Accountability
- The Missing Success Producing Factor
By: Natalie R.
Manor, CEO
Taking the proven and
replicable steps for developing an accountability
practice can help you create your ultimate success.
Our premise if that you cannot fail if you
use the characteristics of accountability to support
your goals, dreams, visions, sales process, team building,
and business creation.
Here is how the NMA Team
and I define accountability…
NMA’s Definition
of Accountability
-
Doing what you say you will do when
you say you will do it
-
Integrity around deadlines
-
Providing good work even when you
are tired
-
Supporting the team and organizational
goals
-
Showing up when it is hard and doing
the right thing even when no one is watching
-
Not kidding yourself into thinking
you do not have to be responsible
The process of being accountable
and holding others accountable involves all of our communication
skills because it requires that we consistently ask the
questions “who, what, when, why and how” to obtain information
we need to create clear results in moving forward.
When you start asking questions
of your people about their ideas and the execution of
their work, they can get very defensive. These questions
may make them feel like you don’t trust them to get
things done. Developing these types of
accountability methods can very uncomfortable for both
you and them in the beginning.
Use yourself as an example
in thinking through asking questions. If someone were
to say to you, “Well, Warren, when will it be done?”
How do you feel about being asked that question? My
clients who begin the process for accountability and
the questioning strategy to implement accountability,
have reported resistance from the people being asked
these questions.
People want you to agree
with them. They don’t want to tell you when it will
be done, how they will complete it, why it is the way
it is, etc. They just want to be able to put the details
into their own schedule and complete the task according
to their own timing.
And that is the problem.
Many of us do not know
how to schedule our time and use it well, plan priorities
and/or delegate. So when someone asks you questions
about your next steps, you may feel irritated and even
incompetent.
However, the questioning
strategy within accountability is the most important
aspect of creating the timing, projects, results, and
products you want when they need to be done…and done
well.
Let me point out that there
may be a key characteristic missing from your accountability
questioning strategy and that is the ability to listen
and listen well. I would like to refer you to one of
our most read articles, “Effective
Listening for Leaders” on our website.
Listening is not easy nor
is it common. My dear friend, Mary Warzecha, is a listening
guru and she says “Listening is not just waiting to
talk.”
In order for people to
be accountable, they need to be able to hear you. The
tips, techniques and strategies provided in the “Effective
Listening for Leaders” article will enable you to
easily and quickly review the top best practices for
listening. You might want to even share the information
with your business partner, team, or entire organization.
We would be pleased for more people to improve the quality
of their listening by the information we have thoroughly
researched and provided in the “Effective
Listening for Leaders” article.
Accountability is a
behavior and a leadership characteristic that takes
practice and awareness. It is also a proven way to
guarantee excellence for you, your team, organization, and services/products.
Once you, your team and organization learn the value
of practicing accountability, the way you spend your
time will dramatically change.
Communication will be clear.
People will feel supported. Deadlines will be met. Your
confidence, as a leader, will increase. I think that
all of us would benefit by revisiting how we hold ourselves
and others accountable. You deserve to revisit and relearn
your accountability best practices to guarantee the
successful results that you want for yourself, your
team, and your organization.
Would you like
help with your accountability?
See the NMA Recommends
section of this newsletter for more information on our
Brand New
“Platinum 30 Day Accountability
Program”.
© 2001-2010 Natalie Manor & Associates.
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with The Natalies and Julie Underwood, CPA and trusted
business mentor
“The
Platinum 30 Day Accountability Program gave me
the support and the ‘push’ I needed to break out
of my old habits and behaviors that weren’t serving
me or my business. With Natalie’s coaching and
mentoring, I was able to identify and solve the
issues that were keeping me from being effective
and profitable. Since the completion of my 30
Day Accountability my business has grown 20%,
I have more free time to enjoy my life outside
of my work and I am no longer plagued by those
old habits and behaviors that kept me from being
effective. I know that the success of my practice
would never have happened as quickly or seamlessly
without the intensity of the Platinum 30 Day Accountability
Program.”