Can organizations elevate their performance by creating a proactive
culture of accountability using a proven behavior-change method that
integrates people, performance, and process? Absolutely they can and so
can YOU!
True and sustainable accountability cannot be imposed on others
through regulations, protocols, or management edicts. Real
accountability comes from within each person and reflects individual
values and purpose. It’s a choice.
Creating a culture where this kind of accountability is the norm
doesn’t happen by chance. It requires intentional effort to develop the
skill of accountability in each of your employees. They need to be able
to:
- Take ownership of their responsibilities.
- Show initiative to produce key results.
- Tackle high-stakes situations by using all of their 28 relational strengths.
In the end, you’ll see what it takes to get people to want to be accountable and create sweeping changes in your culture.
What are your thoughts on accountability? How would you begin to
break through your filters to begin your accountability shift and focus?
We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
The state of worldwide workplace environments and company culture is not a healthy picture. In fact, it is downright dreadful.
The way we’re working is not working. Even if you are lucky enough to
have a job, you’re probably not very excited to get to the office in
the morning, you don’t feel much appreciated while you’re there, you
find it difficult to get your most important work accomplished, amid all
the distractions, and you don’t believe that what you’re doing make
much of a difference anyway. By the time you get home, you’re pretty
much running on empty, and yet you’re still answering emails until you
fall asleep.
Increasingly, this experience is more becoming commonplace. It's not
just with larger organizations or even middle mangers, but also to with
top executives. This is a huge issue facing many organizations today.
That problem is the lack of engagement. Just 30 percent of employees in
America feel engaged at work, according to a 2013 Gallup report. Around
the world, across 142 countries, the proportion of employees who feel
engaged at work is just 13 percent. Additional studies reveal that
two-thirds of workers do not feel that they have a strong work culture,
while 66% of all employees do not see opportunities for professional
growth. Only 21% of workers feel valued in their workplace. These are
indeed very sobering trends! Is it a wonder that Gallup found that 87%
of the global workforce disengaged?
For most of us, work is a depleting, dispiriting experience, and
it’s getting worse. Organizations are spending huge amounts of money to
support employees who are going through the motions biding their time
or who just want to quit. That equates to lost individuals, lost
opportunities, lost productivity and lost revenue. Money does not buy
engagement, people who care and commit to listening, sharing and taking action
do.
Demand for our time is increasing exceeding our capacity – draining
us of the energy we need to bring our skill and talents fully to life.
Increased competitiveness and a leaner, post-recession work force add to
the pressures. The rise of digital technology is perhaps the biggest
influence, exposing us to an unprecedented flood of information and
requests that we feel compelled to read and respond to at all hours of
the day and night. The problem also stems from managers who are
diffused and have no idea on how to engage their teams, as well as top
leadership who are consumed with quarterly returns and not the success
and livelihood of their most valued asset their people.
I understand these problems are not simple to solve. Let me offer
some thoughts on ways to begin to move forward. The organization's CEO
needs to become the Chief Engagement Officer daily, being authentic and
true to their values, setting the vision and the culture that moves the
company to an employee centric organization. Middle managers need to be
trained with new skill sets to assist this movement down into the
company. In fact, we all need to take responsibility to learn new skills
and lead.
The battle for employee engagement can also begin with these 3 steps:
A commitment to listening, followed by a commitment to sharing and then
committing to taking action. Let's look at these briefly.
- Commitment to listening ~ companies invest in annual employee
survey's to get feedback. Frankly, this is not enough. To offer more
rapid and actionable feedback survey's need to be weekly or bi-weekly.
How can that be done? Leaders taking the necessary time to ask their
employees what's affecting them and regularly having these conversations
while effectively clarifying and listening to gather information that
really makes a difference.
- Commitment to sharing ~ How often does collected employee survey data
go into a black hole? Whether the information is good or bad letting
people know that they have been heard shows that you are absorbing their
feedback. Keep sharing regularly. Repeat and refine step 1.
- Commitment to taking action ~ It is not enough to know your
employee's pain points, you need to take action. Leaders can easily
create an action plan with quick, easy wins and harder more substantive
wins. Quick wins begin to build momentum while buying time, energy and
other resources to tackle the harder issues that will really pay
dividends. Celebrate the wins by repeating steps 1 and 2. Think of it
this way: Enable, Engage, Empower, Enhance.
Finally, here might be another starting point. In First Break All The Rules,
business consultants Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman drew from
Gallup Organization interviews with more than a million employees over a
25 year period to come up with 12 questions that “measure the core
elements needed to attract, focus and keep the most talented
employees.” These questions are:
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? 2. Do I have the
materials and equipment I need to do my work right? 3. At work, do I
have the opportunity to do what I do best every day? 4. In the last 7
days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work? 5. Does
my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development? 7. At work,
do my opinions seem to count? 8. Does the mission/purpose of my company
make me feel my job is important? 9. Are my co-workers committed to
doing quality work? 10. Do I have a best friend at work? 11. In the last
6 months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress? 12. This
last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
By paying attention to questions such as these, astute managers and
leaders can look through their performers’ window and better help them
improve engagement and performance. As Buckingham and Coffman
discovered, “those employees who responded more positively to the 12
questions also worked in business units with higher levels of
productivity, profit, retention and customer satisfaction.”
What do you think of these questions? What one step can you take or
how would you begin to break through your behaviors to begin addressing
your team and individuals with intention, purpose and determined
emotion? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
In studying leadership and leaders, one of the fundamental beliefs
about leadership is that leadership is a relationship between those who
aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. Over the past 30 years,
there has been plenty of research that consistently shows that the
attributes people seek in leaders they are willing to follow are:
honesty, trustworthiness, competence, inspiration and the ability to be
forward-looking. When viewed on a larger scale, these five traits create
a richer meaning as the foundation for leadership.
"Credibility" come from the same root word: credo, meaning "I trust
or believe." Credibility is not inherent; it must be earned over time.
Some leaders earn it sooner than others dependently on the quality of
their relationships and their actions.
Credible leaders possess the ability to leave a long-lasting and
positive impacts on people's lives. How about you and your leadership?
What kind of impact are you having on others?
Read the words of Irwin
Federman, venture capitalist and former CEO, when speaking to students
at Santa Clara University. His words surely puts credibility in
context:
"You don't love someone because of who they are, you love them
because of the way they make you feel. This axiom applies equally to a
company setting. It may seem inappropriate to use words such as love and
affection in relation to business. Conventional wisdom has it that
management is not a popularity contest... I contend, however, that all
things being equal, we will work harder and more effectively for people
we like. And we will like them in direct proportion to how they make us
feel."
And just how do credible leaders make people feel? Research shows 10 descriptors used most often:
- Trusted
- Valued
- Respected
- Motivated
- Enthusiastic
- Challenged
- Inspired
- Capable
- Supported
- Powerful
- Proud
When you think about your leadership and your relationships, how many
of them would use these descriptors when sharing how you make them
feel? What can you do to increase the frequency of leaving people
feeling this way as a result of your leadership?
Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to
break through and better understand the behaviors and actions you need
to become a better leader? As a Leader what are your beliefs? What do
you focus on? What outcomes do you want to achieve?
We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
