Without leadership accountability, or an understanding of how to hold others accountable, implementing good ideas and best practices can stop cold.
Senior talent leaders understand this challenge if, around their organization, they hear declarations such as, "We're great at innovating and planning, but our follow-through stinks!"
Ask Andy Manzer.
Today, Manzer is thriving as vice president of operations at OhioHealth's Riverside Methodist Hospital. However, in Manzer's prior leadership role at another organization, he watched even the best plans and practices fail to be implemented.
There, leadership was frustrated with the lack of organizational accountability. In executive team meetings, the group focused on putting out fires. High-level strategy was rarely discussed. When business and financial goals weren't met, finger-pointing ensued.
All eyes were on the CEO to do something. He didn't hold others accountable. The accountability belonged to him, period.
Working with the organization's talent leaders, the CEO made concerted efforts, from executive retreats to personality testing, to get leadership to come together and lead. But nothing seemed to change.
Then, the lights turned on - at least for Manzer. Through his personal work with talent leaders and an executive coach, he was able to see that he did not hold himself or his colleagues accountable.
"It wasn't that I didn't know how to hold myself accountable," Manzer said. "I had to confront why I wouldn't."
Manzer said he came to realize that he confused accountability with authority. He wasn't in control, the CEO was, which meant he wasn't accountable. In other words, Manzer viewed accountability as a zero-sum game; if one person was accountable for a situation or result, then everyone else wasn't. He also admitted that personal accountability - answering for the outcomes of his own choices, actions and behaviors - required courage.
Manzer took several steps to shift his understanding. He stopped employing an "accountability as a hammer" approach and started engaging himself and his colleagues in owning the results of their leadership - good or bad.
Manzer said he also ceased pointing fingers and assigning blame. Instead, when troubles arose, he looked to himself first. Consistently, he asked four specific questions: What is the problem? What am I doing - or not doing - to contribute to the problem? What will I do differently to help solve the problem? How will I be accountable for the result? Further, in leadership meetings, he stopped making excuses and took the fall when his choices caused difficulties.
The changes didn't stop with Manzer. The CEO, along with Manzer's peers and direct reports, caught on quickly. As a result, everyone worked smarter, faster and better, and the bottom line revealed a newfound success.
- Five habits that can make you rich
- The Four Deadly Sins of Time Management
- Kekich's Credos
- Twenty five Ways to Improve your IMAGE
Talent leaders can achieve results similar to Manzer's by taking the following steps.
1. Acknowledge that one can't mandate accountability, only demonstrate it.
2. Determine what a lack of accountability is costing the organization.
3. Address barriers to accountability within leadership such as in-fighting and power struggles, and set expectations.
4. Get educated on accountability and develop a common understanding, vocabulary and set of tools and techniques.
5. Make clear agreements for accountability and discuss consequences upfront.
6. Commit to "calling out" a lack of accountability.
7. Communicate a top-down accountability message to the organization - and live it.
"It's in my bones now," Manzer said of his commitment to accountability. These days at Riverside Memorial, he said he sees tangible business results, including delivering more than $14 million over expectations to the bottom line.
"I work to demonstrate accountability every day to myself, the leadership team and our organization's talent."
[About the Author: Linda Galindo is a consultant and the author of The 85% Solution: How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success - No Nonsense, No Excuses.]
No comments:
Post a Comment