Feed on
Posts
Comments

Building Relationships & Trust

Dec 14th, 2010 by

Setting the Right Expectations

Because of the Christmas season, I do more shopping than normal at this time of year. As a result, I am even more sensitized to the different experiences that I have with retailers based on the expectation levels that they set. Although everyone wants a good deal, the level of service can be the memory that sticks with you.

Many retailers emphasize service; some even have signs in their place of business that say “customer service”. Recently I took a VHS tape into a large retailer who converts VHS tapes to DVDs. The store was very busy and the person wanted to get through writing out my order as quickly as possible. They took my name and other important information including my phone number, checked off a few boxes and gave me a copy of the order sheet. At the top of the order sheet in bold letters was the statement “2 – 3 WEEK SERVICE TIME”.  There was also a 1-800 phone number beside the statement: “DVD Questions” that I assumed was for inquiries about the order. This seemed straightforward and I left the store excited about picking up the new DVD in a couple of weeks. That was October 10.

By the first week of November I hadn’t received a call so I thought I should initiate contact with the retailer. I called the 1-800 phone number at the top of the order sheet and found that I was connected to the supplier who was processing the VHS tape – not the retailer. The person on the other end of the phone told me that the retailer normally called to track an order. After some prodding, the person checked into my order and explained that it would be ready early the following week.  They also made it clear that they had done me a favour.

I waited until the end of the following week for a call from the retailer. No call – so I called them. I explained that it had been five weeks since I put my order in. They informed me that there had been a sale on and orders would take 4 to 6 weeks and that no one would have told me 2 to 3 weeks. It appeared that this wasn’t going to be easy, so I stayed focused on the end game and asked if they could tell me when my order would be ready.  The answer came back “no I can’t.  We will call you when it’s ready”.

I waited another 2 weeks and heard nothing from the retailer. So I called the retailer again. The person on the other end of the phone said “We’ve been really busy. Have we called you? No? Then it’s not ready”. They seemed a little exasperated and frankly I had the impression that I was not the only person calling to follow-up on an order because it sounded like they had said this before – a lot.  On December 1st, I finally got the call I was looking for – the DVD was ready. I went to the store to pick it up and spoke to the person in the store about the delay.   They explained that there had been a sale on to feature the ‘conversion service’. The irony of this was that I had now been introduced to a “service” that I would never ever use again.

So why do I share this story with you? What’s the point? It seems to me that this story is about expectations. The retailer created expectations both in terms of the time frame that I would receive my goods back and in terms of my ability to follow-up using a 1-800 number. Both expectations were sadly misleading. The irony of it all is that they were very busy answering phone inquiries to respond to the misleading expectations rather than spending time completing my order. Had they said “it will take eight weeks to complete this” in the first place, then I wouldn’t have called and they would have been less busy.  I also might not have signed up at all.  However, if they didn’t want to tell me would take eight weeks because they were afraid I would not sign up, then they were using flawed thinking because now, rather than being uncertain or unaware of their “service”, I’m very clear that it’s just bad. All of this happened simply because their expectations were misleading and because of a defensive response to the mistake.

The parallel point I’d like to make out of this situation is that relationships are significantly affected by the process of setting expectations and keeping promises. If you want to build trust, you need to articulate expectations honestly and then do everything you can to meet them. In the end. trust is built if you DWYSYWD (do what you say you will do).

As always, I welcome you your feedback. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication | Comments (1)

Get it Done Guy

Oct 19th, 2010 by

New Approach to an Established set of Principles

I recently read through a “Social Media News Release” on “Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More”.  This sure sounds like an appealing objective so I thought I would do a review of the first two chapters.

Overall, here’s what the 9 Steps are:

Step 1: Live and work on purpose
Step 2: Stop procrastinating
Step 3: Conquer your technology
Step 4: Cultivate focus
Step 5: Stay organized
Step 6: Don’t waste time
Step 7: Optimize!
Step 8: Build stronger relationships.
Step 9: Leverage!

This book is marketed as a “playful yet serious approach” to the topic.  This can be a useful approach to a topic that already has a lot of good books and resources to draw on.  Let’s face it; the idea of doing more with less is a topic that has been around for decades.  Heck, I remember reading a book by Alan Lakein published in the 1970’s on the concepts of time management and personal productivity.

The first step is called “Live and work on purpose”.  This is not a new concept.  The breakdown of goals outlined in the chapter is an interesting twist on how to take broad, visionary type goals and translate them into everyday things to do.  Sally McGhee does a really good job of this in her book entitled “Take Back Your Life” where she talks about “Strategic Next Actions”.  That being said, any book on being more productive needs to address goals and purpose and there is certainly nothing wrong with the approach Robbins takes. Clear purpose is certainly the foundation of success in being effective in business and in life.

Step 2 “Stop Procrastinating” is a subject we can all relate to.  Robbins emphasizes the concept of developing habits to overcome procrastination.  I like this concept and I have many good habits related to my efforts in maximizing personal productivity.  As the chapter unfolds, he offers up the idea of breaking big tasks into chunks.  For years I have used the expression “the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”.  I didn’t come up with this expression but I certainly like the thinking on breaking up big tasks in order to overcome procrastination.   In step 2, Robbins continues to offer different strategies for overcoming procrastination.  I really didn’t see anything that I hadn’t heard before; however he has packaged many things in a different way.  If that helps someone connect the concept to their reality, then that’s a good thing.  The last part of step 2 concentrates on motivation.  I am a big fan of Daniel Pink’s book entitled “Drive” that – amongst other things – tells us that intrinsic motivation is key to discretionary effort.  Robbins tackles this issue by encouraging you to try different approaches to work that you aren’t passionate about.  One idea is to reward yourself for completing a task that is just not something you like to do.  I like this idea.  Ultimately I believe he is trying to get people to think differently.

Looking at the titles of the remaining steps I honestly don’t see any new concepts.  That really summarizes my impression of the book.  There aren’t any breakthrough concepts here.  However, I do think that Robbins has the right concepts in his list of steps and he is presenting them in his “playful yet serious approach”.  There are new twists on how to apply the concepts and that can be worth the time invested to read the book.  If you are looking to increase your ability to “Get-it-Done” and so far anything you’ve read hasn’t worked, then this might be the book for you.  There is always room for a different look at a sound set of principles.

You can browse the topic: “get it done guy” and you’ll get lots of good ideas on how to improve your ability to “work smarter not harder”.

As always, I welcome you your feedback. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business | Leave a comment

Reality TV – Newest Training Ground for Leadership?

Sep 15th, 2010 by

Undercover Boss

I must admit, I don’t watch a lot of television because there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good choices these days.  There are a few things that are worth watching but not a lot.  Somehow I feel that TV networks must be feeling the same way because they are turning to some very interesting topics to “entertain” audiences.  Members of my family were watching a new show called “Undercover Boss” and knowing my interest in leadership and the value of people as a strategic resource, they encouraged me to sit and watch.  This particular episode was about a guy who is the president of a large waste management company who went out on the road to see what it is like “in the trenches”.  He did everything from ride on the neighbourhood garbage truck to cleaning portable toilets and he even got fired from one role (obviously he was able to keep his cover really well even though there were several TV cameras following him!!!).  As he saw the impact of the company’s leadership and the “rules from corporate”, he confessed that the impact on him was enormous and that he had no idea what it was like for the front line employees.  He made a commitment on camera to change his ways.

As the show continued, he met with each of the employees that he spent a day with (under cover) to reveal his real identity and to promise them he would change.  Wow – sounds great.  All the employees raved about what he did, and some were even crying, telling him how great it was great that someone cared.  (Apparently no-one had cared before).  Now . . .  only trouble is his next move was to meet with one of the managers who was creating problems for front line employees to correct him (on national TV) and tell him (not ask) the changes that were needed.  He met with his senior management team to discuss his experiences and to tell them that things were going to change.  No one was invited to say anything (at least not on camera).  I wonder what they would say if you asked them if the boss cared?!  At the end of the show he got up on stage (hey look at me I’m a star) to tell all of the employees about what had happened and how he was going to make things different.

OK, so to be fair it was a good try.  And the idea of finding out what’s going on in the trenches is a great idea.  But don’t you wonder why he had no idea what was going on?  What were his managers doing before this project?  How come they weren’t talking to him about the real issues?  It seems to me that if he were to conclude that there is a problem, he should conclude it starts at the top.  Micro-managing your senior team and taking a middle manger to task without asking him to explain what he was thinking doesn’t feel much like team building – especially if it’s done on national TV.

In the end, the lesson here should be that great leaders get information about what’s going on in the trenches from their management team not from some undercover game.  If you hire the right people, tell them what you want and then support them as they do it their way, you’ll get great results.  As a leader you have to decide:

a) Do I want people to do their best work?; or

b) Do I want people to do my best work?

If you choose b) you’ll need to always be right and don’t expect a lot from your people because the good ones will eventually leave.

Now it’s your turn.  Do you like the boss undercover idea?  Do you think he’ll make things better for everyone?

Send me your feedback on your views on email communication. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication, HR, Human Resources | Leave a comment

Email Communication – Not Always the Answer

Aug 10th, 2010 by

It seems that almost every day I come across people who are having issues with email. Some of them have an issue with the volume of email they are receiving and many are concerned about the quality of the message they are getting in an email.  I was recently speaking with a friend who confessed that he uses email when he has a difficult message to pass along to someone.  He believes that it is easier because it avoids the tension that comes with the person being upset at the message.  When I asked him if he thought they were any less upset, having received the message by email, he gave me an interesting response.  “Sometimes I can tell that they are upset by the email they send back and other times I’m not sure.”  Although I “get it” when people say email is easier for sensitive messages because they don’t have to deal with the emotional issues, the more I talk with people about this, the more I discover that the emotional issues don’t go away – they just don’t get dealt with at the time.  Sometimes the emotion can come back at the most unlikely moment, catch you by surprise and get intertwined into other issues that have nothing to do with the original emotional baggage.

So let’s reflect back on my last blog post with respect to email as a strategy for effective communication.

  1. Email communication is a choice – there are other ways to communicate.
  2. When chosen as the medium of communication, people need a better understanding of how to manage communication with email.

So let’s talk about gaining a “better understanding” of email.  Email provides very little in the way of emotional content.  The “tone” and “body language” that is in an email – if any – is usually seen in the eyes of the receiver and is often misinterpreted.  The key here is that when you send an email, you don’t get to see the person’s reaction when they read the message.  Sure, they may send you a reply, but it is often filtered and you may miss key messages that you would have heard or seen had you communicated in person , by phone or via an electronic medium such a Skype.  The feedback you get when you see or hear a reaction can be invaluable.

So, when a message has emotional content or is somewhat sensitive, email is a poor choice for communication.  You may think you are avoiding the “drama” that can come with the messages but more often than not, you are exacerbating the sensitivity and potentially undermining the sense of respect that the other person would have for you.  Email is a choice.  It can be a good choice for straightforward messages but not all messages.  Don’t let the convenience of email fool you.  If you choose email in the wrong circumstance, you may wind up creating more work than you thought you were avoiding by sending the message via email.

Now it’s your turn.  Have you ever received an email on a sensitive issue that left you feeling “cool” towards someone else?  Do you avoid tough talk by using email?

Send me your feedback on your views on email communication. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication | Leave a comment

Email Communication – Help or Hinderance

Jun 29th, 2010 by

I recently had a situation where I was dealing with someone who was responsible for giving me an important document by a particular deadline.  It didn’t arrive on time.  When we connected in person, I asked them if they had completed the document.  They answered “ I sent it to you last week”.  I had checked my emails carefully and was quite certain that I had not received an email from them, so I answered “You may have sent it but I didn’t receive it”.  Their response was immediate and quite disarming “That’s not my fault”.  What is interesting is that there is a significant consequence to them if the document arrives late.  They would know this.  However, their position seems to be, I sent it, so I’m not responsible if you didn’t get it.  I find this to be very interesting.

If a communication is important, wouldn’t you want to know that it was successful?  Let’s dig into this a bit.  If someone in your family had an accident at home and you needed an ambulance to come to your house – would you send an email?  Obviously the answer is “no, don’t be ridiculous”.  The key is: why would you not send an email in this situation?  Possible answers:

  1. I don’t know if someone really got it,
  2. If they did get it, I don’t know if they understood the importance,
  3. I don’t necessarily get a response right away, which could cause me to have a heart attack due to stress and I might need another ambulance.

Okay, so needing an ambulance and getting an important document are not the same but aren’t the principles still the same?  The communication to ensure the ambulance arrives is really important, so you choose an effective mode of communication to suit the situation (call 911 for an ambulance – don’t use email).  Why do you make that choice?  Because you own the process to ensure the initial communication gets through.  So how come in the case I related above, the person said “it’s not my fault” when I didn’t get the document?  It would seem that they don’t believe that they own the choice of how to get through and that they are responsible for ensuring the communication is effective.

In the workshops I conduct on communication, the definition we use for effective communication is:  message has been sent, received and understood.  Email has some drawbacks when assessed against this definition.  Don’t get me wrong, I think emails can be a great way to communicate in many situations – just not all situations.  The issue I have with email is:

  1. It is a choice (there are other ways to communicate)
  2. When chosen as the medium of communication, people need a better understanding of how to manage communication with email

Do you have any issues with email?  Have you recently been in a situation where a communication got messed up because of email?  Do you have any guidelines you use when using email?

The question for this blog is:  “Email is here to stay, so when and how should we use it in our communication with each other?

Send me your feedback on your views on email communication. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication, HR, Human Resources | Leave a comment

Motivation – Can’t What I’m doing be Fun?

Jun 1st, 2010 by

Finding Meaning

In my last blog, I touched on the issue of having authentic conversations with others in order to find their intrinsic motivators.  Daniel Pink’s latest book entitled “Drive” presents some very interesting research data on the concept of intrinsic motivation.   In one part of the book, he writes about finding purpose and meaning in what we do and offers the idea that the play and games that children engage in offers insights into the kind of experiences adults should be looking for.  When I read his comments on this, it reminded me of my summer holidays as a youth when I would go down to the park and play baseball, touch football and a variety of other games with a bunch of friends.  We would meet almost every day to play together and the days seemed to go by really quickly.  We’d come home feeling great at having spent time doing stuff we really liked to do.  So . . . why is it that we seem to believe that once our school years are done, we can’t have the same kind of deeply satisfying experiences?  I think about Jerry Rice – a professional football player in who played in the NFL – who is considered one of the greatest wide receivers to ever play the game.  During interviews he would talk about how lucky he was to play the game he loved and get paid for it.  What is even more interesting is when you dig a little deeper into his success as a football player, you find that he had a tremendous commitment to getting better every day.  His work ethic in practices was amazing.  The same was true for Wayne Gretzky – often the last guy off the ice.  Add it all up and you realize that much of their success wasn’t luck – it was the product of hard work.  The key point is that it was easier to work hard when what you are doing is less about “work” and more about something you love to do.

When we find fulfilling purpose and meaning in what we do, it’s a whole lot easier to put the kind of effort in that will lead to the kind of exceptional results that people and organizations are constantly searching for.  So how come we seem to be focused on bigger titles, bigger salaries, bigger offices and other “stuff” when we should be thinking about finding work that we are passionate about.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with setting goals to achieve these things but is it really worth it if we are not doing work we really like to get there?

Are you going to work each day excited about the work you are going to be doing?  If so – great.  If not, what are you going to do about it?

When you recruit new employees to fill an open role, do you spend more time finding out if they have the skills and experience to do the job or more time finding out if they care passionately about the work you will have them doing?  Which one is more important?

The question for this blog is:  “Are you pursuing meaning and purpose in the work you do or are you pursuing the next mortgage payment for your house?”  “Is work fun?”  “Do you know how to make a change if you’re not doing something you are passionate about?”

Send me your feedback on your views on motivations and conversations involving “intrinsic meaning”. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. That’s a plug-in for bloggers. If you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment, I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication, HR, Human Resources | Comments 2

Motivation – The Importance of Understanding Others

May 18th, 2010 by

Having Authentic Conversations

I am reading Daniel Pink’s latest book entitled “Drive”.  In his book he reveals some very interesting studies on motivation that challenge the current paradigms on the effectiveness of “carrot & stick” reward systems.  One of the points I believe he is making is that individual motivation comes more from intrinsic drivers than from extrinsic drivers, meaning that people are driven by what they find meaning in (internal drive) vs. the demands or rewards that are placed upon them by others to motivate them (external drivers).  Intuitively this makes a lot of sense but it goes against our common beliefs of motivation.  Much of the work in developing reward systems focuses on developing a “one-size fits all” system for motivating people that, by its very structure, presumes that the same thing motivates each individual.  Pink’s book makes the case for intrinsic motivation being a much stronger force, which means that we must understand each person’s individual motivation because that is what maximizes their drive and intensity of action.  Said a different way, if we want to influence an individual’s behaviour, we must understand them individually.

So, in order to understand a person’s inner drive and intrinsic motivators, we must be able to have authentic conversations that may at times feel vulnerable because they explore questions of meaning and purpose and may ask someone to reveal their innermost thoughts and passions.  These are not the kinds of conversations that we easily embrace.  However, in order to more effectively to deal with performance issues in the workplace, we need to get beyond simple approaches that use – as Pink calls it – a “carrot and stick” approach and begin to focus on ways to explore the intrinsic motivators of employees.

The implications of making these changes are significant.  We need to ask different questions when we are recruiting.  We need to have different conversations when we are not getting the results we expected from people who seemingly have the skills to achieve the expected results.  We need to know how to have these conversations.  We need to take the time to have these conversations with each other, in a world where the drive for efficiency has made time a very precious commodity.  Susan Scott in her book “Fierce Conversations” reveals how we can be so much more successful if we learn how to have these truly meaningful and authentic conversations.

So, where does this leave us?   Have you recently been in a situation where you were surprised by someone’s reaction to an interaction that you thought would motivate them in a positive way?  Do you explore questions of meaning and intrinsic motivation with the people who work for you?  Are you comfortable with the idea of having such a conversation?

The question for this blog is:  “Do the rewards you provide for people influence them to achieve what you want them to achieve?”  “Do we need to re-think some of the ways we reward and provide motivating environments?”

Send me your feedback on your views on motivations and conversations involving “intrinsic meaning”. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment, I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication, HR, Human Resources | Comments 2

‘You’re Wrong’ is Not a Safe Place

Apr 27th, 2010 by

A Non-Threatening Approach

Recently I was at a social gathering with a few friends and the conversation got into how to be tolerant and accepting of other people’s point of view – a good topic of discussion because I think increasing the level of tolerance in the world is a good thing.  On a personal level, I would like to think that I am open to hearing the view of others because they can enrich our own thoughts and beliefs and may result in a change in perspective that emerges from a deeper understanding of the topic of discussion.  I teach an Organizational Behaviour (OB) in the Ontario college system and one of the key topics that we cover in OB is the concept of perception.  Perceptual theory suggests that – even when we want to be open to others – we often filter the information we receive to fit our own perceptions and beliefs.  It is actually quite difficult to be truly open to a point of view that is different from the one you hold because it may suggest that we are wrong and that will impact our self-confidence, self-esteem and sense of security.

So, in the conversation with my friends, I put forward the idea that a person can hold a strong belief and be open to respecting the other person’s point without changing their own belief on the matter.  This was ok until the question came up about right and wrong.  The conversation went something like this:

Others:  “So if you believe something strongly and the other person believes something different, then are you saying that the other point of view is wrong?”

Me:  “Yes, I guess I am but I respect their right to hold that opinion”.

Others:  “OK, but it can come across as arrogant of you to say you are right and they are wrong.  You can’t tell them they are wrong.”

Me:  “I don’t know if I am right but I believe I am.  I wouldn’t start by telling them they are wrong but if they asked me if I thought my point of view is the right one (meaning theirs is wrong) then I would say yes I think I am right.  Are you asking me to change my belief on this?”

Others:  “No, you are welcome to hold that belief but you can’t tell someone else they are wrong”.

Although I hadn’t intended on coming across as arrogant, it certainly seemed like I had pushed an emotional button in one or two people.  The concept of tolerance seemed to be defined by the notion of:  not necessarily agreeing with someone else, listening to their point of view and (for sure) not telling them they are wrong!

As I reflect on this interaction, I realize that if I want someone to hear my point of view – particularly in an emotional conversation – I need to pay attention to the feelings that emerge when the message gets to a point where you are saying “you are wrong”.   No-one likes to be wrong and yet we can’t all be right about everything.  Many issues have lots of grey area and the concept of right & wrong is not clear.  However, just as many issues have a clear truth to them (i.e. the distance of an Olympic marathon run is 26 miles 385 yards or 42.195km.  If someone tells you it is 50km, they are wrong!).

So what does all of this mean?  I think it helps us come back to the idea that when the message is important, we need to help the other person feel safe to hear our point of view and telling them they are wrong is not a very safe place.  Somehow, we need to find ways to share what we know and what we feel without bluntly saying “you’re wrong”.  I’m going to change my mind (and admit I’m wrong about something) if I choose to change my mind.  You can’t change my mind.  This means that I am not likely to change someone else’s mind by telling them that they are wrong – they have to decide that they are wrong.  So, delivery of the communication is profoundly important.   If I want another person to listen to me, I need to build trust in the relationship to help them feel safe when we have dialogue involving disagreement.  I have to do less telling and more listening.

So, the question for this blog is:  “Is it ok to tell someone they are wrong or do we just help them see a different viewpoint and leave them to choose their own conclusion?”  Can you think of situations where you’ve told someone they are wrong and they’ve reacted well? poorly?

Send me your feedback on your views on “right vs. wrong”. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment, I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication, HR, Human Resources | Leave a comment

Choices in Difficult Situations

Apr 13th, 2010 by


I recently had a conversation with someone who was telling me about a situation they had been in – with a person close to them – involving disagreement and conflict.  As the story unfolded, they talked about how they had gotten mad and that they were sorry for yelling at the other person.  It was the next line that really caught my attention:  “I don’t like yelling but they made me so mad.  It’s not my fault that I yelled at them.”

What I find interesting about their comment is that it is really saying that when someone makes us mad (or generates any other strong emotional response), we are not responsible for our reaction. Thinking about this from another angle, this person is saying that they do not believe that they can choose their response to a situation involving disagreement, conflict and anger.  If they did believe that they own the choice of response, then it would be their fault that they yelled.

I’m not saying that it is easy to exercise your power to choose your response in a difficult situation but I am saying that we need to start believing that we own responsibility for the actions we take.  What we need to work on is learning how to maintain control in order to make good choices.

So, the question for this blog is:  “Do we have the power to choose our response to the things that happen to us?  Even the really emotional situations?”  I believe the answer is Yes – tough as this may be sometimes.

What do you think – do people have the power to choose their response in any situation?  Can you think of situations where the concept of choice and what people believe about their “ownership” of choice mattered?

Send me your feedback on your views on “choices”. Here on my blog, I offer commentluv. For you bloggers out there, if you leave a comment, you can link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment, I’d like to hear from everyone!

Dave

Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, communication, HR, Human Resources | Leave a comment

Real Accountability Leads to Better Results

Mar 23rd, 2010 by

Fixing The Blame vs Fixing The Problem

Through my work helping organizations to tackle their “people issues”, it seems that a common thread running through many of the issues is the concept of accountability.  When something doesn’t go as planned, the reactions of people involved often focus on ensuring that everyone else knows that it wasn’t their fault.  This reaction could have many explanations:  past punishment for having a part in a negative outcome; a person’s self-esteem could be at risk by admitting imperfections; perceived negative consequences related to ownership of the outcome of a situation; and the list goes on.

It is my assertion that we spend so much time focusing on the attachment of blame that we miss what is going on and paralyze the efforts to improve.  Leaders are often a key contributor to the issue when they react to a situation by focusing on “fixing the blame” vs. “fixing the problem”.   Sometimes I think that people hear “you are accountable” and substitute “you are in trouble”.

If you look up the word “accountability” on-line, you may find some interesting insights.  Quoting Wikipedia:  “Accountability” stems from late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn derived from putare (to reckon).”

I read this to mean that the concept of accountability stems from the notion of “giving account” which is to provide an explanation.  This is not to say that once an accurate accounting has been given, we shouldn’t pursue the issue of blame, it says to me we should be focused on candid dialogue first in order to have a true accounting.  That way we’ll know what’s really going on.  Leaders who stifle a full accounting fool themselves into believing they are dealing with the situation when they may in fact not even know what the true situation is.

If we focus on encouraging people to “give account” we promote dialogue instead of defensiveness and I believe that open and honest dialogue – particularly on the tough issues – is what helps promote real accountability.  Real accountability leads to better results.  Sounds easy – may not be so easy.

As you read this, let me know what you think about my ideas regarding accountability.  Have you ever been in a situation where the real truth seems to get filtered or masked or doesn’t even come out?  What’s your definition of accountability?

Send me your feedback on your experiences with accountability.

I’d love your feedback.  For you bloggers out there, when you leave a comment, you will have the opportunity to provide a link back to your own blog but you don’t have to be a blogger to leave your comments!  You can also find more information about me by clicking here to get to my website. I look forward to hearing from you.

Dave

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Business, HR, Human Resources | Leave a comment

Older Posts »

Free Web Hosting Web Hosting Domain Names