Leadership Accountability The #1 Mistake You're Making Transcript

This is a written Transcription for the Leadership Hustle episode about Leadership Accountability: The #1 Mistake You’re Making, from Season 1 Episode 2.

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Leadership Accountability: Full Written Transcript

Andrea: On today's Leadership Hustle podcast, we're going to talk about everybody's favorite topic of accountability. Michelle Hill and I will talk about the three main things that are going to help make sure that you get that culture set the right way. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle for executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. I am so excited because this is our first podcast recording, so I am wanting to introduce you to Michelle Hill. She works with us and I am Andrea Fredrickson, as you probably heard in the intro. Today we're going to talk a little bit about accountability and accountability has is one our number one searched word in all of our our content. And so we thought this is a good place to start with accountability.

In fact, just this morning, I was working with a couple of folks and one of the owners was talking about accountability, how she had hired this person. And her dad was really frustrated about the fact that this new accounting person wasn't doing what they were supposed to. So we followed this path of accountability. And so we're going to get we're going to get into that that topic pretty, pretty quickly. So accountability. Michelle, tell me a little bit about maybe a story or two that, you know, you run into when you are working with those who who lead others and that you work with every day.

Michelle: Okay. So it's probably daily that people ask the question, how do you hold your people accountable? And one of the first things that come to mind to me is going to be how do you first hold yourself accountable for ensuring that you've created clarity and mutual understanding that the person knows what they're supposed to be accountable to accomplish? And that's I bump into that all the time where people want to they're upset or frustrated because a person didn't do what they had hoped or expected. But then if you ask some questions regarding, well, tell me a little bit about what was your approach? How did you explain it? You know, really what were the expectations? What did how did you explain those expectations? What was that end picture that you were looking for that often gets gray and a lot of times not much. And then we get mad because a person didn't didn't accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. And so that's where we.

Andrea: Get we get this question of, oh, we need or this statement of we need to create a culture of accountability, right? And when people hear this word accountability, it's like, oh, it's very punishing. It's more of a perspective of people aren't doing what they're supposed to. So now we have to create this accountability culture. And it sounds as though what we're trying to accomplish is, well, there needs to be consequences, negative consequences to what we're trying to to to look at. And so as we look at this word accountability, what we're really trying to look at as this responsibility that people take to do what they're supposed to and people look at us, you know, they they have this Scooby Doo look or this noise in their head when they say responsibility and accountability, they're part of the same thing and they really are. And yet, if we create a culture of people being inspired to take responsibility for their actions, really most people do want to take responsibility for their actions. They just don't for some reason. So let's let's go back to this this clarity conversation. What are some of the reasons why this concept of clarity really gets in the way of preventing accountability?

Michelle: Well, I think what can get in the way is I love the phrase knowledge does not equal understanding and or actually knowledge isn't. I love that one, too. But there's also the phrase where, oh, gosh, knowledge is power. No, no, It's it's going to come to me eventually anyway. Having too much information can actually create more problems because you're the expert at whatever it is that you're doing and you're asking someone to do that and to get it done. And because you know so much information and you know how to do it, oftentimes we don't provide that newer person or that unexperienced person with the information they need. So we just kind of hop right to.

Andrea: So the phrase is the curse of knowledge. Thank you. Right. The curse. Okay. So the curse of knowledge, you know, just as this person was talking to me this morning, she was explaining that she had asked this person to do something. And she she even said, hey, I just need this done by Friday. Let me know if there's going to be a problem. It's been a week since she's followed up with this person. I'm like, Why did it take a week? And I'm like, She's like, Well, I have all these reasons and all these excuses. I said, Well, both of you didn't meet an expectation. Both of you didn't take responsibility for what was going on. So if we want to create a culture of accountability, let's talk about creating clarity about what those expectations are. So as we continue to go down this this path of of of accountability, what she did is she said, well, I told her she needed it Friday. I said, But did you say when you're going to follow up, did you say anything about what your responsibility was in this situation? So. In her. And her defense is like, no, I didn't. But she's learning. She's going through the process. But we as leaders, we have so much knowledge in our head. I remember working with one of our coworkers, and trust me, my personality is when I ask for something.

Andrea: I'm thinking it was done ten minutes ago, right? My patience level sometimes is a little short, so I would ask her to do something and she would very clearly say yes, she would take care of it. And then the next minute or the next day or the next day or two, I'd say, Hey, did you get that done? And she'd look at me like. No. And then you look and are like, But you didn't tell me it needed to be done by then. We didn't have this clarity of when did you expect it? I'm thinking, Well, because I asked for it and because I'm just that impatient that you should be able to read my mind. Nobody can read our minds, right? So the clearer we are with those expectations and we're talking just something really, really simple with deadlines, target dates, and even to the point where if you run into trouble accomplishing one of those things, don't wait till the 11th hour because I can't help you at the 11th hour. You need to let me know ahead of time so we can still meet that deadline or that obligation. When you're working with leaders who are struggling with creating this this accountability culture. Other than setting deadlines or target dates, is there something that you're noticing that they struggle with as it relates to this culture?

Michelle: It's well, you've already touched base on it, just not direct. I guess it's the follow up. It is them having the courage to follow up within that timely manner or just check in with them. And there is a fine line. They will say, Well, I feel like I'm micromanaging. I want to give them freedom, which great give them clarity of what those expectations are by when what what it is they need to accomplish. And if you don't see it at some point, then check in then. Or how are you doing? Is there anything that I can help with? But it's that following up is probably one of the biggest barriers. There's the various. They don't. They one, they get busy, they hand it off and it's like it's done. I don't have to worry about it. Or it's the I feel like I'm micromanaging. It's the it's the things that they tell themselves that prevent them from just having a conversation or just a quick check in with that individual know do they have the resources they need as well?

Andrea: Authority We're talking about leaders. And one of our one of our questions as leaders that's a favorite is so do you understand? Shoot a bobblehead can answer that question. There's nothing inside of a bobbleheads head that tells you what they understand. And so when we we talk about follow up, I think that follow up isn't. So do you understand? Because I'm guessing everybody believes they understand what the expectation is. Otherwise they would ask a question. Right. Maybe we have to ask what questions do you have or something like that. But the point is, we believe at that moment that we understand the expectation. We don't know what they know. They don't know that we what we understand. And I think that that's one part of the follow up. But I also think that the follow up is once it's accomplished, do we need to do any kind of debrief? Do we need to follow up and say, how did that go? Was there something we could have done differently in that scenario to make it better in the future? But also looking at I'm going to follow up with you in two days and let's see where you are in some process.

Michelle: And sorry, as I say, or asking, hey, when would it be good for me to check in? And I also think the whole debriefing afterwards of what went well, what did we learn gets overlooked because we're so busy and we learn well. We miss a lot of opportunities to learn from those scenarios and how we can get better, which are those little coaching moments. And as managers, that's one of our biggest responsibilities is developing and growing our people through coaching. And when we don't take those two five minutes, you know, 2 to 5 minutes to just touch base, how did that go? Where did you struggle? What did you learn from this? What's something we can do different that maybe you thought of while you were doing it to make this better, efficient, whatever that may be? We we tell ourselves maybe that we're too busy so we don't take the time to to check in with them on that.

Andrea: Right. So accountability really is started at the point where you create clarity about what's expected, what's the what's the lane that we're talking about, whether it's a a specificity, a deadline, a target date, some conditions. But let's talk a little bit about clarifying between coworkers, because we're talking about leaders like we need to set expectations. We need to make sure that people understand what's what's going on. I also believe that if we're talking about creating a culture of accountability, that part of that is when people don't meet an expectation do we go have a conversation? And that conversation sometimes feels like, oh, this is a quote unquote difficult conversation, or it's a conversation where people are already set up to to be defensive. And it really isn't. What it really is, is a a question or a conversation related to we need to clarify. So what are some situations or stories that you've noticed or you coach people through that help people clarify a conversation as opposed to have the difficult or the crucial conversation?

Michelle: Yeah, well, it goes back to what we believe, what our what we're thinking and what we're telling ourselves. So one, it's creating some self-talk that this is just a conversation to find out. Let me be curious and understand what happened, what was going on, where are they at, what, you know, really bigger picture, what happened, and then how do we learn from that and going in with it as in, again, it's that coaching, it's that going in with the the belief system that that person wants to do their best somewhere. If we didn't if we don't see the results that we're looking for somewhere there was probably a disconnect. Somewhere there was a misunderstood landing. No one you know we always say this no one gets up to say, How can I screw up everyone's day to day? So it's it's believing that they have good intentions. We just need to figure out where the little disconnect took place. Let's do a little coaching, learn and help them be better. And other, you know, either help them go back and work on whatever it is they need to accomplish or moving forward, help them be better at it.

Michelle: The other thing that we didn't touch base on when we talk about that creating that culture of accountability is the why. A lot of times people don't understand the impact that what they're doing has on others. So when you are delegating, asking someone to accomplish something, it's also talking just for a few minutes of of why this is important and that who all it impacts. What are we doing with this. So if I'm working with an accounting individual and I have them pulling data and running some reports, helping them understand that these reports, this information is going to go in front of the, you know, executive team, whoever it's going to go in front of, that's going to be making some decisions off this and this is what we're looking for, gives them a better understanding of why. And also it builds confidence because sometimes, depending on what that why is and what we're doing with it, it can feel really good that they get to be a part of something bigger than they really realize. But I also think.

Andrea: The impact is I need this by Wednesday at noon because if I don't have it by Wednesday at noon, I'm going to be here every night until midnight trying to accomplish something. And I want to do my best. And so there's an understanding of what the impact is. If I don't have it by here this time, not only will maybe the data is incorrect, but there's an impact. There's a ripple effect on what's going on. So I agree with you. There's we have to talk about what is the expectation, but also about how is it going to affect others if it does or does not happen.

Michelle: And that why behind it? Why is it important? Right. Yes. I would say those are probably going to be the top the clarity and the expectation the the Y in behind what it is and then the impact that whatever it is that they're doing has on that ripple effect. Who that has if we accomplish it or don't accomplish it. Right. Those are, I would say, probably those top three things. Well, the fourth is going to be the follow up.

Andrea: Well. Right. So so let's let's take another scenario. We're in a meeting. We're in a group meeting, and maybe we're working on goals. And one of the team members says, Oh, yeah. I had all these reasons why I wasn't able to accomplish something and people around the room just kind of they have the thought bubble that says, Are you freaking kidding me? But at the meantime, oh, like, oh, that's okay, We know you're busy. You know, those are the kinds of things. So we've excused it now. We've taken away the accountability. We have taken away that if we create clarity on what's going on, that it really doesn't mean anything. And so we as leaders have to be comfortable and willing to say, okay, so we didn't get it done. When can we expect it? Because let's go back to the impact. Not having that done has this ripple effect to the organization, to the outcomes of what we're trying to accomplish, and can we help each other learn to say those things without using a two by four upside the head and making it feel really uncomfortable for people, but simply say, I recognize that things happen. We still have to meet our deadline. That did not go away. So what can we do to help you get back on track? What are what are some of the other struggles or is there any other struggle that you're seeing related to peer to peer accountability or even leaders saying, you know. I just really struggle to have these accountability conversations.

Michelle: Well, you there's there's two there. I mean, you have the manager supervisor. No matter if they're a new leader or not, struggling with the follow up, struggling with the the conversations and the four things that we talked about. But then you also have that peer to peer. People don't I mean, peer to peer is a whole other.

Andrea: That's a whole episode. We'll do a whole.

Michelle: Other animal there because that peer to peer, people don't feel as if though they can speak up at times or they will speak up and they may be a little more aggressive. So then that person may feel defensive, too. So it's how do we just have again, another conversation, whether you're peer to peer or even the manager, but where it's we're just we're creating clarity of what you're working on, what I'm working on, when we're going to have it done by. And if we're not, what are we going to communicate sooner than later so we can ensure that maybe one person can jump in and help. But it's it's creating that clarity. When we first started with that peer to peer, right. And helping people understand, well, you know, if we're both working on a project together and you have to get X done, I have to get Y done and we agree on a date. That's, you know, we're each going to have our things, our items done by and I don't have mine done by then there should be some explanation where you should be able to ask me the question of, Hey, well where are you at with that? What can we do to get that done? I still need to get it, you know, can you still get it to me? Worst case by X? And this is why it's important to kind of scenario, which is just a conversation, not a I'm calling you out and we're going to battle. So that's where that.

Andrea: This is not punishment. This is not discipline. This is. All right, here's where we are. How do we course correct to get us back? Correct. So proactively. Proactively so. Creating a culture of accountability. The most critical aspect of this is creating clarity. Clarity of what the expectations are. Clarity about the process. Clarity about what are the. What is the impact of what is happening. And if for some reason that we, again, don't meet an expectation or we miss a deadline or somebody excuses something away, we can still create clarity about we still have the we still have this to accomplish. We still have the expectation. Let's clarify how we're going to get course corrected and back on track. And we as leaders, we have to model that every single day. And if we're not modeling it, then we don't have a culture where people are going to take responsibility and help each other be accountable to meet those expectations. Well.

Michelle: Excuse me, the modeling is 100% true because that's teaching and setting the example for for those employees, right? Yes, definitely.

Andrea: Thanks for joining us for the Leadership Hustle. We have a full season of topics that are going to help you as a leader, build your culture and have those leaders ready to go like share, subscribe. You're not going to want to miss an episode.