Accountability is a culture, process, and systems issue. After conducting many surveys about corporate culture, the number one issue we have found across the organizational spectrum is “accountability.” In general, we find that employees do not think they or their colleagues are effectively held accountable for their responsibilities and actions. I have found that accountability is typically weak among partners, owners, and executive teams. This is usually because these groups allow relationships to take precedence over the best interests of the organization.
By and large, accountability processes and systems exist and are not working properly. We find several of the processes lacking in real depth. In many cases, leadership does not enforce policy related to tools that were designed to hold others responsible.
For example, the most effective way to hold salespeople accountable is to measure the daily activities that lead to sales. Many companies have experienced tremendous difficulty in enforcing adequate usage of the CRM. In our experience, when it is mandatory, salespeople provide the data, and management monitors and takes appropriate action as a result of the information provided. Failure to do so is causing most companies to miss a lot of opportunities as a result.
Success comes from executing the right plans, not from the planning process itself. This is a main reason why the most successful business leaders have found it useful to hire a third-party to help hold them accountable. It is not unusual for the CEO to experience the most discomfort during this process. After all, most of them achieved their positions as a result of their self-motivation, drive and confidence.
These same traits work against them as they typically fail to focus on anything long enough to reach their stated goals. As a result, their team members fail to achieve desired outcomes. They are too busy trying to address the many conflicting messages. Case in point, recently I did an organizational survey with a company’s top 10 executives in preparation for their annual planning retreat. We found that the CEO commonly provided this team with 25 new initiatives every week, even when the last 25 were barely addressed.
The above situations are not uncommon, and we typically find the following additional issues:
If you are interested in strengthening your culture by installing the right processes and systems, please contact Activate Group, Inc. for a FREE consultation about our Executive Coaching Program. Our Program will help your Executive(s) learn how to: