THE PATH TO ACCOUNTABILITY: BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED – CHAPTER 02

***Continued from Chapter 01 (Covered previously: Meaning & Interpretation Of Accountability, The Blame Game, Its Impact)

Link to Chapter 01:

THE PATH TO ACCOUNTABILITY: BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED – CHAPTER 01

The demand for rights has become extremely popular, but when it comes to  dealing with responsibility and accountability, we lag far behind, a gap that accounts for increase in  blaming and rights proclaiming, but very few instances of personal responsibility and accountability. The better the case for victimization, the more visibility and exposure we get, and, consequently, the greater the psychological or monetary reward we receive.

The “blame game,” and the “thirst for exposure,” are just two symptoms of a widespread “responsibility avoiding” syndrome, which have afflicted individuals, groups and organizations as well. A majority of people in organizations today, when confronted with poor performance or unsatisfactory results, immediately begin to formulate excuses, rationalizations, and arguments for why they cannot be held accountable for the problems.

Ways To Move Away From The Blaming

What is the accountability ladder and why is it important?

As is with all behavior – it starts with the leadership. The level of accountability within an organization is directly related to the level of accountability that the leaders display. Leaders can never afford to forget the actions that they initiated or created. It is not good enough to ask someone to do something and then ‘forget’ to ask if it was done or for an update on the progress of the action. If we do, the underlying message we are communicating is that the action was not important. Accountability starts at the top. The state of accountability is a reflection of the leadership culture.

So how do we move towards a positive accountability culture – how do we help people to become more accountable? The first thing is to establish where ‘the locus of control’ exists in the organization. Do people ‘feel’ like they have permission to be accountable or are all decisions made by the leadership?

Accountability and Engagement.

Next is the relationship between accountability and engagement. Getting our people engaged in their work is an important aspect of accountability and sets the stage for a healthy, productive work environment. The level of ownership someone takes for the job they do is key. An engaged employee can yield up to 57 percent more discretionary effort than one who is not engaged. Three important strategies for creating employee engagement include:

WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)

Once the stage is set, and we have created the most productive and positive work environment we can, we need to understand employee motivation, both extrinsic and intrinsic.

The Accountability Ladder

The accountability ladder could be described in eight steps broken in two groups; accountable or victim behaviors. These are:

1. I don’t know: No accountability – management and workforce has no clue about unhappy customers or loss.
2. Excuse: More excuses and fewer results – It is mainly due to lack of focus and low productivity.
3. Wait and hope: Expecting results without communicating requirements
4. Blame others: Blame game – play the victim and find someone or something for cause of failure.
5. Acknowledge reality: Recognize the level of workload or tasks required for business growth.
6. Own it: Take responsibility and commit to business goals.
7. Find solution: Take ownership of situation and ability to handle issues professionally.
8. Make it happen: Develop innovative products and achieve breakthrough goals.

The Line between Victimization & Accountability

The roots of victimization stems from its subtle system of belief that people cannot become what they desire to become because of their circumstance. People and organizations find themselves thinking and behaving below the line whenever they consciously or unconsciously avoid accountability for individual or collective results. Stuck in these victim behaviors, they begin to lose their spirit and will, until, eventually, they feel completely powerless.

Only by moving above the line and climbing the steps to accountability can we become powerful again. Rather than face reality, sufferers of this malady oftentimes begin ignoring or pretending not to know about their accountability, denying their responsibility, blaming others for their predicament, citing confusion as a reason for inaction, asking others to tell them what to do, claiming that they cannot do it, or just waiting to see if the situation will miraculously resolve itself.

Accountability for results rests at the very core of the total quality, people engagement and empowerment, and continuous improvement. The essence of it therefore is getting people to become personally accountable – rising above their circumstances and doing whatever it takes (within the bounds of ethical behavior) to get the results they want.

Neither individuals nor organizations can stay on the line between these two realms because events will inexorably push them in one direction or the other. While both people and organizations can have accountability in some situations and victim behavior in others, some issue or circumstance will arise to influence them to think and act from either an above the line or below the line perspective. Even the strongest commitment to accountability will not prevent us from ever falling below the line. That sort of perfection is not humanly possible. But those who are truly accountable never remain there for long.

Where Are We:

We can take a moment to identify where we are on this ladder. Here are a few pointers that may help:

Moving Up the Ladder – So how do we get others or ourselves above the line? Take a few moments to answer the following questions:

What did we notice about these questions? They are all positively focused. Spending the time to answer them may give us a new perspective or place to focus our emotional energy. These are also great questions to ask our people if we feel they are struggling below the line. Questions like these can really open up discussion and help someone refocus.

All of us have been below the line. All of us know what it is like to feel as if we are being treated unfairly and are trapped in our current circumstances. The Accountability Ladder is a great way to diagnose where we are. The ability to understand and help individuals work through the reasoning of why living “Below the Line” can cause undue stress and overall misery; can help them move to a position that may be healthier and happier in the long run.

Ways to Imbibe Personal Accountability

Guiding People to get them Above the Line:

There are five steps to follow when guiding others above the line. These include:

The most critical piece of this is number three. After we have spent time listening and acknowledging the current challenges, the question we need to ask them is, “Given our current circumstances, what else can we do to move forward?” This helps shift them from victim mode to action. Once they begin to talk about what else can be done, make sure to provide the feedback and the support they need to move ahead.

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION TODAY: BEHAVIOURS THAT HELP IDENTIFY

“I need to figure out how to motivate my employees.” When was the last time we thought that to ourselves? It could have been the other week when we noticed one of the direct reports dragging his/her feet on a project that’s critical to the company. Or, perhaps it was the other month when we felt frustrated that the team was not being proactive about addressing customer issues. We hear this sentiment of “how to motivate employees” frequently from managers we work with. We, as leaders, are not the only ones thinking this. Employees themselves admit that they do not feel as motivated at work as they would like.According to research, only 2 in 10 employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

However, this question of, “How to motivate my employees as a manager?” is a misguided one. It implies that motivation is something we give another person. That is patently false. Motivation is not a thing we give to people — motivation is a thing people already have.

Employees inherently have energy, ideas, gifts, and talents that are worth being shared with the world. We, as leaders, simply need to get out of their way and create a space for that energy, ideas, gifts, and talents to thrive. The question we should ask ourselves is not, “How can I motivate my team?” but rather, “How can I create an environment for my team members to motivate themselves?”

Here are some things we can do as leaders to create the conditions for employees to motivate themselves and doesn’t undermine intrinsic employee motivation that they already have.

1. Immerse yourself in discovery.

We cannot enable another person’s motivation to flourish if we don’t know what motivates them, to begin with. As a result, a key part of effectively creating the conditions for strong employee motivation in our team is to figure out what motivates them?

Hopefully, we have got a sense of this when we were hiring them — as the interview process is very much about understanding what drives a person. However, if it still remains fuzzy, here are some questions we will want to ask during our next one-on-one meeting to figure out, at their core, what the team member is motivated by:

It is also a good idea to share these questions ahead of time, thus giving them time to think about the questions. We can say something like, “I’d love to discuss broader, deeper life questions during our next one-on-one,” and can also share an agenda ahead of time. We may continue to ask these questions as we work with this person over time. Discovery of motivation is not a one-time, one-off occurrence — it is an ongoing, consistent practice.

• Personalize everything where feasible.

Motivation is personal. What motivates one person might not motivate someone else. As a result, it is important to have nuance in the conditions we create for motivation to grow — we need to individualize those conditions. This means specifically aligning projects, goals, and incentives with what the other person is motivated by, and no one else.

This seems intuitive, yet we often unintentionally (or completely unknowingly) project our own preferences and proclivities onto another person. For example, because we find detail-oriented work very easy, we might assume the other person does as well, and we proceed to hand off a very data-focused, detail-oriented project to them.

Then, we notice that they are not motivated on the project and seem to be struggling, we wonder, “Hmm why aren’t they really stepping into it?” When we consider the individual nature of motivation, the answer becomes obvious: It was a mismatch of aligning the project to what motivates that person the most. However, sometimes, there are projects that must get done and goals that have to get met — and we cannot customize or individualize them.

• Create flexibility/ choice.

While we cannot always individualize and perfectly match someone’s project and goals with what they are most motivated by, we can create positive conditions for motivation by enabling choice in what people can do. In Edward Deci’s seminal book on human motivation theory, Why We Do What We Do, he describes how “meaningful choice engenders willingness” and results in a higher quality of decisions, and greater motivation and commitment to the task.

For example, while someone may not be able to choose their project, we can give them a choice in how they want to approach the project. Or in another situation, instead of assigning someone a set of goals, we can invite them to participate in the formation of those goals and enable them to choose it. Studies have shown that when people can actively choose their own goals, they are more likely to follow through on them.

• Discontinue surveillance.

What damages the conditions for motivation the most? Surveillance has been revealed in studies to negatively impact intrinsic motivation. Anytime we are peeking over someone’s shoulder, making a mental note of what time they log on or log off, or when they enter the office — it is not helping. Additionally, consider how deadlines and imposed goals undermine intrinsic motivation and negatively affect performance. Are we arbitrarily setting targets to create an artificial sense of “urgency” or “accountability”? Or are we trying to create a supportive environment that is truly helpful for a person getting to where they need to be?

• Acknowledge constraints and feelings.

Sometimes we cannot create a good environment for motivation. The company is tight on resources, or there is a toxic person who is dragging the team down, but we don’t have the authority to let that person go. When you know that prime conditions for strong motivation are not there, recognize that. Share with the team, “Here’s why I know that sucks” or “I so appreciate you bearing with this” and we demonstrate how much we understand their point of view. This sharing of the rationale behind why things are constraining or not feeling good helps to minimize the pressure that detracts from performance. Acknowledging the bad helps clear room for someone to try to do good.

• Clarify expectations.

On occasion, our team does not seem motivated because their behaviour doesn’t match up with our own conception of what “highly motivated” looks like in our heads. In short, we as leaders have not made clear what the real output of strong motivation looks like in our team. Does it mean that people are moving faster? Does it mean a higher quality of work? Once we have determined what the product of “stronger motivation” looks like, then consider: How well have we communicated this to the team? Do they know and are they aware that is the output and product they should be creating?

As a leader, when we are trying to figure out how to motivate employees, what we are truly trying to do is create a context in which they can act. We are creating an environment for the team to motivate themselves.

**Source Credits:-

The Book- Why We Do What We Do by Edward Deci 

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa