Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: accountability

  • Listen In -> Tangible Accountability #2: Structures That Build In Results

    Accountability is not the police force that comes in after the fact to point out everything we did wrong, accountability is the structures along the way that we put in place to make sure all that we intend in fact continues to take place.

    In motion, real time meetings, check-in points, deadlines, and specific plans that provide opportunities for issues to be addressed, problems to be anticipated, and changes to be coordinated.

    What are these accountability structures that get us where we’re going and help us adjust before it’s too late?

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Tangible Accountability #1: How Politicians and CEO’s Have It Backwards

    Accountability has gotten a bad reputation.

    It’s associated either with finding people to blame after a huge mess has been made, or used as an excuse to micromanage and second-guess along the way.

    Accountability is an important, positive, constructive component of healthy working cultures.

    But it is neither the public shaming that the President promises for any who misspend the economic stimulus funds, nor the power-grabbing oversight that so many executives and politicians want in order to countermand anything they disagree with.

    What then is “Tangible Accountability?” How does accountability become a positive, constructive force for accomplishing what a company intends?

    Over the next five weeks Claudia and I will be discussing:

    Tangible Accountability

    Week 1: How CEO’s and Politicians Have It Backwards

    Week 2: Structures That Build In Actual Results

    Week 3: Relationships That Build In Constructive Support

    Week 4: Motivators That Build In Lifelong Learning

    Week 5: Criteria That Builds In Meaningful Measurement

    Listen in.

  • Question of the Week

    How do you identify how well you performed today?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • Question of the Week

    How would it affect your leadership style if you considered yourself primarily accountable to your staff instead of to your supervisors?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • Question of the Week

    How do you affirm and encourage risk-taking without reducing your demand for results?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • Toxic at the Extremes

    Operating at any extreme rarely works well.

    Empowerment and accountability as extremes are toxic. As partners they are generative.

    Authority and resources for making an individual contribution along with expectations for achieving specific results.

    Empowerment alone is a recipe for chaos, diluted focus, and the tyranny of individual entitlement agendas. Accountability alone is a recipe for abusive manipulation, unrealistic and unfair standards, and begrudged work efforts.

    But get ready for an explosion of energy, engagement and results when you hold empowerment and accountability in creative tension with each other.

    Claudia and I are discussing this right now in our current podcast series on Influencing Others. Be sure to click on the player in the right column and listen in.

    How do you combine the extension of authority and resources to empower individual contribution along with the expectations and accountability to achieve specific results?

  • Listen In -> Influencing Others #1: Empowerment and Accountability

    The solution is a tension. When it comes to influencing others, there are no shortcuts.

    If you were hoping for tips on how to manipulate people into doing much more for much less and then thanking you for the privilege, you’ll probably be disappointed with our current podcast series on Influencing Others.

    Join us as we discuss a powerful and inseparable relationship between empowerment and accountability. A total commitment to results and achieving the mission of the organization on the one hand, and a total commitment to trust and creating a place where people engage fully and bring everything they have to the table on the other.

    Over the next four weeks, we will be discussing:

    1. Empowerment and Accountability
    2. Clarity and Buy-in to the Mission
    3. Clarity and Commitment to the Team
    4. Organizing for Trust and Results

    Listen in.

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  • Building In Volunteer Accountability

    Key with volunteers is the opportunity to contribute and make a difference. Take that away and why not just stay home and catch up on chores?

    A position without accountability is the same as a position that doesn’t matter. If it’s not important enough to have standards and expected outcomes, then it’s not very important.

    By treading lightly and avoiding confrontation over sub-standard work by volunteers, we rob them of one of the key benefits of getting involved—the opportunity to make a difference. Work that matters is work worth insisting on people’s best efforts.

    Try including expected outcomes in your volunteer job descriptions. Lists of tasks or responsibilities leave too much to individual interpretation. Many arguments or misunderstandings about performance can be avoided from the outset with a focus on outcomes.

    Accountability is not a threat to those who care about their work… it is a gift. How do you go about giving the gift of accountability?

    (Find the entire Challenges Facing Non-Profits series here.)