Lessons From The Best: Leading Accountability - FedEx
We can learn a lot from FedEx. Their Purple Promise of making every FedEx experience outstanding is shared by over 400,000 employees worldwide, each accountable to each other and their customers.
Many organizations talk about accountability, FedEx is an organization that exemplifies accountability.
As we prepare for the release of our new eBook Lead Where You Are which will be coming out right after the first of the year, we will be exploring how organizations rated as a Best Place to Work create dynamic, highly engaged workforces delivering sustained results by leveraging many of the concepts we highlight in the book.
Week 1 (Oct. 10) - Leading with Purpose
Week 2 (Oct. 17) - Leading Change
Week 3 (Oct. 24) - Leading Accountability
Week 4 (Oct. 30) - Leading Performance
Leading Accountability - FedEx
FedEx, founded in 1971 as Federal Express and based in Memphis, TN, has been named a Fortune Magazine Best Companies to Work For thirteen times with its most recent award in 2018.
We can learn a lot from this outstanding organization, one that I have personal experience with having worked there for over 10 years. Their Purple Promise of making every FedEx experience outstanding is shared by over 400,000 employees worldwide, each accountable to each other and their customers.
Many organizations talk about accountability, FedEx is an organization that exemplifies accountability. One afternoon, a PM courier headed to Denton, TX from the Irving FedEx facility, an hour drive one-way to complete their afternoon pickup route. When he reached his first drop box for pickup, he realized he left the drop box key back at the Irving station. Depending on the location, each drop box could contain between 40-50 packages. That would amount to a massive number of delivery failures the next day. Faced with a difficult situation, this courier showed a “no matter what” level of accountability. No matter what, he was going to ensure those packages made it to the aircraft that night and their destination the next day. Despite a number of not so great options such as leaving the packages for the next day and chalking it up to human error, having a team member meet him halfway with the key, which risks other routes being negatively impacted, or driving back and forth to the station himself, which was not an option due to the cut time required to make the aircraft, this FedEx courier, accepting responsibility to do something to keep that Purple Promise, found the nearest hardware store and purchased a very large wrench. With his large wrench he disconnected the drop box from its foundation, loaded it into his van and drove the drop box and the packages it contained back to Irving. The packages were unloaded from the drop box, sorted and loaded onto the plane that night and out for delivery the next morning in their destination cities.
That is a prime example of someone accepting responsibility and showing accountability no matter what the circumstance might be. That level of accountability shared by each FedEx employee is a major contributing factor in earning FedEx the designation of Best Company to Work For thirteen year and counting. So how accountable is your organization and the people that work in it? Is It conditional and selective accountability or does the culture create and reinforce a performance environment of no matter what accountability?
How do you build that type of a no matter what performance environment?
Focus on defining accountability throughout your organization. Reward and recognize those that embody the definition of accountability and intervene where accountability might be lacking and where blame, justifying and making excuses rule the interactions. Step up and lead with your personal commitment to being accountable no matter what.
Learn from the best, contribute to a culture of ‘no matter what’ accountability. It works for FedEx.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
A Lead Where You Are Mindset: Accountability - An Assessment
I am accountable. Just saying the words “I am accountable” sets a tone, an expectation that action and results can and will happen. You then add the words “no matter what” and a whole new level of commitment and expectation is set.
Related Fun Fact of the Week:
The largest sinkhole in the world is the Qatar Depression. The vast Qattara west of Cairo, Egypt is the largest natural sinkhole in the world, measuring 80km long by 120km wide. This dangerous, sludge-filled quicksand pit is unearthly in its appearance and shocking in its size. The 133m deep sinkhole has been used in battle and more recently scientists have attempted to develop a $360 million dollar project that would harness the Qattara for complete energy independence.
We don’t recommend trying to run through it.
I am accountable. Just saying the words “I am accountable” sets a tone, an expectation that action and results can and will happen. You then add the words “no matter what” and a whole new level of commitment and expectation is set.
In our speaking engagements and workshops when we ask individuals attending in the audience the question, “Are you accountable?” They invariably say yes, absolutely. However, when we conduct organization wide employee engagement and commitment surveys and ask questions gauging the level of accountability throughout the organization, nearly every organization will have 30-40% and higher of the participants that identify their organization is lacking accountability. So why such a disconnect if nearly 100% of individuals say they are accountable?
It’s what’s called the Accountability Gap, and it is in nearly every organization and can exist for many reasons that aren’t nearly as important as understanding how to fix it. The fix is simple, yet complex and requires a performance mindset change on the individual level. The term “Accountability” can be described by many different verbs but ultimately those verbs don’t mean anything and personal accountability means nothing if others don’t see or experience us performing those verbs on a daily basis. That’s right, accountability cannot and will never be achieved in an organization if the people around us aren’t the ones experiencing our accountability. We can have all the ‘personal’ accountability in the world but if we aren’t asking ourselves if others think and see us as accountable in all situations, no matter what, then we’re just running in quicksand.
Use our new, free ‘Am I Accountable?’ assessment to see how accountable you are. And remember, as you rank the statements be thinking, “Do others view me as this way?’
Take the assessment today at www.cornerstonelearning.com/accountability-assessment.
Want to learn more about personal accountability enhancement within organizations? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Relics of Bygone Eras - The "Rank and Yank"
Related Fun Fact of the Week: Real Vaudeville shows would “Drop the Cow” on bad or overly long acts with "the hook", a shepherd's crook extended from offstage to pull away the performer. Oftentimes by the neck. Though he didn't originate it, the hook is forever associated with Howard "Sandman" Sims, a tap dancer who would use the hook on bad acts at the Apollo Theatre.
Talk about getting yanked! Ouch!
The pace of change is rapid. In fact, everywhere you turn the landscape of organizational performance is littered with relics of bygone eras. Last week we talked about our first organizational relic from the past…”climbing the corporate ladder”. As we discussed, climbing the corporate ladder is now being replaced by leveraging agile, individual and team performance networks that match unique talent to unique organization opportunity.
Our next left over symbol of a past performance bygone era is the use of “forced” or “bell curve” performance ranking systems, commonly referred to by the employees as “rank and yank”. This rating practice was championed by Jack Welch, CEO of GE and gained popularity with management throughout the 80’s. (Trust us, It was never popular in the employee population).
The practice of using a bell curve or a forced distribution to rank employees invariably kills morale, pits employees against each other creating unnecessary and unhealthy competition, and wastes thousands of hours with managers and HR professionals sitting in “collaboration meetings” fighting for their people. Even though GE and many other high profile organizations have stop using this method, many organizations still subscribe to what, hopefully soon, will be a long forgotten, ineffective, organizational practice.
With the evolution going on in organizational performance and the every increasing need to attract, develop, and cultivate specialized talent and skills, it important to replace “rank and yank” with continuous performance pursuit conversations and a “lead where you are” performance environment. The onus of performance accountability shifts from a leader reviewing and force ranking performance, to both the leader and employee pursuing performance with the employee continually owning and proactively reviewing their ongoing performance activities and results each month.
Organizations that have replaced this performance management relic in favor of continuous performance pursuit have seen tremendous improvements in both employee engagement and performance results.
It is time to make “rank and yank” a historical footnote in our organizations and business schools.
Want to know more on leading where you are? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package, complete with online courses, guidebooks and other resources.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Relics of Bygone Eras - The Corporate Ladder
Related Fun Fact of the Week: The longest wooden ladder in the world measures 135 ft long. It was made by the Handwerks Museum, St. Leonhard, Austria and completed in April 2005. The ladder has 120 rungs.
What a ladder to climb!
For over 50 years, the term “climbing the corporate ladder” was often a definition of success. The idea of starting at the very bottom and working your way to President or CEO seemed to be the the ultimate working dream.
But, “climbing the corporate ladder” is no longer seen as a path to success, just a symbol of past, ineffective, highly political performance models that often would define the most “qualified” as having the most organizational tenure or time in a position. Or even who you know that might assist you in skipping a few rungs on that ladder.
Thankfully, organizations are rapidly evolving from archaic “corporate ladders” to agile “performance networks” that identify and leverage unique talents and experiences and matches that talent to unique current and future performance opportunities.
Positioning yourself for this evolution of performance requires knowing, cultivating and leveraging your unique talents. Developing the capability and capacity to lead where you are, no matter where you are. This means leading your personal performance, not waiting to have your performance managed or reviewed. Leading change, not waiting for change to happen or letting the status quo consume your performance environment. Being accountable, even when others aren’t. Creating and sustaining authentic relationships, moving past just the communicating and truly connecting with others. And working with purpose and conviction, coming into work each day with a plan and attitude to help others be the best they can be by being the best you can be.
By leading where you are and intentionally developing the unique leader and talents within yourself, you define and cultivate your own future and you don’t let symbols from the past define your path to success.
Want to know more on leading where you are? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package, complete with online courses, guidebooks and other resources.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Model for Performance Success - Clarity, Alignment, and Accountability
To lead your personal performance there are three core building blocks that lead to sustained performance success.
Clarity, alignment and accountability are critical to performance success in any environment or endeavor.
In fact, if you consistently gain and provide both clarity and alignment it becomes much easier to ensure accountability.
Lets start with the clarity.
You can achieve greater personal clarity by:
- Periodically reviewing and updating your formal job description.
- Identifying and documenting your personal purpose, vision, and mission.
- Each day review your key priorities and actions.
Now lets focus on your personal and organizational alignment.
How truly aligned are you?
Do you know...
- Your managers description of your role and their expectations?
- The purpose, mission, and vision of your organization and department?
- The key priorities of your organization and team?
Finally, are your personally accountable?
It would be very easy to lack some accountability if you lack any clarity or alignment from the above exercises. The key to enhancing your accountability will be to gain more clarity and alignment. In addition, measure yourself against these key accountability elements:
- Do you or have you placed blame or made excuses recently?
- Are there issues/problems either in your control or out of your control that just continue to drift where you have not intervened?
- Do you accept responsibility no matter what the circumstance might be to make positive things happen?
It is imperative to take control of our performance, don’t leave performance success and the measure of that success up to anyone else. Begin leading your performance today by gaining and achieving greater clarity, alignment and accountability, the core to performance success.
And don't forget to sign up for the latest Cornerstone Learning Online Course, Leading Performance! Out on October 24th!
Upcoming Posts
---------
OCTOBER 10 - Blueprint for Individual Performance
OCTOBER 17 - The Performance Connection
OCTOBER 24 - Leading Performance Overview
Leading Performance Release Date
October 24, 2017
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Are you a 5 star performer?
It doesn’t matter your role or position in the company, from the very top to the most entry level, this week rate your performance as if you were an UBER or Lyft driver. At the end of every one-on-one interaction, group meeting, board or sales presentation, customer service call, etc., put down a rating for yourself on a scale from 1 (poor performance) to 5-star (exceptional performance). Make the rating from others' perspective, not yours, and be honest with yourself. If they had an app that could immediately rate you, are you producing 5-star performances where others are gaining tremendous value from you and want to interact with you? If you have a low 1-3 one time performance rating in a meeting or phone call, that is your call to action to make the next 4 interactions 5-star performances. Your goal this week is to achieve a 4.8 to 5-star average rating for all your performance impact opportunities. Good luck!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.