PARTNERSHIP AT WORK

In large organizations with complex organization charts, myriad departments and lots of employees, seeing yourself as being accountable for the good of the whole can sound pretty ludicrous. “This organization is too big and complex! Too many things are outside my control, and I don’t have enough power!”

Organizations have spent well over a century reinforcing that idea by narrowing the focus of people’s accountability at work, sometimes all the way down to the task level. This has purposefully supported the idea that “I am responsible for my own job. If you don’t do yours, that’s not my problem.” And even if people do see this as a problem, they don’t see it as their responsibility to fix it.

While accountability is a choice that each individual makes, it also is influenced by the systems that get created at work that either promote individual achievement or a cohesive collective effort. Choosing accountability for the whole begins with a recognition that everyone is in it together. When we work together toward a common goal, our futures become inherently intertwined.

This doesn’t mean that no one is in charge — or that everybody is. Nor does it mean you can always have it your way. True accountability asks you to recognize that the actions you take as an individual affect the whole enterprise. It asks, too, that you contribute in ways that enhance the collective good and do no harm to gain advantage.

Partners are people who tell each other the truth. They talk openly about doubts and difficult issues, and they own their own contributions to a problem. They openly acknowledge when things aren’t working very well, work together to find solutions, and extend understanding and forgiveness.

Moving in this direction allows people in the organization to stop spending so much time, energy and resources trying to do the impossible — hold each other accountable. By creating new relationships based on the principles above we begin to focus on accountability as it exists – a choice we each make in the face of any circumstance.

WHO IS IN CHARGE OF YOUR ACCOUNTABILITY?

When was the last time you attended a business meeting where people complained that employees are just too darn accountable for business results?
 
Such a question probably makes you laugh, because the typical conversation at work centers on finding better ways to "hold them accountable." In most organizations, people spend vast amounts of time and energy creating systems and processes to make sure work gets done.
 
An underlying assumption of "holding others accountable" is a belief that people will not choose accountability without formal systems, reminders, consequences and incentives aimed at "making sure" they do. It also belies the impossibility of holding others accountable without their full consent.
 
Accountability is absolutely essential to success in any endeavor -- whether it's personal relationships or a business enterprise. But what kind of business culture gets created when accountability is seen as something that must be coerced, cajoled, or incentivized?
 
When holding "them" accountable is the goal, the logical next step is to see "them" as tools used to accomplish a task. If it is acceptable to see people as tools, it is acceptable to manipulate them in the name of  "getting things done."  This erodes trust, creates dysfunctional (parent-child) relationships and discourages creativity and critical-thinking.
 
What might be possible if we shifted the traditional frame organizations have put around accountability? Try to imagine an organization where:

• People began seeing accountability as the individual choice that it is


• Employees thoroughly understood the business, what is at stake in the marketplace and how what they do contributes to succes


• Leaders engaged employees in determining what they need to effectively serve stakeholders


• Conversations focused on an individual's willingness to be accountable


• Managers continually asked employees what support, training or development they need to be truly accountable

Where does accountability start? First, with individual choice, then with the knowledge, skills and sense of purpose that helps you take meaningful action that benefits the good of the whole.

TAKE INSPIRATION AND MORALE OFF THE LEADERSHIP TO-DO LIST

Leaders often operate with a belief that they are responsible for the morale of the workforce — a notion, by the way, that gets reinforced by employees. themselves.  One of the ways leaders can free up their minds and their to-do lists is understand that commitment, inspiration and morale are in the hands of each individual.

People make choices whether to be motivated, inspired or committed. So leaders can — and should — let go of the need to be in charge of other people’s choices. Instead, focus on what you CAN control – what you stand for and how you will live that out in ways that make a difference.

If leaders focus their efforts on inspiring, motivating and building morale, not only will they exhaust themselves, they’ll lose sight of what really matters — engaging others to work for the common good. Such thinking often flies in the face of conventional leadership wisdom. Leadership has been sold as an activity of inspiration, influence and motivation. However, these are end results based on the choices people make, and seeing them as a leadership business process is counterproductive. 

Philosopher Viktor Frankl wrote: “Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued. It must ensue, and only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. . . .”

However, leaders aren’t totally off the hook here. They have an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the work environment in ways that increase the choices people make to be motivated and committed. It’s a small distinction, but an important one.

If your intention is to engage others in creating a meaningful future, living that out means just that — engaging others in ways that gives them a voice. It requires helping people understand the overarching vision and the strategic goals of the enterprise. It means respecting the ideas, decisions and choices people make within that framework. It means making it clear that mistakes are opportunities to learn rather the opportunities for blame and punishment. It means supporting people, and providing opportunities for them to develop and grow in ways that are meaningful to them. Creating an atmosphere like that will increase a thousand fold the chances that people will be committed and motivated.

Our client, Joe, had this realization after a long day of meetings with employees who pestered him about how he was going to fix the serious problems facing the company. They were worried, frustrated, discouraged, and they wanted to hear how he was going to build morale and deal with their happiness.
In the end, he held a large group meeting to send them a tough, but clear message: The business DID have problems, and he couldn’t solve them alone. He wanted and needed the best that employees had to give. He emphasized the difficult choices they all had to make together going forward. And finally, he told them, he was not responsible for their happiness, morale and well-being — they were.

His intention wasn’t to inspire and motivate, but to tell the truth and engage employees in creating a better future.

When he concluded his talk, he got a standing ovation.

TOP LEADERS GET RESULTS THROUGH EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

An extensive study done by the Gallup organization, recently published in the book Twelve: The Elements of Great Managing, reports that “Teams in the top engaged quartile are three times more likely to succeed as those in the bottom quartile, averaging 18% higher productivity and 12% higher profitability.”
 
Effective leaders know that employees are far more likely to be engaged and accountable for things they understand and help create. Leaders can make an enormous contribution toward promoting widespread engagement and personal accountability in three ways:

• Actively distributing literacy about the business (creating transparency how the business works and helping people understand it through daily conversations)


• Involving employees in choice and decision-making (they are closest to the customers and markets)


• Developing collaboration and teamwork (through by emphasizing accountability for the success of the whole)

Being clear on your intentions as a leader, living those intentions out, and using conversations for disclosure and engagement are the first steps toward transforming an organizational culture. Want to take your leadership to the next level? Recognize that systemic performance is a major driver of results.
 
Focus on the “system” can be done quickly be examining (and changing if necessary) two key organizational elements:

Methods of deliberation — This is where strategy is developed, decisions are made and the future is determined. In most organizations, meetings revolve around function, department and/or hierarchy. Attending to “systemic deliberation” means looking at the whole and ensuring that a microcosm of the system is in the room to deliberate issues and make decisions. This allows the system to regularly “talk to itself” and becomes a natural process of doing business.

Management practices — Typically these are created to support hierarchy and compliance. At best, this maximizes the individual parts of the whole. Accountability and interdependency come into sharp focus when attention is paid to the space where the parts interact. Moving toward employee and system engagement means creating practices that support interdependency, collaboration and cohesiveness. Budget allocation and administration, performance management, customer and supplier relationship management are a few examples of practices that, when redesigned for employee engagement, have a powerful positive effect on results.