It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"Failing to hold someone accountable is ultimately an act of selfishness." Patrick Lencioni
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
We're looking at the each of the dysfunctions that Lencioni describes in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
We looked at TRUST the first week, then we looked at the FEAR OF CONFLICT. Last week we talked about COMMITMENT. We're working through all five dysfunctions this month and identifying some areas we might need to pay special attention.
Today we're talking about ACCOUNTABILITY and we have one more dysfunction to look at next week.
I remember a lesson on accountability very clearly. I was a church custodian as a 14-year old and my father was the Pastor. I assumed the job would be fairly easy in that my dad was my boss, and it really didn't take much to clean the church.
I would clean every Saturday Morning, then I would show up early on Sunday to dust and make sure everything was good.
A few weeks into my working career my dad showed up early on Sunday and he walked around the church with me and identified some areas that I had failed to clean. I had missed some spots with the vacuum, I hadn't dusted the piano very well, and there was trash blown in from the street on the patio. These are all things he had asked me to do, but either I just didn't do them, or I didn't do them well.
Remember, I assumed the job would be easy and thought I could just get it done quickly. What I learned was that there were some really clear expectations of me in order to earn that 100 Sucre (yes, a fortune at that time in Ecuador) paycheck. Not only was I given the expectations, but I was held to that standard.
I'm not sure I was ever a great custodian (ask my mother about my bedroom), but I learned how to do what was expected of me. I learned a lesson in accountability and learned how to ensure that my Dad, the Pastor, wouldn't find my work unfinished or not done well.
Accountability is simply my willingness to accept responsibility to do what I say I'll do or what I agree to do.
In the case of my church job, accountability happened when my "boss" checked to see that I was doing what I had agreed to do to the standard that was expected.
When did the word ACCOUNTABILITY become a negative term? Why do we so often push against it?
DEEPER STILL:
In Lencioni's model, he uses the term: AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY.
The 4th Dysfunction of a team is simply avoiding making accountability a part of your conversation, your practice and your operation.
Lencioni's teachings on this have always struck me in a really powerful way because as a result, I learned a really important lesson on how to structure accountability with your team.
In the illustration I used above, I was being held accountable by my father, the Pastor, my boss. As Lencioni talks about TEAM, he makes this discovery that changes everything, or it did to me:
You are accountable to the TEAM. Not just to the leader, but to everyone who you work with. If you don't do what you agreed to do, you are letting the team down, not just the leader.
This idea changed how I do accountability.
In a traditional sense, accountability is really just conflict management. We don't like to have hard conversations, we don't like to point things out, so we avoid those uncomfortable moments, and in turn, we don't hold people to do what they have committed to do.
The idea that the TEAM holds me accountable is a whole different level. This takes if from an uncomfortable one-on-one conversation in private to a public arena where I have to face my co-workers, my colleagues, and tell them why I didn't do what I had committed to do.
Teams that navigate this and hold each other accountable achieve so much more than teams that ignore and avoid these hard conversations!
So, how do you do this?
1) Be Clear on your EXPECTATIONS. Over communicate what the expectations are to everyone, verbally, in writing. Make sure everyone agrees and commits to the expectations, together.
2) Be Willing to have the CONVERSATION. Don't avoid it. Make it a part of your normal team rhythm and conversation. It will be awkward & difficult at first, but will get easier the more you do it.
3) If You're the Leader, MODEL IT. Just because you're in charge doesn't mean you don't have to be accountable to your team. Be willing to be vulnerable, transparent and honest.
4) PRACTICE IT with Small Things. Don't just incorporate this at once. Practice it, learn how to communicate, measure how you're doing. The more you integrate it and practice the more effective this will be.
What lessons did you learn in leadership from being held accountable?
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
Get Lencioni's book, The FIVE Dysfunctions of a Team and his companion Field Guide. Great tools!
Lencioni's company, The Table Group has great resources for every leader & team.
Hope Ventures is an organization that Gina and I have been involved with for year. Their model works. Lives are being transformed through the power of entrepreneurship. Learn more by attending one of their dinners this fall. Register HERE. If you'd like to join Gina and I in Orange County on the 8th of October, send me a note and we'll go with you!
I've been drinking these Premier Protein drinks to supplement my protein and I really enjoy them. Quick and good tasting protein in great flavors!
OK, some more childrens books to discover.... Steph Stilwells books: A Pizza My Heart, Dough Much Love & Pie Love You are all incredible! It's amazing how your reading interests change when the grandkids ask you to read to them. Such Joy! And speaking of grandkids, we welcomed our 4th to the family last week! Welcome James Allan to the mix, joining Perrin, Reese & Arden. We are blessed!