The Power of Accountability

By Linda Galindo

A team of employees is preparing to make an important presentation to a new customer—one that your company is banking on for its future growth. If the presentation goes well and the customer agrees to a contract for the work, your business will just barely show a profit this year—not bad in this down economy. If the presentation does not go well, however, and this prospective customer doesn't sign a new contract, then your company will be on track for a major loss for the year. Severe cost cuts—including layoffs—will be necessary to minimize the financial damage.

As the team is preparing to leave their hotel and catch a cab to the client's main offices, a call comes in from the marketing assistant back at the home office three time zones away. The marketing assistant has just discovered that the team has the wrong PowerPoint presentation.

The sales representative takes the call and a heated discussion ensues. "What do you mean it's the wrong presentation?" objects the sales rep, "I put it together myself! Are you telling me I don't know what I'm doing?"

The marketing assistant then calls the office of the Vice President of Marketing, hoping that she will do something to intercede. The Vice President's assistant takes the call. "Sorry, but she can't be bothered right now. She's in a very important meeting." As the team jumps in their cab, the marketing assistant gives up, and decides to go to lunch.

Which one of these people is responsible for the PowerPoint presentation? Is it the sales representative whose job it is to load it into the computer? Is it the marketing assistant, who gave the PowerPoint file to the sales representative before the team flew out to the prospective customer's location? Is it the Vice President's assistant, who could have put the marketing assistant's call through to her boss? Or is it the Vice President of Marketing, who promised the prospective customer that his team would dazzle them, but who didn't know that there was a problem?

You get a call from the customer, who is not happy with the way the presentation went. There will be no contract. Who will you hold accountable? The sales representative? He thought he had the right PowerPoint presentation. The marketing assistant? He tried to get the right presentation to the team. The vice president's assistant? The presentation wasn't her job. The Vice President of Marketing? She had no idea there was a problem.

Again, if just one of these people is responsible, does that mean that none of the others are accountable? Should the others also be held accountable to some degree for this failure?

If the company wants to stay in business—yes.

The Accountability Gap
There is a major problem in business today—a serious lack of accountability and personal responsibility. You can observe it for yourself anytime an employee blames someone else, or some other organization—or simply "the system"—when he or she fails to achieve a goal or complete an assignment. To get a better sense of the problem, ask yourself and your people the following question:

How much of your success is up to you, and how much of it is determined by outside conditions, like the environment, other people, or just plain bad luck?

Your answer—and the answers you get from your people—speak volumes. If you said fifty-fifty, or anything less than 85 percent, you almost certainly blame your problems and failures—big or small, personal or professional—on other people, "circumstances beyond my control," or just plain bad luck. And why not? All of us face countless obstacles each and every day, and these obstacles conspire against us achieving the goals we set for ourselves and for others.

But what if I told you that in my work with hundreds of executives that the most successful men and women—in business and in life in general—aren't satisfied with this answer? Their data on our validated Accountability Assessment shows it over and over again; they are convinced that at minimum, 85 percent or more of their success is up to the actions they themselves take, and that only 15 percent or less is due to outside conditions or other people. They know that when outside obstacles get in their way, they are ultimately responsible for deciding how to deal with these obstacles to find a path around them.

Whatever you may think of Jack Welch's management legacy at General Electric, there can be no doubt that his steadfast focus on providing shareholder value made the company one of the most successful in the world during his tenure at the top. Welch achieved this by creating a culture where risk was rewarded and accountability and measurable goals were most important. As Jack Welch once said, "Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be."

The 85 percent Solution—Three Steps to Owning Your Success
So, what if the answer to the question in the previous section is something less than 85 percent? Should you and your people accept this outcome and stick with business as usual? In today's economy, actually, in any economy, the answer is clearly and unequivocally NO. Instead, I challenge you to choose accountability and own your personal success and happiness. It's not as easy as one-two-three, but it is a three-step process.

1. Responsibility
   Responsibility is not something you do—it's a way of thinking and being. When you're truly responsible, you believe that success or failure is up to you, even if you work within a team or are blind-sided by unforeseen circumstances. You own your commitment to a result before the fact—before you even take action. Getting started:
   
   Be responsible "either way." It's easy to claim responsibility when things go well, but it's hard when they don't. A truly responsible person or team, however, is responsible either way. So next time you take on a project, be 100% responsible for the outcome. Not a little. Not somewhat. Not pretty much. Not "I guess so" or "as long as." Own it 100%—good or bad—with no wiggle room. Recognize your power. You already have the ability to be 100% responsible— everybody does. Yet most of us don't realize—or at least don't admit—that we alone have the power to manage our lives and careers. Sure, you can give that power away, but that is a conscious choice—it doesn't happen without your permission.
   
   Deal with what is. When was the last time you were able to change the past? Truth is, it doesn't matter what should have happened—it matters what is. That saves you the trouble of figuring out who's to blame or worrying about how things "coulda woulda shoulda" been if only something had gone differently. It didn't—and that makes your choice a cinch: "How do I want to react to the situation that is?"
   
   
2. Self-empowerment
   There is only one kind of empowerment, and that is self-empowerment. Unlike granting authority, empowerment comes from within. By empowering yourself, you take the actions—and the risks—to achieve a result and get what you want. Rather than waiting for someone to declare you empowered or give you that one lucky break, you step outside your comfort zone, make things happen, and answer for the outcomes. Getting started:
   
   Manage expectations. The most direct route to self-empowerment is to be clear about expectations—not only what you expect, but also what's expected of you. To do that, you need to ask questions, make agreements, and clarify everything in writing. Otherwise, you risk suffering the source of all upset: missed expectations.
   
   Take back your time. "No" is an empowering word. So every time you utter, "I can't say no," ask yourself if you can't—or if you're unwilling to. Take back your time in other ways, too: get rid of your to-do list (track projects and deadlines on a calendar instead); resist over-scheduling (you can't cram 12 hours of work into eight hours, so stop trying); and estimate realistically (let's face it, most everything takes longer than we think).
   
   Sing your own praises. It's an all-too-common workplace mantra: "One day they'll notice how much I do around here and give me the recognition I deserve." NOT! Take stock of your personal talents and triumphs and let the higher-ups know who you are and what you contribute.
   
   
3. Personal accountability
   Unlike responsibility (the before) and self-empowerment (the during), personal accountability is the after. It's a willingness—after all is said and done—to answer for the outcomes of your choices, actions, and behaviors. When you're personally accountable, you stop assigning blame, "should-ing" on people, and making excuses. Instead, you take the fall when your choices cause problems. Getting started:
   
   Tell the truth. Everybody messes up sometimes. Lying about it or trying to cover it up always makes it worse—no exceptions. Save yourself some time: Don't tell untruths. Nobody believes them anyway—not even you.
   
   Police yourself. Are you accountable for your actions even if nobody holds you accountable—or nobody catches you? You bet you are. So be your own "Accountability Cop" and police yourself. On the long and winding road of life, choose accountability at every turn.
   
   Look to yourself—first. When trouble arises, look first to yourself. Ask 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?" and "How will I be accountable for the result?"

Are You an Accountable Leader?

We all know intuitively that the problem of low personal accountability starts individually, but for leaders, consider that leadership is a bankrupt concept without personal accountability; we are fooling ourselves not to see it. Instead of saying "the company lost money this quarter" the leader would say "I posted a loss this quarter and here is how I am accountable for it." No accountability, no trust. No trust, no confidence. And no confidence results in people keeping their money or hoping things will change.

It is only true leadership if you are accountable – answer for your results good or bad without fault, blame or guilt. If you are a leader, is it position power or leadership by accountability? You can only demonstrate accountability, not mandate it. The workforce and the public are starved for examples so we can choose to work for and buy from accountable companies.

Are you an accountable leader? If you are, what's your story? And if you are not one, when will you start and what will you do? The most important thing to keep in mind if you want accountability in your world is that is starts at the top and you are the top.

Linda Galindo is an accountability expert and author of The 85% Solution: How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success—No Nonsense, No Excuses (Jossey-Bass, 2009, $22.95). Founder and president of Galindo Consulting, Inc., she advises CEOs, leadership teams, and boards of directors in making personal accountability their organizations' central organizing principle. She is a faculty member of the Governance Institute, Medical Leadership Institute, and Institute for Management Studies, and a board member of the Center for the Public Trust of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). Contact her on the Web at lindagalindo.com.