work, and when they bring an unearned

sense of entitlement to their work. Accountability starts by looking inside, by

assessing the accountability gaps in yourself before you start to point the finger

at someone else. When did you fail to fulfill an agreement? When did you keep

someone waiting? Where do you feel a sense of unmerited privilege in your

life?

An accountable person is trusted, and is therefore given the authority,

resources and freedom necessary to make decisions. Accountability

opens the way to creativity, productivity, and flow. It dissolves the tension,

stress, and frustration of dealing with unreliable people. In our complex

organizations, our busy families and our fast paced society, accountability can

be diffused or completely lost. And when accountability is lost, we lose touch

with our core. When we grasp the deep and simple meaning of accountability,

we get a grip on results, and begin to live a life that matters.


Accountability is about shared achievement

The moment a group of people organize to achieve a desired result, the

members of that group become interdependent. Inevitably, interdependence

requires some kind of structure: roles, goals, agreements, schedules and

the like. The structure may be implied, or it may be spelled out in detail.

Regardless of the size or purpose of the organization—be it a small community

association, an entrepreneurial service business, or a mammoth multinational

corporation—success will always depend on people holding themselves, and

each other, accountable. As members of organizations, we are accountable: to

keep our agreements to one other, to fulfill our roles in the organization, and

most importantly, to achieve agreed-upon results.

In some organizations, interdependence is managed easily, informally, and

with little structure. People are readily available to talk with each other daily,

if not hourly. As a result, expectations can be continuously clarified and

relationships strengthened. Misunderstandings are uncovered and resolved

quickly, before time and resources are wasted, and before people become

frustrated with each other’s action or lack thereof. Course corrections happen

in real time, as needed.


In most organizations, however, some structure is essential to effective

interdependence. The organization may be large and the relationships

complex, or the organization may be small and the relationships intense. Either

way, people often lack the time, tools, skills, or inclination to continuously

clarify expectations and resolve misunderstandings. The principles of

accountability, as practiced through the application of Accountability

Agreements, bring structure, focus and clarity to human endeavours in

organizations.

Regardless of the size or structure of your organization, people need hands-

on tools to manage interdependence effectively. This is our purpose. We

teach people how to build accountability – in a way that is inspiring, practical,

respectful, and clear.


Accountability is determined by how you act,

not what you say

“No one can build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

Henry Ford

Real accountability – the kind that transcends rhetoric - is rooted in the

behaviour of people. It is not, as some think, a character trait that you are born

with or something embedded in an organization. Accountability is determined

by how you act.


Real accountability requires you to do three things consistently:

1 carry through to completion the responsibilities entrusted

to you.

Real accountability lies deeper than doing what you said you are going

to do, although this is an important component. Real accountability

requires you to search for and clarify accountabilities that are hidden in

your roles, to judge which accountabilities you accept, and to carry those

accountabilities through to completion.

2 stand up for your actions.

Real accountability depends upon transparency—others need to know

who did what, and who is accountable for doing something. Owning

your actions in public is very relaxing when you are confident that you

have acted ethically and with your best efforts. It is not so relaxing when

you make mistakes; however, owning mistakes takes less effort than

hiding them most of the time. Owning up to your actions is one of the

essential pieces of personal maturity and is a key step in achieving real

accountability.


3 stand behind your results.

The effects of your actions—your results—matter more than the actions

themselves. Yes, you sent the memo, but did the memo produce the

desired effect? I know that you explained to your child how much a

pencil hurts when jabbed into an uncle, but has her behaviour improved?

People are accountable for producing a result, not just for taking an

action.


Real accountability encompasses the unintended results you produce as

well as the ones you mean to produce.

• When you act to stop a child’s unsocial behaviour, you are also

accountable for the effect your actions have on the child’s sense

of safety and love.

• When you produce a high quality running shoe, you are

accountable for the effect your plant’s effluent has on the local

water supply.

• When you make a presentation, you aren’t just accountable

to make a “good presentation.” You are accountable to ensure

that the expected results are achieved as a result of your

presentation.

Real accountability requires an acceptance of responsibility for all the results

your actions (or inactions) produce.


Accountability is learned

Just as you can teach people to be accountable, many organizations

teach people to be unaccountable. They do this by:

a) Rewarding people for not producing results;

b) Not rewarding and, at times, even ignoring the high

performers;

c) Enabling people to perform badly by not having the courage to

follow through on consequences; and

d) Ignoring unethical and destructive behaviour.

A culture of strong accountability is critical to producing superior results that

are sustainable. On the other hand, where accountability is weak, the fibre of

the organization is at risk and leaders must act before the rot inflicts damage

that cannot be repaired.


Accountability corrodes slowly, one decision at a time. When accountability is

weak, when it becomes safer and more comfortable to be unaccountable, the

organization is forced to build complexity into every corner because people

need to be prodded into meeting their commitments and everyone is passing

off responsibility like it is a very, very hot potato. Increasing accountability

frees up energy, creativity and focus so that it is simple to get work

done and the organization can once again be productive.

In some organizations, the immediate response when something goes wrong is

to find someone to blame rather than to identify what went wrong (the cause).

The rational thing to do in such an organization is to never appear accountable

for an area when something is going wrong, and to scramble like mad to take

credit for the accountability for any successes. This means that people first

see what the results are and then decide whether or not to sign up for the

accountability.

Leaders have to make it safe to be accountable—the idea is to focus on results

and over time to increase the results the organization is able to deliver. You

want people to own up to their accountabilities and to stand up for their

commitments, but it is very important not to use the accountability system to

set up people for blame.


How organizations undermine results

As participants in and managers of organizations, we often lack the tools to

build accountability. The consequences are easy to spot. Most readers will

recognize their own versions of these real life experiences:

• An organization becomes comfortably stuck in a culture of non-

performance. It becomes an “open secret” that goal-setting is nothing

more than a meaningless paper exercise or game. People learn all the

acceptable organizational excuses for explaining why they didn’t achieve

their goals. Rationalization and excuses are offered and accepted in lieu

of results.

• Mistakes are visibly punished and not soon forgotten. Risk-taking is

labelled a kamikaze sport, for fools only. Errors are avoided at all costs or

at least covered up quickly. Innovation is absent and little learning takes

place. Cautious activity replaces results.

• Motivational rewards for exceptional performance barely exceed rewards

for the ordinary. To ensure average performers don’t feel short-changed,

to save evaluation time, to keep costs down, rewards fail to recognize

results.


• Despite extensive effort from participants, a joint employee-

management task force proposal is shelved without explanation. The

rumour-mill is active but senior management remains tight-lipped and

uncommunicative. Excessive control buries results.

• Managers stifle what they know to be true in order to live by a culture of

excessive politeness. In the interests of a superficial harmony, marginal

performance is overlooked and thereby subtly reinforced. Avoiding

embarrassment and “getting along” replace results.

• A senior manager’s abusive or unethical behaviour is covered up by

his transfer to another department. Nothing more is said regarding the

matter. Employees begin to doubt management’s depth of commitment

to respect and fair treatment and ethical leadership. Denial undermines

results.


Assessing accountability in your organization and team

Take a moment and answer the following questions honestly. These five

simple questions will give you a snapshot of how the culture you currently

work or live in is perceived by you as being accountable. Try these questions

with any culture - your family, your community association, the non-profit

group you volunteer in, or the team you are on at your work.


1 describe your process for managing expectations in your

organization.

Whether your current process is about formal performance reviews or

informal conversations, there is no “right” way to build accountability.

But see if you can describe your process. Then ask yourself the Dr. Phil

question: “How’s that working for you?”

To better clarify how effective your current accountability process

is working, ask yourself the following questions. Does your process

provide:

• Clarity – Do you know what is expected of you and what you

can expect from others?

• Alignment – Is there a good coordination of work with the

people on your team?

• Open communication – Is there good communication with

your team?

• Energy – to build sustained engagement?

• Increased trust – Do you trust the people you depend on?


Another way of assessing the effectiveness of your accountability process

is to assess the quality of the relationships with the people you depend on

and upon whom you depend:

• Is there ease - or tension - in your relationships?

• Are people clear about what is expected?

• Do people feel supported?

• Do people follow through on what they say they will do?

2 how passionate and engaged are people in their work?

• How passionate are people about the work they do?

• How would you describe the energy level in your culture?

• How focused are people about the work they are doing?

• What is the level of frustration in your organization?


3 What is the level of undeserved entitlement in your culture?

• How much blame goes on in your organization?

• How much do people use excuses to justify their behavior?

• How much complaining goes on in your organization when the

boss isn’t around?

• How much ownership and personal responsibility do you see

people stepping up to?

4 What’s your level of tolerance for mediocre performance?

• How clear are you about what is expected in your job?

• How clear are you about the kind of values and attitudes you

are expected to have at work? Are these values and attitudes

spelled out in specific behaviours?

• How much are mediocre performance and destructive attitudes

allowed without any consequences?

• How courageous are your positional leaders to have the tough

conversations?

• How free are people to take risks?


Accountability: Take the leadership challenge

Just as activities without results are meaningless, action without commitment

is ineffective. We work with leaders. Leaders can be found anywhere in

an organization, at every pay grade and in any department. Leaders seek

commitment, they don’t settle for compliance. Leaders focus on results,

not activities. Leaders learn, and help others learn, from mistakes. Leaders

encourage and challenge, they don’t over-control. Leaders reward courage, not

caution. Leaders are defined by action, not size of office.

It is easy to complain about the lack of accountability in organizations, yet few

are prepared to pay the price that is required to hold themselves and others

accountable. Are you interested, or are you committed?


If you are prepared to take the leadership challenge and are committed to

building great places to work and live, we offer four successive e-books. These

four books outline what we call The Four Pillars of Accountability™, the

four agreements that make you a great leader in today’s complex, demanding

workplace:

1 Build Trust – By Being Trustworthy

2 Create Clarity – By Being Purpose Driven

3 Engage People – By Being Engaged

4 Ensure Results – By Having The Right Tool


If you need any support on the journey, regardless of your

title, we’d love to hear from you. Please visit:

davidirvine.com

© 2013 by David Irvine. Permission to reprint and circulate is granted.

http://davidirvine.com

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