How to rescue your company from mediocrity

It's not about tasks; it's about relationships. Here's what you need to know about risk-taking, confrontation and the courage it takes to thrive in the 21st century workplace.

So what is accountability, anyway? It's a buzzword you hear all the time in business. People tend to say things like, "I'm holding you accountable for getting that report done." What they really mean is, "Complete this to-do list and let me know you did it."

This all-too-common approach -- handing out assignments, standing over employees like a schoolmarm and giving metaphorical pats on the head -- is really the opposite of accountability.

True accountability is not about tasks and to-do lists. It's about establishing productive relationships, and it's the secret to success in the 21st century.

Morrie Shechtman is an international change management consultant whose ideas have shaped public debate. He taught at distinguished universities throughout the United States, worked as a therapist and counselor, and now runs a successful management consulting company, Fifth Wave Leadership. 

"In today's world we make money through relationships, not through performing tasks," said Shechtman, author of Fifth Wave Leadership: The Internal Frontier. "The realities of the Information Age and the rapidly changing global economy mean there are millions of competitors who can perform any task you can perform. And that doesn't just mean entering data or making widgets. It means legal research and plastic surgery, too. It doesn't matter if you are a brilliant lawyer or a brilliant surgeon. If you're not good at relationships, you can and will fail.

"When you care enough about people to invest in a caring, honest, challenging relationship with them, you breed accountability," he said. "They see that you have confidence in them and that you have their best interest at heart. Accountability meets the self-interest of both parties; it is not about one party dictating to another."

The unprecedented nature of the 21st century workplace requires a commitment to "the new accountability." Accountability itself is not a new phenomenon, but the all-pervasive need to embrace it and make it the center of your company is.

If you as a leader don't foster an accountable culture -- one filled with employees who have the capacity for self-analysis, adaptive learning and a commitment to growth relationships -- your company will not thrive for long. It may not even survive.

Frankly, accountability is a difficult concept to pin down. It's a mindset that manifests in various ways. Perhaps the best way to define an accountable culture is to look at it from different angles, much like the parable of the blind men describing the elephant. So what does an accountable culture look like? 

An accountable culture is about high expectations and challenges, not complacency and coddling
Leaders in such companies have high expectations for themselves and their employees. They raise those expectations every day. Most people want to grow. They want to learn. They want to be challenged. They don't want to do the same things over and over again like a hive of mindless worker bees.

"If you set an artificial cap on people's abilities, you end up with a company full of drones," said Shechtman. "They may be intelligent drones, but they're drones nonetheless. You end up with a culture of mediocrity."

It's about internal challenges, not external ones
Accountability means self-awareness. It means looking your own self-destructive patterns in the eye. It means making a conscious decision that you're going to set aside the emotional baggage that's keeping you from reaching your full potential in business and in life. That's true of you and of your employees.

"Everyone in your organization must be able to look within and figure out what they need to do in order to grow and change and break through to a new, more effective level of performance," said Shechtman. "It's the job of the leader to help everyone develop this internal focus."

It's about confrontation and conflict, not agreement
Make no mistake: Holding people accountable is not easy. It means taking risks. It means instigating uncomfortable conversations. It means expecting -- and accepting -- the occasional emotional outburst. That's okay. Growth is usually painful.

"If you have a company full of conflict avoiders, you're in trouble," said Shechtman. "The foundation of an accountable culture is honest, real-time feedback. You have to be willing to tell people how you experience them, and you have to be able to hear from them how they experience you. It's the only route to growth relationships."

It's about caring, not abandonment
At first glance it may seem cruel to tell people the blunt truth as you see it. Look deeper, though, and you'll see it's anything but. Honest feedback is an act of caring. It's about saying, "I care enough about you to confront you with what you're not doing because I believe you're better than that. If I didn't believe that, I would leave you alone."

The opposite of love is not hate; it's apathy.

"If you don't hold people accountable, you are abandoning them," said Schectman. "That's real cruelty. Honest, caring feedback is how you invest in relationships."

It's about whole life integration, not compartmentalization
Many leaders hesitate to give honest feedback in the workplace because it seems too personal. Issues may manifest in such serious ways as alcoholism, say, or involvement in abusive romantic relationships. To those of us accustomed to the personal/professional mindset, addressing such subjects seems inappropriate. But according to Shechtman, there is no longer a firewall between professional and personal.

"All business is personal," he said. "We all live blended lives. The personal issues your employees deal with -- or don't deal with -- affect their work in powerful ways. It's bad business to ignore them. And you certainly can't have growth relationships that way."

It's about constant learning, not stagnation
We're moving into a day and age where people are learning or teaching all the time. If you don't have a work environment where people are learning, they leave. Task environments will not attract the best and the brightest. Studies show it takes 18 months to master a task. If after that point people aren't learning anything new, they'll be bored out of their skulls. Bored people are not productive people.

"If your people aren't learning, your company is dying," said Shechtman. "It's that simple."

As you might suspect, creating an accountable culture takes plenty of time and hard work. But it's not rocket science. Once you understand what accountability really means, you can dive right in and change the way you interact with your colleagues and employees. Don't delay.

"Start taking risks right now," Shechtman said. "Give people honest, critical feedback about how they impact the relationships they're in. Tell them what the new accountability means and why it's so critical to their future. The blunt truth is that if you don't create an accountable culture, your company may not be around in 10, or five, or even two years.  None of us can be transaction artists anymore. You have to find the courage to make the change. And you have to make it right now."

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