Achieve with Accountability

Ignite Engagement, Ownership, Perseverance, Alignment, and Change

Mike Evans

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781119314097
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

ACCOUNTABILITY IS THE CATALYST THAT IGNITES: Accelerated Change, Robust Employee Engagement, Intensified Ownership, Relentless Perseverance, Impeccable Alignment, and propels individuals, teams and organizations to desired results.

Accountability crumbles silos, boosts teamwork and collaboration, strengthens camaraderie, creativity, resiliency, agility, trust, and communication

Achieve with Accountability presents a recipe for awakening the whatever it takes attitude to achieve what matters most to individuals, teams and organizations. Discover how to transform accountability into a positive, engaging and forward looking experience that will secure your position in the new world of work. Learn how to kick-start a revolution that will blast your team or organization to new heights of success. We are in a brawl with no rules, where the fast, flexible and agile will eat and spit out the slow, over-thinking and complacent.When you relinquish accountability you place your future in the hands of other people or events. It's only by taking accountability and ownership for our circumstances that we can achieve what matters most. Embrace the accountability fundamentals that have helped individuals, teams and organizations for years to achieve and exceed what matters most.

With the world coming at us fast and furious every day, it's easy to feel like you've lost control of your own life, your team or your organization. By choosing to take and lead accountability you reclaim control and are able to direct your own destiny.

• Develop the agility, flexibility and resiliency to adapt and thrive during constant change
• Foster a can-do, resolute, solutions focus in the face of difficult challenges, obstacles and barriers
• Eradicate the blame-game and vanquish excuse-making that stifles peak performance
• Shed feelings of disarray, discomfort, apathy, entitlement, indifference and despair
• Take control over your circumstances and achieve what matters most
• Unleash voluntary contributions of discretionary performance that is often left untapped in individuals, teams and organizations
• Establish unshakable trust and credibility

Accountability is a current that feeds into the slipstream of success. Your performance, your decisions, and your results are all your responsibility; when you operate from that premise, magic happens. Achieve with Accountability shows you how to nourish that can-do mindset, so you can begin to achieve what matters most.

Chapter 1
Taking Accountability

Positively the Best Decision

Frustration and exasperation were escalating among Janet's team. Their attempts to heighten accountability to boost organization performance and achieve better results had negligible impact. In fact, there was a noticeable decline in morale, enthusiasm, and engagement, with a touch of resentment and irritation to boot.

Fierce competition, shrinking margins, pressure to innovate, new government regulations, and a downturn in the economy had Squire Medical on its heels. Squire Medical was losing ground to the competition at an alarming rate.

Clayton offered, “It seems our plan to instill a stronger focus on personal accountability has had little to no affect on achieving more accountability. If anything, we have created stress, anxiety, acrimony, bitterness, and tension among the workforce.”

The board of directors viewed Janet as an up‐and‐coming leadership superstar. They had seen her perform miracles in other roles over the previous two years and had confidence in her abilities to resurrect what was once an industry leader. Complacency, with a hint of arrogance, had thrust Squire Medical into a downward spiral. The competition was intense and the stakes were high. Employee morale and engagement were at an all‐time low. Top talent was leaving in droves and those remaining had little hope of things getting better. There was a very real possibility that the plug may be pulled and assets sold off.

“I agree with Clayton. I have observed the same reactions,” Janet said. “We must create a culture that is engaged, focused, resilient, innovative, and agile.

“I believe I may have a solution to jump‐start that journey. I had an epiphany last night while attending a Miracles for Kids meeting. Within our volunteer group it is commonplace that every member is passionate, engaged, committed, and energetic when asked to get involved with a project. Members leap at the opportunity to participate, take ownership, and accountability. Everyone involved voluntarily chooses to take personal accountability to achieve what matters most. There is an indestructible level of personal ownership among all involved, and nothing will deter the members from accomplishing the desired outcomes.

“Obstacles, challenges, and barriers are viewed as trivial and as minor bumps in the road on our way to attaining our goals. Excuse‐making, finger‐pointing, blame, and inaction simply do not exist. The group's desire, focus, determination, and can‐do mindset are unrivaled. With all of the external challenges we are faced with at this time, that same passion, zeal, and energy are paramount to our future success here.”

Not quite sure what Janet meant, Clayton asked for clarification.

“What I discovered,” Janet shared, “is that too often accountability is something that is addressed after the fact. Most often after a mistake is made, when somebody drops the ball or when someone screws up. So naturally in those circumstances, accountability is viewed as punitive, historic, focused on blame, and unpleasant. Far too many people hold a negative connotation or perception of accountability because of their past experiences.

“Think about it, when do you typically hear the question being asked, ‘Who is accountable?’”

Andrew, dripping with indignation, chimed in, “Usually after somebody makes a mistake.”

“Exactly! So, what are people really hearing when that question is asked?”

“Who messed up and who is to blame!” Andrew stated with a tone of disdain.

“And when they are really hearing ‘who is to blame,’ what do people tend to come up with?”

“A litany of excuses, stories, and reasons,” Andrew declared. “People spend more time explaining why something is not their fault than they do on finding a solution.”

“And time spent playing the blame‐game is not helping anyone,” added Janet. “And as we hear more excuses being offered, as leaders we often are mistakenly compelled to ask the question ‘who is accountable’ even more. Not realizing that we are reinforcing the prevailing perception many hold of accountability being a negative experience. The more we ask the question after the fact, the more we fortify that belief. It can become a hairy monster that cannot be stopped.

“I cringe when I hear someone say the words, ‘We need to make them accountable.’ It even sounds like a punishment. We need to flip this and create positive experiences with accountability.

“How much more effective would we be as an organization if every employee voluntarily chose to take accountability rather than being pressured to be accountable? We need to engage employees on the front end—before the results are in. Think about it, when accountability is positioned up front, people have the opportunity to get excited about the ability to help while there is still time to influence the outcome.

“Our folks want to succeed in the workplace. They want to make a difference, find meaning in their work, and contribute. For the most part, people are not stupid, lazy, or defiant. People crave to find significance in their work and to feel they are part of a team doing something worthwhile. We have plenty of talented, smart people here at Squire. We need to engage and energize them to take accountability on the front end as we define and declare our desired results. Asking ‘Who is accountable?’ once the result is in does not change the result. Leadership is about getting our folks to voluntarily choose to take accountability while they can still help shape the outcome.

“With this approach we will begin to create positive, engaging, and forward‐looking experiences around accountability, which I believe will result in employees exhibiting accountable behaviors.”

Janet challenged her team to create positive experiences around accountability by engaging employees on the front end. Instead of the after‐the‐fact experience of “Who is accountable for failing to achieve the result?” the question became “Who is accountable to achieve the desired results?” The second format captivates people because they have the ability to choose the appropriate actions that will positively influence and move the team closer toward the desired result. Positioning accountability before the results are in promotes a heightened sense of control, which in turn leads to increased productivity and when people feel they have control and are productive it bolsters self‐esteem, morale, and engagement.

This new focus on enlisting employees and creating ownership, energy, and passion preceding a clearly defined “must‐achieve desired result” had an immediate and noticeable impact. Janet's team observed a distinct shift in employee enthusiasm and willingness to voluntarily take personal accountability to achieve desired results. Accountability began to be viewed as something that was positive, forward‐looking, and energizing.

Engaging, aligning, and enlisting employees up front requires leadership traits that reside inside all of us. Exemplary leaders foster high levels of personal accountability in a variety of ways on which we will elaborate throughout this book.

The cornerstone, and most essential element, to cultivating soaring levels of personal and organizational accountability is communicating top priority desired outcomes so that they are unquestionably clear in the minds of every employee. As we will reveal in later chapters, explicit and precise clarity on desired results or expectations is not as common as many believe, and the implications are severe.

A very close second element is connecting to both the head and the heart of those involved. Individuals must not only understand the logic behind the desired result, they must also recognize how it will benefit them. How will it make their job better or easier? How will it help their team? The organization? Their career? Their family? How will it make their life better or develop them? What is it that will light the fire within and get them to voluntarily choose to engage? What is in it for them? Deprived of compelling answers to these questions, many employees select compliance instead of commitment. To thrive and excel in the new world of work demands leadership create waves of enthusiasm and commitment. Obedience and compliance are ingredients commonly found in failure.

Janet discovered that when leadership changes the way accountability is experienced that employees welcome and embrace the opportunity to contribute fully. She understood that nobody relishes being told, “I am holding you accountable,” “I am going to make you accountable,” “You need to be accountable,” or being asked “Who is accountable for this?”

The leadership team at Squire Medical attributed the shift in perception around accountability as a key component of revitalizing their culture. As they described it, they transitioned from a “have‐to” to a “want‐to” culture. What the team had described as a complacent, slow‐moving, apathetic culture had transformed into one dubbed as agile, focused, innovative, and opportunistic. This change ultimately allowed Squire Medical not only to strengthen their competitive position in the market, but also to once again become the recognized leader.

Take Accountability or Blame? The Stakes Are High

Lack of accountability can lead to dire consequences. Consider the following scenario that played out in the Pacific Northwest back in 1993.

In what many described as the most infamous food‐poisoning outbreak in history at the time, 732 people became seriously ill. Four children died and 178 others were left with severe injuries, including kidney and brain damage. Panic set in throughout the Pacific Northwest. Investigators quickly discovered that people had become stricken with the E. coli virus after consuming food from Jack in the Box.

As the story was reported, Jack in the Box chose to ignore Washington state laws stating to cook hamburgers to a temperature of 155 degrees to completely kill E. coli, and instead adhered to a standard of 140 degrees.

The company's almost unforgivable response was, “No comment.” That soon led to Jack in the Box blaming their meat supplier, Vons Companies, Inc. Vons, evidently, was in no mood to take that sitting down and in a variety of ways pointed the finger...