The Two Sides to Getting “More Accountability”

Have you ever heard someone say, “What we need around here is more accountability”?  If so, you are in good company because accountability, how to get it, and why people don’t have more of it is a popular topic in today’s workplace.

I encounter this complaint from the managers in my MBA classes as well as

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Is Demanding “Now” Undermining Leadership?

I recently got an email from – let’s call him Paul – a manager updating me on his attempts to interrupt the “high priority” manipulation that is so prevalent in organizations.  Turns out he is becoming increasingly successful everywhere except with his boss.   Apparently Paul’s boss doesn’t realize how he is undermining himself.

Here is what

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Not Responding Can Cost You

A former Mastery of Execution student sent me the link to a great blog article posted by Fast Company entitled “2010: The Year of Saying ‘I Got It’ “.  The focus of the article, written by Lynette Chiang,  is how companies, as well as individuals, have gotten into the habit of not responding to inquiries

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What the Absence of Accountability Sounds Like

I have been doing some research in preparation for a workshop on personal accountability a colleague and I are doing for MBA’s at the Fisher College.  As I have been getting into it, I am beginning to notice more about what the absence of accountability sounds like when people talk.  Consider the following example.

The other

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Common Ground and Performance

Why don’t people perform the way we expect them to?  Perhaps you have asked yourself this question, or participated in a discussion with others related to it.  Although there are many answers that could be provided, one that has recently caught my attention is the role of common ground.

I was recently at a holiday dinner

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Convert Expectations into Agreements

Don’t risk being held to account for things you don’t know about. Take the time to find out what people really expect you to do, and what they expect you to deliver.  If they don’t tell you, ask.

I recently had a conversation with a manager who was disturbed by her inability to meet the

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The Fundamental Error in Managing Others

While flying home from a weekend visit with my son in Houston, Texas, I got a flash of insight into why it is so difficult to train managers to be more effective.  I was reading “The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making” when I realized managers make a fundamental error in their understanding of what

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Incentives Don’t Work? Part II

If you read my earlier post on Incentives Don’t Work, then you know that Dan Pink’s TED video raises some interesting questions about incentives.  In particular, he raises questions about the role of external incentives and their impact on non-routine, creative, or innovative work performance.  His point is well made.  Research has long known that

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Motivating Others Is Easy IF You Stop Trying To

On September 29, I started my MBA class on Leading and Managing Change in Organizations.  Unlike my prior classes, this is a mix of working professional and fulltime students.  One of the questions I asked them was “What’s important to you?  What do you really want out of this class?”

Although there were a variety of

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Building Accountability without Authority

Is it possible to build accountability even when you don’t have authority?  The case of Myles Brand, president of the NCAA suggests the answer is yes.

Myles Brand, who died September 16, 2009, was the former president of Indiana University and Oregon University.  Brand left the presidency of Oregon to become president of the NCAA, a

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