Accountability becomes mission-critical in challenging times. We need everyone in our organization to take ownership of results and make things happen. Creating an environment of accountability rests with management. Based on our 22 years of experience in organizational development and leadership training, we have discovered that managers systematically remove accountability. As a result the manager themselves ends up shouldering all the responsibility and stress.

A lack of accountability in your organization causes the following problems:

• reduced profitability
• poor customer service
• silos and lack of cooperation between departments
• projects that fail to create intended results
• lack of personal growth for employees
• added stress and frustration for the manager

Cascading accountability

The manager is always accountable. The key leadership skill is to transfer portions of this accountability to individuals in the workgroup. If accountability is not transferred, then employees will potentially put the manager in jeopardy by not keeping their commitments. The manager then has to continually chase people to get things done, or take care of it themselves. Either way, the productivity and value created by the department will be below potential.

We crave accountability and we are afraid of it at the same time

Employees crave accountability because it creates a sense of accomplishment. They can take pride in owning the success that comes with the achievement. At the same time, employees are afraid that the punishment for not meeting objectives will be more severe than the possible praise that comes with a job well done. Managers can counteract this by shifting emphasis from catching mistakes to celebrating achievement. Once employees let go of the fear, they can step forward and create better results.

Micromanaging does not create accountability

Accountability comes when the manager makes it clear what the expected outcomes are and the boundaries and then lets the employees take ownership over how they achieve the outcomes. A manager may think that assigning job tasks is enough to create accountability. If the manager assigns a task and dictates how it must be done, then the accountability remains with the manager. If instead the manager describes the desired outcome and then gives employees the freedom to achieve the outcome using their own talents, the employee can be held accountable for results.

Accountability requires measurement, follow-up and consequences

Scorekeeping is a powerful way to have employees show one another and their manager whether they are achieving objectives. The scoreboard must be simple enough and visual enough that everyone can tell at a glance whether they are winning or losing. Public scorekeeping also taps into peer pressure. Most people do not want to let others down. Having peers able to see the performance of others gives each person the motivation to succeed and be part of the team.

Steps to Creating Greater Accountability

1. Be clear about the end results – customer satisfaction, elimination of wasted effort, safety, housekeeping and expense control.
2. Ask each employee on your team what they can do to help improve and positively impact the end results.
3. Avoid diluting the accountability – do not take back ownership of the task when the employee finds it difficult. Let them grow through the experience.
4. Track progress and allow the team to take credit for achieving the results.
5. Identify, correct and potentially weed out the team members who are not capable or motivated to achieve results.

Do you or the leaders in your organization need help creating a positive, accountable work climate? Check out the solutions at www.UniqueDevelopment.com

High achievers are prone to enter a time in their career where they plateau or stall. Perhaps promotions are not coming as fast and furious as they once did or in some cases, they have achieved every goal they have set and have run out of challenges. Achievers will ask themselves, “Is this all there is?” After striving for success, when success levels out, the feeling of advancement is replaced by a feeling of stagnation. This condition could be called Achievers Depression or Career Stall.

The symptoms of this condition can include:

• Bitterness or negativity that replaces a generally positive view of work.
• Overly critical of peers, employees and even the boss – disappointment in self can lead to disappointment in others.
• Moodiness – Either disengagement and withdrawal or aggression or a combination of both.
• Feeling of being trapped – promotions often take longer and external opportunities may be harder to come by.

This perceived lack of control can cause a corresponding reaction of defensiveness, either aggressive or passive.

Prescription for Performance

1. Re-establish Goals – An achiever needs goals to achieve and so I recommend setting new goals that will motivate the drive to succeed.
2. Focus on building up others – After achieving personal success, I recommend that the individual help others succeed. Growing others is different kind of achievement and is personally rewarding.
3. Decide What You Truly Want -If your true desires cannot be satisfied from your current situation then determine what would make you happy and make the change.
4. Appreciate the Opportunity – A career stall presents an opportunity to reflect and regroup. Instead of seeking a quick and easy answer, spend time contemplating the next step. Making a rash decision can lead to further diappointment.

If you are feeling stalled, consider a coaching session or two in order to set a new course for yourself.

In a previous post we examined a manager who was too easy on his team. In many cases an assignment will come in to work with a manager who has the opposite challenge – he or she is too tough on employees.

Often these hard-nosed managers tend to work long hours, do the work his team was supposed to do, be overly critical of others and not keep everyone informed.

As part of the coaching process, here are the typical elements of the prescription for performance for a tough manager:

1. Clarify in his/her own mind what the long term vision is for the team/organization. A tough manager believes that either she has already made it clear what the goals are or that people should know the goals because they are obvious. Unfortunately employees do not know the priorities because in their mind, the priorities are constantly shifting at the apparent whim of the manager.
2. Use a daily and/or weekly team meeting so that all members of the team can be aware of the priorities without the manager having to act as a clearing house for information. Many tough managers are like the hub in the center of a bicycle wheel. Everyone has to come to him or her with problems or to get a decision. Of course the manager doesn’t understand why employees don’t just do the right thing on their own and the vicious cycle continues.
3. Stop providing answers to every question and solving every problem. If we assume that most of the team members are qualified and experienced the manager should let the individuals on the team retain ownership of the issues and not take over the situation.
4. Stop doing the work of the team. In order to build greater accountability, the tough manager needs to let her team enjoy the consequences, good or bad, related to their area of responsibility.

The team will also have to adjust to the change in leadership style. While the change will be positive, there may be some frustration during the transition from manager-centred to team-centred leadership. Click here to review our coaching process.

The Plant Manager was becoming increasingly frustrated. His production manager was struggling to meet plant performance targets and was not getting his team to take ownership of achieving results. The initial diagnosis was that the production manager was being too easy on his team.

As with most management problems, only two or three behaviours cause the majority of aggravation and frustration.

Using feedback from a Leadership Style Inventory, we determined that the production manager was passive-defensive. He did not have a clear idea in his mind on what he wanted to achieve each day in the plant. He wanted people to like him and tended to either have no goals, or set the goals too low. He was overly rigid with policies and procedures and tended to jump in and do the work himself instead of delegating tasks to others.

As part of the coaching process, I offered this prescription for performance:

1. Clarify what you want to see happen. I suggested that he list his frustrations (the things that happened that he did not want) and the corresponding list of things he did want to see instead. It is like driving a car. When you look over the hood, the road is always bumpy and jerky and when you look to the horizon you will tend to move more smoothly in that direction.
2. Be specific in communicating expectations and directions and give a reason. I suggested that when he gives direction on the shop floor he should use the word because and give a reason. The reason can be part of his vision. People tend to do what you want when you give them a reason.
3. Ask for a commitment. When we teach communication skills, we encourage managers to ask for a commitment when they make a request. Asking, “Can I count on you to take care of this?” gets the individual to enter a verbal contract and makes it more likely they will do what you want.
4. Take action. Passive leaders tend to enter a state of paralysis, fearing to make the wrong decision in case it offends an individual on the team. My prescription was that the production manager should take action when he noticed himself slipping into a passive mode.

Do you have a manager who is not able to achieve the same level of results with their team as they did as an individual contributor? Perhaps a coaching session or two might be just the trick to get them back on track. Click here for the approach.

Have you experienced the situation where you think you have been clear in communicating what you want and need, only to be disappointed and frustrated when others do not buy in enthusiastically? Even the most thought-out, logical arguments might create unexpected resistance. 

That’s exactly why Dr. Peter DeShane and I collaborated to create a brand new 8 CD and one DVD self-study program called Persuasive and Influential Leadership. Based on the successful live workshop, this self-paced program covers the advanced communication skills you need to get others to do what you need to get done, willingly. 

The program is based on the science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which studies the link between how you think and how you communicate.
 
Key Benefits 

• Achieve greater results in less time with less resistance.- Help others adapt to change more easily.
• Get ready for promotion because you are able to get things done through others.
• Reduce conflict by positioning your information to be acceptable to everyone.

 

What the Program Covers: 

• The influence of existing habits both for you and the people around you.
• How to build instant rapport with almost anyone, including people who you don’t naturally click with.
• The science of resistance – why people resist even when they acknowledge the need to change. How to position information so that people think of it as their idea and are more committed.
• Why logic often fails to persuade and how to position information in a way that others can accept both logically and emotionally.
• Why people are naturally programmed to resist change because it causes a disruption to habits – and how to get them to buy in more readily.
• Three main ways people process information and how to identify and adapt to their dominant processing style.
• How to adapt to people who speak much faster than you do, or who speak much slower than you do.
• The power of stories – how to craft your key messages into powerful stories that help people relate to your message on a personal level.
• Using email more effectively to build rapport electronically.
• Using specific words that are proven to create greater commitment by others to do what you want.
• How to overcome obstacles that keep people from moving ahead.
• and much more.

Edutainment 

The program is delivered in an entertaining and engaging way. You will enjoy the conversational style that Greg and Peter use. It will be as if they are sitting with you one on one. You will want to listen to the content again and again to master the skills of influence. 

What is Included 

1. Four audio CD’s covering the core course concepts.
2. A comprehensive workbook that reinforces the key course concepts.
3. An application CD on How to Deal with Difficult People
4. An application CD on how technical roles can communicate with non-technical people.
5. An application CD on Sales. How to get customer buy in more quickly and easily.
6. An application CD for Human Resource Professionals to keep the organization moving forward with positive employee relations practices.
7. A one-hour DVD that demonstrates the course material visually so you can grasp and use the program more easily.

 

Four Application CD’s 

Recognizing that different professions and situations can require different approaches we have recorded four application CD’s that take the core program concepts and focus them on these areas: 

1. Dealing With Difficult People – Once you learn why people are difficult you can alter your approach to get them to buy in more easily. Imagine taking a person who always is oppositional and turning them into your biggest supporter! Less resistance means less stress on you plus the ability to get more done.
2. Technical Professions – Information technology, engineers and other technical roles can struggle with communicating complex information to other areas of the organization. In this application CD we present a systematic approach to presenting technical solutions in a framework that others can support with enthusiasm. Greater buy-in will move projects along faster and get necessary support to new projects.
3. Sales – Sales professionals and others who deal with customers as part of their role will benefit from this application CD that specifically addresses how to get customers to buy into your proposal and how to really determine the level of interest your customer has in your solution. Get customer buy in more easily in order to grow sales.
4. HR – HR professionals often face two challenges. First they need to convince other managers to treat employees with respect and secondly they often have to mediate employee requests and concerns while reinforcing company policy. This application CD gives HR professionals the skills they need to get buy-in more quickly and help the organization achieve success.

 

A DVD shows you how: 

A one hour DVD provides a visual demonstration of the key concepts which will help you grasp the information more quickly and easily. The DVD was produced into a one-hour cable television special and has earned top reviews. 

The investment: 

The entire program is US$339.95. FREE SHIPPING  

Guarantee: We are acredited with the Better Business Bureau so you can rest easy that we will fully refund your purchase price if you are unhappy with the program for any reason within six months of purchase. Simply return it to us and your refund will be processed immediately. 

Order the Program today: 

One time payment of US$339.95 plus Goods and Services Tax 5%.

Call us toll free at 1-866-700-9043 or email info@uniquedevelopment.com 

If you missed our live seminar and webinar, now is your opportunity to purchase the recorded version of the one-hour webinar. Watch it personally or get your team together and watch as a group.

Click here to preview the program video and purchase it now.

This presentation covers the following information designed to help you boost your sales in a difficult economic environment: