I
was reading in the newspaper today that the new CEO of General Motors
had called upon his senior staff to be "accountable". That is a good
call, but in my experience the problem is often the reverse. By that I
mean most senior personnel would like nothing better than being treated
as accountable for their results, but feel that they are being
micro-managed at every step of the way.
Related
Article
What is Accountability?
One of
the most elusive concepts
in management is accountability. In leadership roles, accountability is
the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions within
the scope of a role or position, encompassing the obligation to report,
and be answerable for resulting consequences. Once accountability
becomes a part of your management style, you will see improved results
and more satisfied employees.
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I
was reading in the newspaper today that the new CEO of General Motors
had called upon his senior staff to be "accountable". That is a good
call, but in my experience the problem is often the reverse. By that I
mean most senior personnel would like nothing better than
being treated as accountable for their results, but feel that they are
being micro-managed at every step of the way.
Those
of you that are familiar with my style will have keyed in to the one
critical word in the statement "being
treated as accountable for their results". The word results is what it
is all about. Too many managers or business owners try to manage the
process, and not the results so everyone gets the feeling of being
interfered with or micro-managed. Why does this happen? Simply put,
because the boss has not clearly set out the goals and objectives and
has not agreed upon milestones and metrics.
As
managers, we take a lot of care in choosing our people. We expect them
to be trained to do the job, or if not we ensure they get the training
they need, So what is the point of monitoring the process. If they
didn't know what to do we wouldn't employ them. No, the way to go is
set
realistic, measureable and mutually agreed goals, set up the
measurement system which is transparent to both sides then, and only
then can we hold our personnel accountable. The goals we set should be
short term, medium term and long term and each should have a defined
metric our milestone. Now we don't measure the process, we concentrate
solely on achieving results.
So
the title of the article is "Accountability is a two way street!" Where
does the "two ways" come in? Let's face it not all bosses are good
managers, in fact if you listen to the water cooler scuttlebutt, very
few are. So as staff, what do we have to do to get the process going?
For sure complaining about being micro-managed is not going to help.
The key is getting the boss to define and agree those critical goals
and objectives. If he won't do it, you must. Sit down, ask yourself
what
you think would be what achievements you would expect if you were your
boss. Write them down then ask your boss to go over them with you. What
will probably happen the first time you do this is your boss will be
surprised how high you set the bar for yourself.
Very
soon he will begin to get the idea. If you are lucky he will even start
to set goals that he wants to include. If not, you just keep at it,
make sure your boss approves of your objectives, then get out
there
and be accountable for their achievement.
The
Author After 25 years consulting
to small and medium sized companies, Mike
Anderson, principal of Train
Me To Be a CEO realized that the most
important part of his work was training the CEO, and the reason he was
such a good consultant was that he did that very well.
Trained as an engineer,
he became a CEO of a midsize corporation at the age of 35. After a
spell at Harvard Business School he entered the world of consulting.
3.
Ongoing mentorship. Begins with a minimum two day one on one, but
continues with monthly or quarterly follow up sessions. (Smart and
probably Best!) .
References
A New England Contractor
"Mike Anderson has been
working diligently with the upper management team at (our firm). Mike
is extremely knowledgeable and has an exceptional way of dealing with
many different personalities. He has worked very closely with the Sales
Team to impress upon them the importance of using a consistent method
of estimating. He was instrumental in restructuring our accounting
procedures."
