5 Ways to Transform Empty Accountability into Real Accountability

 Accountability has long had a finger-pointing overtone that often triggers a fight or flight response (Read: defensiveness). There’s a sense of being reprimanded for what hasn’t been done.

Being “held accountable” conjures dangling feet as a gangster type holds you up against a wall.

It’s also a empty catchall buzzword – almost always directed toward others. “We’d be more successful if only our team was more accountable.” 

And yet the reason accountability often gets an eye-roll, is it feels condescending and demeaning. When most of us agree to do things, when we take on commitments, it’s with the best of intentions. We think we can. We want to. We hope to. We strive to. We desire to complete said task by the time we said we would. We’re not liars, deceivers, connivers, agreeing to take something on with no intention of following through.

So how did we get here? Where we desperately want accountability in our organizations and yet, it feels elusive. 

5 Ways to Transform Accountability

1) Change the definition:

Accountability, said another way, is the ABILITY to COUNT. When we choose to be responsible – ABLE to RESPOND, then we have a chance to make a meaningful difference through our work.

• A chance to create progress
• A chance to help, to support, to create, to demonstrate, to alleviate, to revitalize, to expand, to open, to simplify…
• A chance to forward the meaningfulness of what we’re up to in the world as a workplace community

Real accountability is not about imposing punishments on people when they mess up. It's about getting in the habit of giving an account of performance on an ongoing basis. For the individual, it's the ability and willingness to follow through on your own promises and commitments.

2) Change the manager approach and employee experience:

Accountability is often a top down experience. As the parent scolds the child for not doing chores, the manager questions the employee for not doing tasks.

As a manager, accountability is your responsibility to actively notice your people. To witness them – to praise their successes when they are able to respond and when their work makes a meaningful contribution. As well as support, guide and direct them in their challenges when they are struggling or not bringing their “A” game.

3) Change ownership and add peer witnessing:

Implement “Cadence of Accountability,” a rhythmic meeting process that comes from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Once a week small work teams come together for a 10-15 minute standing meeting in which each individual self-defines and declares the 1-3 tasks they are committing to accomplishing that week to strategically move forward the current team goal. And they report on their follow through (or lack thereof) on the task(s) they declared the week before. This simple process is great on several levels – my favorite of which is empowering peer pressure and support.

4) Change the context from morality to workability:

Accountability isn’t about being wrong or right, or about someone being good or bad. It’s simply about follow through on getting the work that needs to be done, done. When there’s a lack of alignment between commitments and completion, refer to the “Whole Integrity Checklist.” 

5) Think of accountability as a dial with five steps (Or notches):

You start at the low end and then turn up the dial if necessary.

It’s the first three steps — what are called the mention, the invitation, and the conversation — that most managers skip over, leading to employee disengagement and cultural stagnation. The last two steps, what are called the boundary and the limit, cover the ground of PIPs and termination, albeit in a far more humanistic and supportive frame. 

Fortunately, most managers have to use these more extreme steps only rarely; unfortunately, too many managers jump right to them, bypassing the first three steps and leaving employees blindsided by tough feedback that too frequently falls on deaf ears.

The first three steps cover the essential skills of naming, framing, and unpacking performance issues in a way that quickly moves from surface-level events to meaningful and actionable personal growth themes:

The mention. The first step is naming small but problematic behaviors in an informal way in real time. By pulling an employee aside to put words to what you’re noticing, instead of waiting for a crisis, you start to build a relationship of mutual respect. You show that you genuinely care about their growth by acknowledging that they’re overwhelmed instead of pretending you don’t see and by helping them find their contribution to a conflict instead of letting it fester.

The invitation. We’re great at seeing patterns in other people’s behavior; it’s harder to see those patterns in ourselves. The invitation is taking the time to help your employee connect the dots. For example, let’s say you saw typos in a team member’s customer email on Monday, they seemed disengaged in a team meeting on Wednesday, and then there was a miscommunication with a teammate on Thursday. Ask them what those events might have in common, or point to a deeper theme.

The conversation. This is the place to go deeper, by asking questions that guide people to the “aha!” moment, when they discover for themselves how changing this pattern at work would have positive impacts at home. It might sound something like this: “We’ve been talking about you taking on too many projects and the impact that’s having on the quality of the most important ones. I’m not asking for you to share what you come up with here, but one question that helps me is, ‘Where does this pattern show up in my personal life, and what would be the benefit if I stopped?’”

The key to building the bridge between work performance and personal growth is to focus on impacts. How are people showing up in a way that is making life harder, more complicated, or more frustrating for the people around them? It’s your job to guide them to make those connections. It’s their job to do the work from there.

In short, be observant and address problems that you see. Follow up with your employee to let them know it’s important. Then walk it down with them — to the place where the line between personal and professional growth disappears. Not because you’ve gone over that line, but because you’re treating them as a whole person.

At work as in life, we all need the people who care about us to reflect us back to ourselves, to be centered enough in themselves to let us work through our initial defensiveness and excuses so that we can let them go and get back to the work of becoming a better version of ourselves. Accountability can help do that.

In case you missed it, check out our related article: 

How to Get Clarity, Accountability and Results in Five Minutes

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Leadership Micro Behaviors: Practice. Master. Automate.

 

 

 

 

 

We all have habits and behaviors we want to modify. 

Or eliminate from our day to day communication with others.

Here’s the thing: Don’t try to change too many things at once.

Too often I see leaders who’ve been given feedback by a boss about multiple things they need to improve in their communication cadence.

And then they try to make all the changes at once.

Which hardly ever works.

Change happens best in small increments.

Here’s a simple process you can follow for integrating new behaviors into your leadership approach.

It’s based on a change management theory developed by researchers at MIT who found that the most successful changes in a process are made, and mastered, one at a time.

Here you go. Your process to integrate behavior changes when influencing others:

1. Choose just one new leadership micro behavior (tactic, technique, method) that you want to integrate into your influencing process.

2. Visualize how you’d use this changed behavior with your team members and others. Visualize what their responses will be to it. Play out various scenarios in your mind to try to understand its impact.

3. Relentlessly practice the behavior before using it with a direct report. Role play it with your  peers and with your managers. Practice it with a coach who will give you feedback

4. Try out the new behavior with one employee. Test variations if you don’t get the result you wanted.

5. Use the new behavior with additional people until its use and execution becomes automatic. Which means you have mastered it.

6. Choose one more new leadership micro behavior to try and start the cycle over again. Rinse and repeat.

In short, integrate one new behavior change into your communication process at a time. Visualize it. Practice it. Master it. Make it automatic.

Then, and only then, should you add another new behavior change.

Check out two related posts: 

Keystone Habits: The Hyperlink to Elevating Your Leadership Impact.   ( 5 min read) 

Three Key Habits to Elevate Your Coaching Impact

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

 

Selling Behaviors. Practice. Master. Automate.

 

 

 

 

 

We all have habits and behaviors we want to modify. 

Or eliminate from our day to day selling.

Here’s the thing: Don’t try to change too many things at once.

Too often I see salespeople who’ve been given feedback by a manger about multiple things they need to improve in their selling. And then they try to make all the changes at once.

Which hardly ever works.

Change happens best in small increments.

Here’s a simple process you can follow for integrating new behaviors into your selling process.

It’s based on a change management theory developed by researchers at MIT who found that the most successful changes in a process are made, and mastered, one at a time.

Here you go. Your process to integrate behavior changes in your selling:

1. Choose just one new sales behavior (tactic, technique, method) that you want to integrate into your selling process.

2. Visualize how you’d use this changed behavior with your customers. Visualize what their responses will be to it. Play out various scenarios in your mind to try to understand its impact.

3. Relentlessly practice the behavior before using it with a customer. Role play it with your sales peers and with your manager.

4. Try out the new behavior with one customer. Test variations if you don’t get the result you wanted.

5. Use the new behavior with additional customers until its use and execution becomes automatic. Which means you have mastered it.

6. Choose one more new sales behavior to try and start the cycle over again. Rinse and repeat.

In short, integrate one new behavior change into your selling process at a time. Visualize it. Practice it. Master it. Make it automatic.

Then, and only then, should you add another new behavior change.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership and Sales Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

 

Handling an Employee Who Disagrees with Their Performance Review

 

Dear SMART Leader's Digest~

I held a performance review with one of my employees. The way we do it on my team is that we ask the employee to assess their performance before the review meeting. Next, we provide our review: the ratings and summaries to support them. It's not unusual for this particular employee to offer a higher evaluation than myself, but this time she rated herself much higher.

And here's the tricky part. At the end of the performance review I like to create improvement goals. I did, but she disagreed with all of them because she thinks she walks on water and I think she's under water. Now she's got goals I know she doesn't believe she needs to work on for the next review period.

What next?

Dear What Next,

Sounds like an awkward moment. One I've been in myself. It should be no surprise to those of us in leadership positions that we often have to confront people's illusions about themselves. The fact that human beings have an incredibly inflated sense of efficacy is also no surprise. I attended a friends' son's soccer game one day and smiled when I heard parents from both sides swearing vehemently that the ref was obviously playing for the other team. We all think we do better, deserve more, and are perfectly informed far more often than is the case. (Note: The ref did, in fact, favor the opposing team).

The tricky thing in performance reviews is that even leaders might have an inflated sense of rightness (Unless you have accurate and complete documentation). And these leaders are reviewing someone who likely suffers from the same affliction. So how can two imperfect human beings muddle their way toward truth?

The answer is to trust the conversation and the facts. A better approximation of truth is much more likely to emerge through healthy dialogue that has an ample supply of concrete examples. So here are a few tips to help make the conversation productive in the emotionally charged atmosphere of a performance evaluation.

1. Decide how to decide. To avoid violated expectations and resentment, be clear up front that while your strong preference is to arrive at consensus about the rating and goals, at the end of the discussion you as the supervisor are charged with making the final decision. Do not overstate this—let your employee know that you are willing to spend the time and energy required to reach a common view of things and would only make an independent decision if it's clear you cannot do so in a reasonable amount of time.

2. Don't own the burden of proof—share it. Don't get cornered into feeling like you have to convince your employee that you are "right." That's not your job. Your job is simply to share your view. If you find yourself trying to convince the employee that your view is "right," then you've stepped out of dialogue and into monologue. You need to step away from your own conclusions and recognize that they are just one view of the truth. Take a few deep breaths and open yourself to a different perspective. Share the responsibility for arriving at the "right" conclusion. Let her know that you'd like her help in making sense of a substantial amount of data supporting your view and your rating.

3. Separate content and pattern. Often, the disconnect comes because the supervisor has seen a pattern and is attempting to help the employee recognize and take responsibility for this pattern. Yet the employee doesn't own up to these behaviors. Instead, he or she explains away one data point after another.

For example, you say, "On a number of occasions, customers have complained that you were brusque or impatient with them." There's the pattern you're trying to establish.

To which your employee says, "Can you give me an example?"

Now, here's where it gets slippery. At this point, you must give her examples. You can't expect her to just nod robotically to the pattern you're alleging she has demonstrated. So you give an example: "Last Friday a customer told me that after she complained to you about some moldy strawberries that you barely acknowledged him and walked away without saying a word." To which she says, "I remember that—and that's not what happened. Yes, I didn't say anything, but I smiled and waved and turned to get a phone call that had been on hold."

This is a tricky point in the conversation because something subtle just happened. If you don't catch it, you'll end this performance review feeling unsatisfied and at odds. You'll avoid this outcome if you can recognize what your employee just did. What was it?

She changed the subject from a pattern conversation to a content conversation. You're now discussing what happened last Friday rather than what happens as a pattern. (See  The Accountability Dial.)

Here's what you have to do to move back to the right conversation: "I see—and I can see how you might have thought you handled things right in that instance. But what I need your help with is the pattern that has emerged. I can share three different examples with you—and there may be an extenuating circumstance in each—and yet the pattern is more consistent with you than with other members of the team. That's what I'd like us to discuss and resolve."

Do you see what just happened? First, we tried to share responsibility for addressing our mutual understanding of the issue. Second, we moved the conversation from content back to pattern. And finally, we set expectations that if she continues to give explanations for every element of the pattern, she'll still need to address why the pattern is different for her than for other employees.

Now, even if you do all of these things, you still may agree to disagree. In which case, you'll have to lean back on suggestion number one. You could end with something like: "Well, it seems like we see things differently. I appreciate your patience and hope you can see that I have sincerely wanted to understand your view, as well. Yet I still have to make my best judgment about what's going on and how to move ahead. I ask that you respect the position I'm in and make efforts to respond. I still believe this pattern of brusqueness with customers is an issue you should address. To do so, I ask you to do the following. . . and what ideas do you have?"

Your question demonstrates how seriously you take your coaching role. I applaud your efforts and wish you luck as you sort through your own self-illusions and work to be a positive influence on some of your similarly afflicted employees.

In the meantime, my buddy and I will keep trying to convince the ref that he's playing favorites!

Check out two related posts: 

Discovering Your Blind Spots  ( 7 min read)

Coaching from Mediocrity to Excellence ( 3 min)

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

Coaching from Mediocrity to Excellence

 

 

The art of addressing mediocre performance in a way that preserves the relationship is the subject of this Leader's Digest  Q & A.

Dear Leader’s Digest:

I am struggling with some employees who are just not cutting it. Their performance is mediocre at best, but there is not enough cause to terminate them. Other employees have complained about them. Customers have not complained about them but they never receive compliments either.

I feel as though I am stuck with these people who are not up to par. How can I better handle employees who just skate by doing the minimum?

Dear Managing Mediocrity:

I hope you're sitting down because our answer is going to suggest more work than you might have hoped. But I can assure you that if you really want to raise performance for not only these low performers, but for the entire department, this is an approach that may help.

First, let’s agree on the real problem. The issue you're facing is not low performers. The issue is low expectations. If these two employees are truly low performers and yet “there is not enough cause to terminate them,” then you are operating in a culture with mediocre norms. And if that’s true, then the work you have to do is not first and foremost with the low performers, it is with chronically bad group norms. If your team was crystal clear on high performance expectations, mediocrity would be painfully apparent and you wouldn't have to make a tough call when it came time to coach, counsel or redeploy.

So, how do you reset norms? How can you set a high performance standard that makes dealing with mediocrity much clearer?

1. Confirm the Company’s HR Standard. You, your peers, your supervisors, and HR need to have a uniform and explicit understanding about the kind of performance you expect from employees, their position and the duties they are performing in your department.

2. Go Public. Once you have sufficient support from the people identified in step 1 for the hard decisions involved with a higher performance standard, you'll have to go public. Let people know the bar is being raised. Let them know of any implications for jobs, for development, and any other consequences people will need to understand so there are no surprises. Acknowledge that the norms-expectations were different in the past, without sounding self-righteous and judgmental of past leadership. Frankly state how things will be going forward and why this is right for the department and good for those involved. Sell the vision as a way of instilling pride and ambition. Let people know that there will be ample and just opportunities to upgrade their contribution, as well as how you'll support that with candor, coaching, and development.

3. Coach, Coach, Coach—Redeploy. Now live the standard. If someone performs below the standard,coach them—have the “content” conversation to let them know the gap between what they did and what you expected. Three factors set those who are adept at talking about mediocre behavior apart from the rest of the pack: research, homework, and connection. First, you need to gather data. Have a talk with the marginal employees about what they like and don't like about their current work situation. What are their frustrations, aspirations, and concerns? Approach your “research” conversation with a genuine desire to discover underlying barriers and then see if you can find ways to resolve them.

Next, scrupulously gather facts—from memory and observation—that will allow you to describe in illuminating detail the difference between mediocrity and excellence. This is crucial. Many managers are so vague about the difference that they end up using the feel-good, mean-nothing terms that typically pepper pregame speeches, such as “We need you give 110 percent.” This advice may make sense to those giving it but it only confuses and insults the people who are supposed to change. Ask yourself, what actual behaviors can I describe to make this distinction clear?

Finally, connect your homework with your research. Explain how your recommendations will not only bridge the performance gap but help them achieve their aspirations. When you make this link your influence will increase enormously. Also, this would be a great time to use goal setting to engage the employee in identifying and resolving the performance shortfall.

If it continues, coach again—but this time have a “pattern” conversation—let them know this is now a chronic concern, not an isolated concern. If needed, this escalation is documented and any necessary support in the form of training, mentoring, work process change, etc., is offered. If it happens again, it’s time for a “two roads" conversation. At this point the person must know that redeployment is an option. This must be put in writing to allow no wiggle room in understanding.

In conclusion, the greatest challenge you'll face in coaching is not the individual's performance, but your own clarity. Far too few managers know how to articulate the difference between mediocre performance and good performance. And if you can't describe it you can't expect it. You must do the hard work of detailing the behaviors and results you expect to see and contrasting those with typical mediocre performance. Every minute you spend more expertly articulating expectations will save you an hour in debate and resentment later.

 

Check out two related posts:   

 

The Powerful Question that Leaders and their People Need to Answer (5 min read)

 

Five Ways to Transform Empty Accountability Into Real Accountability   ( 7 min)

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities management providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth--even in disruptive times.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

 

 

 

Are You Practicing Self-Enablement?

You can’t win them all.

Hot streaks don’t last forever. Nor do your dry spells.

If you’ve been in sales for any period of time, you’ll hit a rough patch. It won’t last forever either. It’s about having the courage to keep going.

Sales is unforgiving. It doesn’t matter how well you do this month. Or this year. The meter is reset to zero next month. Or next year. And, you have to do it all over again.

Here’s the hard part. The definition of success almost always changes going forward.

To maintain your current level of performance, let alone meet raised expectations, you will have to become smarter, better, faster than you are now.

No matter how hard you try to avoid it, you will encounter failure in sales. It’s what you do in the face of that failure that matters.

Do you learn from your failures? More importantly, do you learn from your successes?

Have you become complacent with success? Do you play it safe? Satisfied with what you have? Or, do you take the risk to shake things up?

To me, this is where courage enters the equation.

When you’ve experienced success, what are you prepared to risk to ensure that you continue to win?

One of my favorite quotes is “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” That’s from Italian playwright Guiseppe Lampedusa.

Think about that for a minute. It doesn’t matter how good you are today, the world around you is rapidly changing. You have the mandate to change with it. Or be left behind.

For you to maintain the level of sales achievement you enjoy today, you have to enable yourself to be even better tomorrow.

Let’s say you achieved 100% of quota last year. Well, that 100% may be only 90% of quota this year. That’s nearly a 12% increase.

So, if you want to achieve 100% of quota next year, what changes are you going to make, to enable yourself to become 12% more productive?

This improvement won't occur by accident. And, it won't happen just by resolving to roll up your sleeves and work harder. You have to make a conscious effort to take deliberate steps to enable yourself to become more proficient each successive year.

Instead of sales enablement, think about this in terms of self-enablement.

In addition to what you’ve learned through your experience, and from whatever training you receive, how are you enabling your future performance? How much of your time and effort are you prepared to invest even more of your time, effort and money (or is it blood, sweat and tears?) in your personal development.

Final thought. I want to leave you with one more quote. This time from legendary business thinker, Jim Rohn. He said “Income seldom exceeds personal development.”

For you, as a sales pro, I’d modify that to say that income seldom exceeds self-enablement.

That’s never been more important than it is today.

Good selling,

Peter Mclees, Sales Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.