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Remove excuses, reinforce accountability
Carroll on Work
By John Carroll
From the departments of having too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do, comes excuses and accountability, respectively. The weather, the customers, the suppliers, the budget, the schedule, the people; too much confusion, too many mistakes, too many delays; too little listening, too little appreciation, too little incentive … a litany of excuses, laid end to end, could encircle the earth several times. Conversely, accountability seems increasingly rare at work and throughout society.
Consider your thought process when your results fall short of expectations. Are you inclined to find reason after external reason why things didn’t work? Or do you reflect on your efforts to find the lesson? If you are in search of reasons outside yourself, you are not alone. Assigning responsibility for setbacks and failure, commonly known as blaming, seems to be a favorite pastime in society. On the other hand, taking a loss as a lesson for future improvement is the mark of the truly responsible person.
Accountable leadership
You know the adage, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
Until you have your own “house” in order, pointing the finger of blame will get you resentment, hard feelings and a lack of respect and loyalty. We all make mistakes. By focusing first on your strengths and weaknesses and considering yourself a lifelong self-improvement project, you put yourself in a much better position to ask others to do the same. This is leadership by example, the core of what it takes to be an effective leader.
Take this one step further. You may find yourself taking credit for positive outcomes and blaming others for the negatives. (Of course, blame is just another way of giving negative credit to others for the problems.) With this approach, you have the perfect recipe for frustration in leadership. You will get complaints and slow movement when you ask others to handle tasks. You will get grumbling and uncomplimentary talk behind your back. The toughest part is that you are likely to enjoy little, if any, respect from the people whose help you most need to meet your objectives.
It has been said that each of us has a deep need for significance; the feeling that our work and our lives have an impact on those around us. There are few things you can do to damage one’s feeling of significance more than taking credit for their good work and hanging on them the negative credit for undesirable outcomes.
Make excuses or make progress
As soon as you choose to blame someone else for poor results, you are looking back to the past and finding fault outside of yourself. Statements such as, “We could have made this work, if it weren’t for his or her mistake,” look only to the past and repair nothing. You have identified a scapegoat, causing feelings of resentment, betrayal and anger.
Conversely, the statement, “Where do we go from here?” focuses on current options for improvement, as in service recovery when we fall short of customer expectations. Rather than pointing a finger, this assumes the potential for a better performance in the future by focusing on positive steps.
Two key questions
To evaluate the outcome of virtually any situation, you can ask two simple questions. The first is, “What did I, or we, do right?” This reinforces the behaviors, the steps and the elements that resulted in forward progress and helps you to repeat them in similar circumstances.
The second question, “What would I, or we, do differently?” This highlights your own less-than-effective actions within the process, thereby helping you avoid repeating mistakes and ineffective choices.
Both of the questions turn the focus inward to help you as an individual and you as a member of the team. The answers give you the ability to control your actions first.
For example, let’s say that you find yourself behind on the schedule, and you increase the rate of production on your project. As you speed up the process, quality suffers, requiring stoppage to repair the problems. By asking, “What did I, or we, do right?” your answers could include:
• Responding quickly to stay current with the production schedule
• Taking action that would help the project be profitable
• Increasing production without compromising safe practices
With the second question, “What would I, or we, do differently?” your answers could be:
• I would more strongly emphasize the need to maintain quality as we go.
• I would ask others what challenges we might face in increasing our production rate.
• I would check more frequently with our team to help them prevent quality issues before they occur.
Share credit, take responsibility
A simple rule of thumb for winning the hearts and minds of others in the workplace and at home: share credit for the wins and take responsibility for the setbacks. If you receive a compliment concerning something positive on your project, promptly thank the person delivering the compliment and add that it could not have happened without the good work of those who help you and/or support you in your role.
On the other hand, when someone notifies you of a challenge or problem, immediately thank that person for informing you and accept responsibility for correcting the situation. Then get to work on making things right and eliminating the cause of the problem to prevent its recurrence.
For example, when someone admires your ability to stick to the production schedule, you can say, “Thank you. I’ll be sure to pass along your compliment.” When a customer or supervisor adds a defective item to the to-be-re-done list, you can respond, “Thank you for pointing that out. I’m sorry that we didn’t get that right the first time. I’ll immediately see to it that we fix the problem and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Remember that accepting responsibility is the mark of the mature human being. The more often you make the choice to be accountable for your results, the more you will find others ready and willing to help you accomplish your goals.
John Carroll is a business consultant, speaker, author and president of Unlimited Performance Inc. in Mount Pleasant. You can reach him at jcarroll@uperform.
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