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 - Change Management
Over the last 25-30 years change management has emerged and grown from concepts and studies about the impact of change, to thousands of books, articles and seminars created to help people and organizations manage change. But change is, well, changing, and people and organizations must evolve from managing change to leading change.
Related Fun Fact of the Week: The most costume change illusions in one minute is 24, and was achieved by Avery Chin and Sylvia Lim aka Avery & Sylvia (both Malaysia) in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, on 2 September 2017.
If that’s not being agile with change, then I don’t know what is!
Over the last 25-30 years change management has emerged and grown from concepts and studies about the impact of change, to thousands of books, articles and seminars created to help people and organizations manage change. But change is, well, changing, and people and organizations must evolve from managing change to leading change.
In fact, a study by McKinsey found that 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals largely due to employee resistance and lack of leader support. The study also concluded that when people are truly invested in change it is 30% more likely to stick. So with all the focus on change management over the last quarter century, why are we not managing change more effectively?
Traditional change models view change as originating from the top of the organization with top leaders fully invested in the initiative, creating a burning platform to instill a sense of urgency, then mobilizing mid-management around that burning platform to drive the change through the organization. The goal? To ensure all employees grasp their role in implementing the change and are on board in hopes of minimizing the resistance to the change.
If 70% of changes initiatives fail, something needs to change! Change should not be managed, it should be led, and led by everyone, not just senior leaders or designated change agents. Possibilities for change can and should be identified and initiated at every level of the organization. Waiting for change to happen misses the opportunity to enable and engage the entire workforce to see possibilities for change everywhere and become nimble and agile in a dynamic performance environment. If every employee becomes a change agent the need to gain buy-in and the resistance to change dramatically decreases.
Many organizations are simply not set up for agile change, they are built for stability and try to limit and manage the impact of change. Remember, 70% of change fails because of trying to manage it. Unleash the change potential in your organization and enable every employee to lead change!
Want to know more on the future of organizations? Contact us or take a look at our Organization Performance Reimagined whitepaper.
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 3-5-10 Year Business Plans
There was a day and age when business cycles were predictable. You could plan for a certain annualized growth, keep expenses in line, and while competition existed, you could plan for it and global disruption was never a factor. Now business cycles and windows of opportunity are often hours and weeks, not years.
Related Fun Fact of the Week: Did you know that approximately 250,000 people participated in the 1963 civil rights march in DC, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech?
There was a day and age when business cycles were predictable. You could plan for a certain annualized growth, keep expenses in line, and while competition existed, you could plan for it and global disruption was never a factor. Now business cycles and windows of opportunity are often hours and weeks, not years.
Now don’t get us wrong, planning is important or chaos can ensue….but rigid financial, operational and sales plans that don’t allow for ever-changing dynamics in our business world today can be the death of an organization. The corporate landscape is littered with organizations unwilling or too slow to change direction and their long range business plans. Blockbuster, Sony Betamax, Blackberry, Compaq Computer, and the list goes on. All had very solid 3-5 year business plans…at least until the world changed around them.
Dr. Martin Luther King was one of the greatest leaders of our time. But did he deliver a “I Have a Plan” speech? No, he delivered a “I Have a Dream” speech. While plans were created along the way, people were motivated and mobilized by Dr. King’s dream and clear vision for something better in the future, not by a financial or logistics plan.
So, as you look to your organization or departments future, rather than spending massive amounts of very valuable resources in developing 30-40 page strategic business planning documents that get circulated to a few, create a compelling and mobilizing vision where people will gladly step up and plan with you on how to achieve that vision and will be committed and engaged to creating and sustaining a long range purpose, versus a long range plan.
Does your organization have a dream for the future that everyone can connect to and rally around? Or does it have 3-5-10 year business plan documents and PowerPoint’s that sit on desktops or in binders on shelves? Create the dream and the plans will follow suit.
Want to know more on the future of organizations? Contact us or take a look at our Organization Performance Reimagined whitepaper.
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 "Because I Told You So"
As a child, how many of us heard the response “Because I told you so!” when you asked why you had to do something? Nearly all of us have, at one time or another, heard those dreaded words growing up. That response has its origins from a bygone era when performance either at home or in the workplace was administered through command and control.
Related Fun Fact of the Week: In the Vietnam War, the majority of soldiers couldn’t make a move, shoot their gun, or do much of anything unless several rungs about them on the “command and control” ladder told them they could do so. Many statements from former veterans play out something like this: We knew where the enemy was, but we couldn’t pursue him. And when we fought him, we couldn’t kill him.”
In today’s business environment of rapid change, we can certainly see how this lack agility from a command and control environment would be a major hindrance within companies!
As a child, how many of us heard the response “Because I told you so!” when you asked why you had to do something? Nearly all of us have, at one time or another, heard those dreaded words growing up. That response has its origins from a bygone era when performance either at home or in the workplace was administered through command and control.
Certainly success can be achieved with a command and control performance model, but the actions and activities to achieve that success comes from complying with the demand rather than from a place of commitment and engagement to achieve a purpose.
Command and control was the prevalent style of management modeled and practiced after WWII, but has been on the decline since the 80’s. Still, some organizations and certain leaders manage in the past. The next generation leader doesn’t use command and control to manage their people. They inspire, enable, facilitate and develop their people and prevailing performance environments.
So now when someone asks you the “why” question, the answer is not, “Because I told you so!”. It is now an opportunity to connect with understanding, knowledge and a dialogue the engages, not demands.
Leadership is evolving and shifting, are you?
Want to know more on the shift in leadership? Contact us or take a look at our LeaderShift book or online course, complete with a guidebook that gives you a path for the evolving leader in today’s world.
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.
Does Your Organization CARE to Engage Your Employees?
If you want better employee engagement, it can’t just be delegated to managers or HR. Our clients with 90+% employee engagement scores enable that success using a simple C.A.R.E engagement model.
Clarity
Creating and maintaining clarity throughout any organization is crucial to achieving and sustaining measurable top-tier performance and engagement. Clarity in two ways; developing, cultivating and leveraging the organization’s “people” advantage and then maintaining a finger on the pulse of people’s engagement is critical.
People want a “reason to believe” in the organization they work for and they want to know that what they do matters and that their contributions are valued. This is the organization providing clarity so people, no matter where they are in the organization, feel connected and valued. What is your organizations “reason to believe”?
Alignment
Aligning performance environment, culture, people, process and behaviors with purpose, vision, mission and values is a critical key to achieving sustained performance and employee engagement.
Resources
To continually cultivate and enable an organization where everyone is leading where they are and where leaders are supporting the growth and development of their people (and in turn driving results and engagement) requires the organization to invest in resources that both support and advance those efforts.
Enable
It’s time to enable!
Create and cultivate a culture and organizational performance environment that enables and accelerates success, not impedes or becomes a barrier to success. Form engagement teams, provide all employee engagement training and cultivate an organization that is employee engaged, leader supported, and organizational enabled.
Start by:
Ensuring that executive and senior leaders are aligned on purpose, vision, mission and values and are providing clarity and continually reinforcing the reason to believe for every employee.
Developing an effective onboarding process that provides leadership training and support for all new hires.
Providing coaching and mentoring to formal leaders so they in turn can more effectively coach and mentor their people.
Establishing a process that continually assesses organizational effectiveness and employee engagement and turns that feedback into rapid change.
Provide ongoing training and support that develops the leader in everyone.
So how much does your organization truly CARE about your employee’s engagement?
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.
Want Better Employee Engagement? Become a CEO (Chief Engagement Officer) for Your People.
If you want better employee engagement, leaders need to cultivate and support an environment of engagement, not compliance. If you are a formal leader of people, add the duties of the CEO (Chief Engagement Officer) to your role.
Our clients that have seen double digit improvement in overall employee engagement have leaders that cultivate employee-led engagement. They stop managing their people and begin developing environments of personal performance, accountability, change, and connecting people to a purpose, not a task. They enable so many more decisions then they could ever personally make in the past. Now that is true empowerment!
Engaged leaders look beyond titles, roles, and position descriptions of their people. They match talent to opportunity. We had one of our clients take a product manager, tap them on the shoulder to lead the effort to build a brand-new multimillion-dollar headquarters location. That building came four weeks ahead of schedule and right on budget…..they matched talent to opportunity and success happened.
As a leader, are you:
Now is the time to make the leadershift and take on the role of CEO (Chief Engagement Officer). You and your organization will be glad you did.
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.