How Accountability Really Works

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Who is Accountable? 

Competency: leadership, influence, performance management, engenders trust, two-way feedback, empowering others, interpersonal effectiveness, administrative control/follow-up

Who benefits: primarily for those already in management and project managers

Consultant Usage: executive coaches, organizational consultants, management trainers

What’s it about? I have been on the road now for about a month.  Among my stops was the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) annual worldwide conference, this year in Dallas.  One of the most pleasurable moments was talking with Tracy Skousen of Partners In Leadership.  PIL are the people who specialize in accountability – a real hot button for me.  Tracy and I spent some time talking about the 4th book in their accountability series, How Did That Happen?.

The book series began with The Oz Principle.  If you have an interest in (and you should) the topic of accountability, start with that book.  I would put that book in the top 20 of all the management books I have ever read.  This is where I first read “See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It.”

Meanwhile this newer book is easy to recommend for reasons I shall describe in a moment.  I would like, however, to begin with an attention getting quote from the book cover (yes, you can judge a book from its cover!): “The economy crashes, the government misfires, businesses fail, leaders don’t lead, managers don’t manage, and people don’t follow through, leaving us asking, ‘How did that happen?’.”  Good question.  And good reason to read this book. 

The book offers one large model called The Accountability Sequence.  The first half of the book is devoted to the Outer Ring (of the sequence).  It consists of four parts: Form, Communicate, Align and Inspect expectations.  The second half of the book explains the Inner Ring – described as the Accountability Conversation for managing unmet expectations.  It talks about the four main causes of missed delivery on expectations: motivation, training, culture and accountability.

It is fair to say that most of us know bits and pieces of the model.  Most of us have had communication classes, discussions, readings and feedback on much of the material in this book.  But what it does offer is a solid model/blueprint that is especially useful to those in supervisory, managerial and executive roles … especially if you like practical ideas and tools, easy to follow “how to’s”, self-assessments, and introspective questions.

The authors challenge our thinking early on with three very important axioms (or truths).  First, The Accountability Fallacy, in which we assume that others fail because there is something wrong with “them.”  Which they point out is incorrect and unfair.  Second, The Accountability Assumption, assumes that people are trying to do their best in any given situation.  And Third, The Accountability Truth, as when something goes wrong with “them”, it is most likely that there is something wrong with what “I” am doing.  This third one may be a little hard to take, but it is what makes the book work.

I had some good takeaways from this book.

1. My most important takeaway as alluded to above is when I ask the question “How did that happen?” I need to modify it slightly in wording (enormously in context).  I need to ask “How did I let that happen?”

2. I might have already known this but it was helpful to see it in print: There are two sides to accountability.  One tends to read this book because it promises to help you hold other people accountable.  But the flipside of that is holding yourself accountable.  These two can never be separated.

3. I did learn something completely new.  Ask me what I hold people accountable for, I would say “results”.  Not so fast!  What I am really holding them accountable for are the expectations I hold for them.  That completely changes the equation and puts the responsibility back on me.  Before I hold someone accountable I need to be sure what expectations I communicated (or didn’t).  And by managing expectations, I manage accountability.  You may have already known that, but that was a very helpful perspective for me.

In summary this is a good book that delivers what it promises.  It is easy to read, filled with helpful suggestions and leaves the reader in a better place.  If it is an area of interest, it is a great investment of your time.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.