ACCOUNTABILITY: Your Job or Mine?

The most frequently heard dilemma I hear from managers in my NYU Leadership class is creating accountability of their direct reports. My coaching and consulting clients agree and describe the challenge around getting others to step up their performance...to think creatively, lead change with greater initiative and deal proactively with people issues rather than ignore them.

Yesterday a CEO called me for help with his VP Marketing, describing disorganization and weak time management that could risk millions in lost business. In over one year nothing has changed. So, where is the ownership of this problem...with him or his VP?

The question I ask is: "How can we create an owner mindset with this person?"

My experience with the past 10 clients I have worked with this year shows that leaders & managers do more to NOT create "ownership" but cause the opposite: a dependency bordering on a "permission" relationship.

Second is the observation that leaders are not clear enough communicating their expectations, not only the measuable results but the actions most critical to achieving those results.

The test: ask any of your people what they think you expect of them, this week, month or quarter. Their response will provide the kind of feedback that will guide you to being more clear, more frequently and greater commitments on both sides...witch will begin to shift the accountabity to where it belongs.

Why Managers Need to Coach

I had a surprise last week when I was asked to be an instructor at NYU Graduate School of Leadership & Human Capital Management…perhaps more surprised when I learned they wanted me to teach one of six courses on Coaching.

The class comprised of a group of Gen X/Y and Millenials. Why are they interested in learning coaching skills? Because their experience in being managed in traditional ways has taught them that as managers themselves they need new ways to motivate, inspire and support their people to be satisfied and productive contributors.

But a series of graduate level courses on coaching? Blew me away that what I have been teaching and preaching for over 30 years has come to this. Now that I think about it, When I was working on my MBA we were taught “coaching” but it was then termed Theory “X” and Theory “Y”.

Not much, then, has really changed. A predominate number of mangers get appointed because of their technical expertise and manage others based on how they were (are) managed. Just like becoming a parent!

So I am delighted to have the opportunity to really help managers understand new ways to be instrumental in causing greater success in others.

RANDY STILL NEEDS HELP

Do you remember my client, Randy? [My History with Randy]

He is the high assertive CEO who struggles with the paradox: "the harder I work at causing accountability with my people, the less they seem to deliver".

At a December meeting, he said, "You should know that you went down a different path than I wanted you to." Gulp. "With all of the work you have done with my VP's you got me to realize I also had to make some changes; and that is really hard work!" Whew!

We laughed, but not for long. Randy wanted me to help turn around his Operating Executive, Tom. This is "code" for "I need more coaching but working my challenges through your work with Tom will be easier for me." This is one reason why I always involve the coachee's manager.

Why is Tom a challenge for Randy? As direct as Randy is, Tom is indirect; slower paced, less demanding of his people and more tolerant of performance gaps.

So how can we deal with this situation - opposite styles and lack of accountability?

1. Coach Randy to tone down his assertiveness
2. Encourage Tom's confidence

This process seems to be working:

• 1:1 meetings with Tom are boosting his confidence
• We are moving him away from full staff meetings to short one-on-one weekly meetings where he works on his people's commitments for action
• We are teaching him the language to deal with broken commitments
• Randy-Tom-Coach meetings around key business issues where my role is to prompt Randy when his assertiveness causes Tom to withdraw. For example, a simple glance at my watch is the cue to stop talking and ask Tom his opinion.
• Immediately after meetings with Tom, Randy and I debrief by playing on Randy's competitiveness. The winner is who can recall all of the situations where Tom was not meeting Randy's expectations -- and why!

Results to-date? Sales are up 5.4%

Do You Know Randy?

Senior leaders I have known for years thought I should think seriously about publishing my coaching experiences as they would learn from them. So here is my first "case study":

IS IT ME OR THEM?

Randy, the top executive at his company, called me because “the lack of accountability of my people is impacting our growth…and causing me growing stress”.

Do you know Randy? He is a passionate hands-on leader, highly directive with little patience for discussions that attempt to change his mind about how to grow his company.

The paradox trap: the harder he works to get his people more focused on priorities (his), the less the results. Emphasis is on “his” priorities, not necessarily those of his team!
Causing Greater Individual and Team Accountability

So…to increase accountability, is the solution around “them” or is it “me”? In the end, Randy discovered that he was as much a part of the problem as his people were! What we did:

[1] For Randy to understand what it is like to work for him, we interviewed each of his direct reports around 10 leadership qualities and asked, “To achieve your goals, what one thing do you need from Randy?” Two feedback points:

■ He proudly accepted being labeled a micro-manager
■ Being classified as a card carrying poor listener caused him to admit that maybe “I don’t know what I don’t know”

[2] Facilitated discussions with his direct reports around accelerating growth, surfaced issues never put on the table before…but critical to causing greater accountability and action. Some of Randy’s progress:

■ “When I reject new ideas, I might be too quick to think through, needing to hold on to my own strategies. I now understand why this can stop ideas from coming to me”
■ “Meeting participation is less than productive because I take 80% of the voice time…I can change that.” Actually I strong armed him to stop attending certain meetings.

Post meeting debriefs gradually helped Randy recognize: to get what he wants, he needs to also change, especially in modeling what he wants from his people.

So he ended up with more time on his hands…and more time for golf is a good thing when key customers are teeing off (and not being teed off as before!). And 15% annual growth to boot.
Alan Booth – Gilman Performance Systems, Inc. 203.454.3502

Why Not the Truth Be Told?

This is the truth...it happened last week.

A departmental meeting I was facilitating involved the different styles people use in communicating with others. "How do you recognize one's style with the four choices described?" I asked. "Let's work together with a simple technique, attempting to profile our leader's style...remembering this is based only on what we observe...no judgments."

So I continued by asking the group of 20 people various questions such as what words, eye contact and use of hands denote where on the assertiveness scale the leader usually is.

SILENCE

Mary speaks up, "The silence you hear is because our boss is in the room...duh!"

After the meeting I approach Mr. Leader and asked what it felt like having his people be uncomfortable talking about what they are observing about him…even after the heartfelt permission he expressed.

“What I really worry about is [1] the really important ideas and challenges they restrain from talking to me about and [2] what I do that causes my people to hold back on the truth when invited to do so.”

“I believe I am seen as an open person who does not criticize others or use a lot of negative consequences. Maybe I need to ask better questions, listen better and watch for the cues that tell me there is more that needs to be said.”

Finally I ask Mr. Leader, “is your relationship with your manager trusting enough that you can tell him the level of truth he is asking or even demanding from you?”

Stay tuned for Chapter 2. The story line on truth suddenly changes!

STRESS & PERFORMANCE...YOURS AND THEIRS

I woke up a 4:30 AM this morning because of stress...thus this entry.

While attending the NHMA meeting of business owners last week, my name tag that listed my expertise as STRESS seemed to have started a lot of discussion! And in introducing myself to the 50 attendees as an executive coach who helps business excutives deal with the stress of growing their businesses, I was totally surprised that the room broke out laughing...but not in a humorous way.

What I learned from these successful people: [1] stress no doubt impacts ones performance, even if it is not prolonged or severe, [2] executives tend to think 'it comes with the territory' rather than take action to deal with it, and [3] stressors tend to be those things we think we don't have control over...especially other people, direct reports, customers, regulatory agencies, etc.

What they learned from me: to determine the real cause(s) of stress, followed by a strategy to make changes within one's self and in key relationships, can be achieved through the help of a coach. Exercise can reduce the symptoms but finding the source takes help from others one can trust.

My experience includes:

• A business owner who had his wife in his business [solution involved a generous severance package]
• The paradox of not delegating authority to others as a way to get more control [solutions involve designing delegation of tasks that are less significant to business outcomes to prove the paradox is true]
• The inability to provide honest feedback to others (including customers) [solution is changing the words, timing and tone with the intent of mutual wins...realizing both parties want honest feedback]
• Being a "tough boss" who is too busy to provide direct feedback, but really doesn't hold others accountable because their methods do not seem to work [solutions involve facilitated meetings]

Here's to a stress-free day...for you and those around you!

How Does Your Mindset Impact Profits?

I am not talking about attitudes but mindsets, the actions and behaviors that can be seen in the way people approach doing their work.

Bob Ebers has coined the terms "OWNER-RENTER-VISITOR" mindsets and these can be quantified in a way to predict their impact on a company's ability to generate profits.

Take the case of a newly appointed Senior Vice President who took the risk to find out where his people landed in this mindset scheme and then have them meet as a group. Would you predict most of his VP's had an owner mindset? If you did, you are dead wrong. Most were renters. Fortunately none were found to be visitors...but some were close.

Here's a twist on reality: in some groups we found that the VP was a renter but their direct reports were ranked as having an owner mindset. Could this be the case of managers being too hands on, poor delegaters, micromanagers or focused more on improving people without a good old pat on the back once in awhile?

Whatever the labels, virtually all managers in this group agreed that they could all become more "owner" in their mindsets AND discovered ways they could help their people move from renter to owner. Best of all, the numbers back up their new strategy...and the increased profits that were forecasted would directly impact take home pay!