How can leaders truly embrace accountability without falling into the trap of blame-shifting? Discover the transformative power of personal responsibility in leadership as we unpack Michael Hyatt's insights on accountability from his article on Full Focus. Join John Wandolowski and Greg Powell as they dissect the famous phrase "The buck stops here," originally coined by Harry Truman, and explore its profound implications for modern leadership.
In this episode of Success Secrets and Stories, we look at a compelling example from CEO Thomas Nelson, who instituted a rigorous reporting system to ensure his division leaders took full ownership of their results. Learn from Alan Arnold's inspiring story of accountability, where he openly admits to missing targets and commits to corrective actions. Through this discussion, we emphasize the importance of using personal pronouns like "I" to foster a culture of responsibility. If you aim to understand the essence of true leadership accountability, this episode is a must-listen.
How can leaders truly embrace accountability without falling into the trap of blame-shifting? Discover the transformative power of personal responsibility in leadership as we unpack Michael Hyatt's insights on accountability from his article on Full Focus. Join John Wandolowski and Greg Powell as they dissect the famous phrase "The buck stops here," originally coined by Harry Truman, and explore its profound implications for modern leadership.
In this episode of Success Secrets and Stories, we look at a compelling example from CEO Thomas Nelson, who instituted a rigorous reporting system to ensure his division leaders took full ownership of their results. Learn from Alan Arnold's inspiring story of accountability, where he openly admits to missing targets and commits to corrective actions. Through this discussion, we emphasize the importance of using personal pronouns like "I" to foster a culture of responsibility. If you aim to understand the essence of true leadership accountability, this episode is a must-listen.
Welcome everyone to Success Secrets and Stories. I'm your host, john Manoloski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, greg Powell Greg hey everybody, yeah.
Speaker 2:
This podcast, we're going to be talking about a different subject accountability, and, if you think about it, the ability for leaders to demonstrate that they are a responsible leader. It is usually led by the words accountability, and I found this article in researching this podcast from a very interesting author, michael Hyatt. And Michael is actually responsible and has a very interesting website called Full Focus, so wwwfullfocusco and this article is backslash leadership and accountability, and he does a very good job and his organization does a very good job, and it's something that I think we're going to be talking about in another podcast. But he brought up, I think, the perfect example of leadership in terms of accountability, and I'm just going to say the term, and I'm pretty sure you can name the individual.
Speaker 2:
The buck stops here yeah, harry Truman, and everybody wants to be a leader. However, very few of us are prepared to accept the accountability that goes with it. But you can't have one without the other. They're like two sides of the same coin. But what does accountability look like? First and foremost, it means you accept responsibility for the outcomes expected of you, both good and bad. You don't blame others, you don't blame an external environment. You are always things that you have done and still can do to challenge the outcome. Until you take responsibility, you're a victim, and your being a victim is the exact opposite of being a leader. Victims are passive, they are acted upon. Leaders are active and they are innovative. To influence the outcome, they're engaged.
Speaker 2:
So Michael Hyatt gave this example about a CEO that he knows. The gentleman's name is Thomas Nelson and he would hold a meeting once a month with his division leaders. As Mr Thomas put it, he required each of them to write a report detailing what happened in the previous month. They would submit the reports to his executive team and they would meet the leaders face-to-face to discuss his or her operating results. These reports provided a summary of what was happening and a review key matrix of what drove their business. He asked each divisional head to describe how their leadership succeeded or failed there's the magic word how they their leadership. Then what Mr Thomas' next item was. He would ask what was it about your leadership that produced the results? The underlying assumption is that it's all about their leadership. We did not allow them to blame anyone, internally or externally. Greg, why don't you actually take this and talk about the example that the CEO Thomas gave as accountability?
Speaker 1:
Thanks, john, so Mr Thomas selected I think, someone who was uniquely, the CEO Thomas gave as accountability. Thanks, john. So Mr Thomas selected, I think, someone who was uniquely qualified to be an example here, a person by the name of Alan Arnold. I think it's a great model for others. This individual leads one of the divisions, but what's really important is as a publisher. When we're talking about taking responsibility, imagine that target, maybe from a bow and arrow, your archery days, and there's that bullseye in the middle. Imagine trying to hit that bullseye. Well, these words, I think, hit the bullseye. As publisher, I take full ownership of failing to hit October's target. That's what he said. I also take full responsibility to lead the turnaround, to overcome the shortfall we created. And he goes on to say the operating results reflect my leadership decisions, including some key factors. That is full responsibility, full accountability.
Speaker 2:
Right. So he did have five examples that they gave and unless you're in the publishing industry it's probably going to be pretty hard to understand what those results, those key factors, those responses to each one of those different categories within his division. But the summary was interesting. Greg, why don't you talk about the summary? That, I think, really drives home the point.
Speaker 1:
Thanks, john. So here's some of those takeaways from Mr Allen's comments. First one they all make heavy use of the pronoun I. Allen didn't hide behind his team. He didn't say we didn't do such and such. He didn't blame others like they didn't do such and such Again, heavy use of the pronoun I.
Speaker 1:
He took responsibility, he was accountable. Number two he is specific about the decisions he made and the results he achieved. He understands that the two are totally linked together. Smart leaders get it and it's a fundamental and driving change. Number three he didn't wallow in remorse or self-pity. There was no big pity party going on here. He just simply accepted responsibility for his mistakes these are key words we're talking about here for his mistakes, learns what he can and pledges to do better. Then finally, number four, he actually took actions to correct the problem.
Speaker 1:
This is the great thing about responsibility. Once you own it, once you buy into it, you really own it. You can begin fixing it. This eliminates a lot of wasted efforts in playing the victim or in blaming others. All right, so it all ties back to acting responsible. It's also important for leaders to take responsibility for the good results they produce. When a leader exceeds his target, there is much he can learn from that too, and in these meetings we can also take time to reinforce these actions, so they will continue. So continue those good results as well. The bottom line is that no organization can grow and prosper until the leaders are willing to step up and take responsibility. As that begins to happen, it opens up a whole world of possibility, john.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you know, I had the opportunity to work for a manufacturing organization and one of my favorite stories that I had, I was in a production meeting and it's where we had the general manager and the operating team that were associated with making a medical device. I like to go into great dissertations when making contact lenses. At the time I was in charge of facilities and I was also helping out with manufacturing in terms of support, and the organization itself was trying to technically invent a new product and the anxiety and the problems between production and maintenance and research was just palatable. The staff meetings that they would have once a week were, let's just say, a little bit more than a little active in terms of discussions, more than a little active in terms of discussions. In this one particular meeting I remember having um talked about an issue that we had for repairing this particular device that was on the assembly line that wasn't working well, and I said the bottom line was I'm taking responsibility for not getting it repaired. We will have it done by the end of the week, but it's on me and we're going to work on it as fast as we can, but to ensure that it is capable when we are done.
Speaker 2:
To be honest, it was a very bizarre meeting because I wasn't really in production in this particular organization and I was only doing it while we were transitioning, so I was trying to help out. The entire room gasped when I said that and I didn't understand the why. But the general manager in the front of the room looked at me and said this is on, you Get it done. Shook my head. I got it. I'll. I'll let you know as soon as it's completed. We will have it running as soon as possible. He stopped me, said what does that mean in English? I said 24 hours, maybe 20, you know, maybe 30 hours. We're going to be working overnight to get it done. Fine, when I walked out of the room, I had a lot of the people that were in R and D and manufacturing pull me to the side and say are you nuts? Nobody says that they're at fault. You just sit in the room and wait until the, you know the the discussion starts to dwindle and they'll move on. You made yourself a target. You know that, right? I had to laugh and it's like well, there's going to be someone that's going to be blamed for this not working. And it was my team. Why would I not take responsibility? Because, well, you're going to get fired. Those are the options that you have to do and you have to make, but I don't want somebody else to get fired for something that I am technically responsible for, and they usually just end up walking away. You don't have to do that. Long story short got it working, everything was working fine.
Speaker 2:
Next month rolls around, the next month rolls around and, like three meetings later, this general manager starts the meeting off and he says look, I've been in this meeting and we've had this particular problem and we've been talking about it for the last two months. I want somebody like Wanoloski that, like three meetings ago, basically stood up and said I got your back, I know what's wrong, I'll fix it. There's somebody in this room that knows how to get this done. There's a cause and effect and I'm going to I'm going to pull the two or three people in this meeting that are not helping and we're going to have a discussion and I want a response like I got from Wondolowski. I had so many evil eyes looking at me at that point of what are you doing to us?
Speaker 2:
But it was being honest and being accountable and it grew in that meeting and I did have that general manager that came up to me later and it was probably one of the best compliments that I ever got in my career. He said you know, john, I know that you stretched to help and you didn't have to, and when you took responsibility for the failure, you didn't have to do that either. But when I give you an assignment, you get it done, and there are so few people that get the idea of taking accountability for the results and you don't let loose until it's repaired. And I don't have to look over your back and I don't have to send you memos and I don't have to send you summaries. You get it and I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:
So for me, when you're talking about accountability, it takes an element of either you know you're so confident in yourself which was never really my modus operandi or you understand that lying takes more energy than telling the truth, or you understand that lying takes more energy than telling the truth. The essence of being responsible is being accountable. Really did help my career. So that's a personal perspective. Greg, do you have an example of responsibility and accountability? I should say.
Speaker 1:
I do, john. I don't think this is folklore. I think this is a true story that's been passed around for many years but I think it still holds up very well. I call it the GE story and yes, ge, general Electric when the story goes.
Speaker 1:
Representatives of a relatively new division of GE attended an all-GE business quarterly update meeting in home office. It was their very first meeting. So the senior leader of this new division, it was his first time reporting numbers to this audience and they reported sales below expectations for the quarter. At that meeting the mood was a little somber but the division leader's attitude was hey, you know what, we missed the numbers this time, we'll get it next quarter. Later that day the senior representative received a communication that Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, was coming to their home office to discuss in more detail why they missed the general quarterly numbers and what they were going to do about it. Jack Welch felt an accountability to stakeholders for meeting expectations and it was important that the new GE division leader felt the same level of accountability to stakeholders. The story goes on that for numerous quarters following that, that same division met or exceeded their target figures because again they had a different perspective when the head of the company says oh no, no, we're going to meet the numbers.
Speaker 1:
What?
Speaker 2:
are you doing?
Speaker 1:
Let's talk about your plan to meet the numbers or exceed the numbers.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Jack Walsh is coming by and would like to talk to you.
Speaker 1:
So we're not going to have coffee and muffins. All right, I'll show you that right now.
Speaker 2:
Well, I keep my. He's one of the probably the most interesting CEOs that had a concept of firing probably the most interesting CEOs that had a concept of firing the 10% bottom 10% of production teams that, year after year, would flush the bottom 10%. I think one of the funniest things is they were hiring people at a certain level and they were calling them the sheep because they were more than likely the 10% that management was going to offer as the lowest performers. So they would cycle through these people every year. You know the Sheep, yeah, having Jack coming by, coming by just to visit.
Speaker 1:
Would get your attention.
Speaker 2:
yes, I'd be very inspired myself. Yes, um, so accountability and and taking that the next step, um, I still think the line that I thought was was the best was actually when I was in production. In that line of uh, it takes too much energy to lie, I'd rather tell the truth. That, I think, is one of the things from this podcast that I would say has served me well. It really really is the essence of people that. Have that sense of trust, because it also shows a sign of vulnerability. Have that sense of trust because it also shows a sign of vulnerability Not being a victim but taking responsibility. Accountability does open you up for judgment and you should at least have the self-confidence of what you're doing and how you went about the job in the first place In order to say that you're a leader For the sake of discussion.
Speaker 2:
I think this pretty much wraps up what we were going to be talking about. So, if you like what you've heard, yeah, my book Building your Leadership Toolbox is available on Amazoncom and my e-book is available on Barnes. Noble Success Secrets and Stories podcast is on what you're listening to, thank you. It's also available in other popular formats like Apple, google, spotify and others Dr Durst's books and his MBR program that really is the basis of my book is available on successgrowthacademycom and if you want to get a hold of us, my email address is wando75.jw at gmailcom, and, greg, I can be reached at gpowell374 at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and the music has been brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. Get a chance, drop us a line. We'd love to know that. We have brought some of our subjects from the suggestions that we have gotten, and we are always open to looking into subjects that you would find interesting. Well, greg, in closing, thanks man, thanks John.
