Accountability Is Something
We Do to Ourselves

Excerpt by
Roger Conners & Tom Smith

Principle One: Accountability is a choice.

Let us begin with a real story that happened to Suzanne Volle. She works for a large women’s clothing
retailer that is organized into about 100 districts with stores located
throughout the United States.
Sue is a District Manager and considered herself the
typical manager at her level. Her 10 stores never really shined, but they also
were never at the very bottom of the pack in terms of same-store sales.
However, her company was looking to improve performance, so they ranked their
managers into two groups: “renters” and “owners.” Sue
met with her Regional Manager and was told that she was seen as a
“renter.” That is, she was not seen as someone who was invested in
getting the results needed and was simply playing a glorified
“caretaker” role with her district.

When Sue heard how she was seen, she was devastated. She had been with the
company 12 years at that point and was looking to advance her career. With this
news, she had reached what we would call the critical point of accountability:
she could either decide to get mad and go “Below the Line” into
what we call the victim cycle or the blame game, or she could choose to get
“Above the Line” and take accountability to change her circumstance
by taking four simple steps, to See It, Own It, Solve It and Do It. The
difference between being Above or Below the line is
the difference between getting results or getting stuck. It is not wrong to go
Below the Line, it’s just not very productive and
can become very frustrating.

This is the choice everyone must face when it comes to their own personal
accountability for getting results. Do I go Below the Line when I am faced with
tough, difficult obstacles or do I choose to get Above the Line and take
accountability for my circumstances and get the results I want?

Principle Two: There are two-sides to accountability.

Webster’s Dictionary defines accountability as “subject to
having to report, explain or justify; answerable, responsible.” In other
words, accountability is something imposed upon you, probably when things go
wrong. We think this definition misses another, even more important side of
accountability. That is the personal ownership that people should demonstrate
when they truly take personal accountability for something. When you take
personal accountability, you own it. You buy-in and invest. You tell yourself,
this is mine, I’ve got the ball. You ask yourself, “what else can I do to make progress, overcome obstacles and
achieve the result?” You don’t waste time blaming others or waiting
for someone else to solve your problems, you actively engage and deeply pursue
solutions. This proactive, before-the-fact aspect of accountability is the
essential ingredient that makes accountability a bedrock principle to
optimizing personal and organizational performance.

Accountability, correctly understood and effectively applied, produces
results. And with those results comes a level of personal satisfaction that can
be achieved in no other way. Sue, in the story above, made a choice that she
would take accountability for being seen as a “renter” and that she
would now become an “owner.” Helping people make the choice to
operate Above the Line and take accountability for their circumstances and
overcome the obstacles they face is an essential skill that anyone who manages
and leads people must learn to master. When you create that level of personal
accountability first, your ability to execute both personally and
organizationally becomes all that more effective. When you skip that step and
try to execute on a foundation that lacks this personal accountability, then
you get problems, not solutions; mistakes not innovation; frustration, not
motivation; and excuses instead of results.

Principle Three: Accountability Begins by Clearly Defining Results.

This may seem like common sense, but our experience has shown it is not
common practice. In our research, surprisingly 9 out of 10 leadership teams
cannot give a consistently aligned answer between team members as to the top
three key results the team needs to achieve. They always have a general idea,
but are often unable to provide the details. Accountability begins by clearly
defining results. A clear definition of results, one that everyone throughout
the entire organization can understand and repeat, are essential to getting
your accountability system to work.

In a leadership workshop, we asked the European management team of a large
pharmaceutical company we worked with what the top result was that they needed
to achieve. They told us it was “BUC,” which stood for Business
Unit Contribution. We asked the team, “what’s
the number?” Everyone went silent. No one wanted to say. We asked them to
write down the number on a piece of paper and pass it to the CFO in the back of
the room. There was a $300 million dollar variance between the high number and
the low number; and that was the senior management team! You can’t hold
either yourself or others accountable for unclear results. Well, you can; but
it will destroy morale and stop your progress. And you can’t hold
yourself accountable for unclear results. Accountability begins by clearly
defining results and that always yields alignment, engagement and achievement.

Principle Four: What
you Create Accountability For Is What You Get.

Back to the story with Sue, she realized that what
she was getting, in terms of results, is what she was creating accountability
for. So she chose to create accountability for succeeding with an annual promotion,
the women’s suit sale contest that runs for 4 weeks. She states,
“You have to understand, we never won anything. My district has always
been at the bottom. I’ve bought into ‘it’s the economy,
it’s the weather, people don’t buy suits in our city, I can’t sell suits.’” Sue decided that the
result they needed to get was to win the women’s suit contest. She went
to work at creating accountability around the weekly VIP event held in the
stores during the sale. Here, they closed the stores for 2 hours and allowed
the invitation-only customers for shop with special discounts. Sue not only let
everyone know what the desired result was, but she went on a campaign to
achieve it. Her surprise visits to the stores during the VIP sales provided the
forum to create personal accountability in the stores. Her visits even revealed
one store manager who said they were doing the sales, but weren’t.

Her clear accountability for the result her district needed to achieve
helped the store managers get everyone involved. Store associates networked and
invited friends to the VIP sale. Store managers came up with innovative
promotions and discounts for the customers. The result: Her district finished
No. 1 in the entire company in the women’s suit sale! She was recognized
at a leadership conference and asked to speak about the transformation that
occurred. What you create accountability for is what you get!

Principle Five: The Most Important Person to Hold
Accountable Is Yourself

We like to ask, who is the most important person to
get Above the Line? Of course, that’s you!  For Sue, the payoff for
taking personal accountability was impressive and lasting. In 2006, Sue was
ranked 89 out of 94 districts in sales % over the previous year. In fiscal year
2010, she was ranked in the top 3! The reward: a trip to Costa Rica with
some of the executives of the company. The payoff: the personal satisfaction
that comes from being fully invested and successfully achieving results.
She’s no longer seen as a “renter,” but a true
“owner” that makes things happen. Applying these principles has
even produced a better relationship with her father that might not have
otherwise occurred.

What’s more, the power of her personal example impacted a fellow
district manager at work. She and this good friend used to “crab together, ” having conversations that would allow them to
wallow Below the Line and get stuck in the blame game, feeling the victim. What
happened to her friend? In a subsequent Suit sale, her district finished No. 2
in the company!

That’s the power of personal accountability. That’s what
happens, every time, when people are faced with difficult circumstances or
tough obstacles and they make the choice to operate Above the Line. When we do
accountability to ourselves, it is empowering. When someone does accountability
to us the wrong way, it feels threatening. Making the choice to operate Above
the Line and be accountable has an enabling affect on everyone around you.
Nothing can take the place of your good example when it comes to operating
Above the Line.