In business, and your life, this is a valid behavior.
Accountability and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. Often people confuse the two, but ultimately responsibility assigns accountability, but doesn't always require it. Accountability, on the other hand, requires responsibility, or invokes it. Accountability requires results.
So, which is more important? In business, I believe accountability is the more important of the two. For example, I am now responsible for a (week)daily post on this blog. Had I only thought in my mind, "...I will try to do this on a frequent basis...", that would leave me accountable to no one. By setting and publishing a goal (metric), I have made myself accountable for a (week)daily post. Expectations are set, the goal is clear, measurement is simple.
If we could re-impose this type of accountability in the corporate environment, projects and products would be much better. At some point, in the recent past, we departed from traditional accountability for results in favor of simply assigning responsibility. I have walked into businesses where simple projects have been dragging on for months, even years, and no one is getting fired. Responsible parties (for the project) are still sharing in corporate bonus programs. This isn't ok. Employees, contractors, managers, and executives should all be held accountable for results. We should no longer hire credentialed experts to fill chairs. We need to hire folks who can and will produce results, and are willing to put themselves at risk; be accountable for results; not responsible for actions.
I leave you with a motivational mantra. I can't remember the authors last name, but her first name is Lynn, and she is a business coach in Santa Barbara, CA:
Show Up
Know Your Message
Put Yourself At Risk Every Day
Know Your Message
Put Yourself At Risk Every Day
1 comment:
Last night at a Torah class I learned something very much along these lines. One way to help "motivate" yourself to accomplish something, or the converse, to stop doing an undesirable behavior is to put it out there that you intend to do or stop some action. I applaud your making the public commitment to do a (week)daily blog. Now all you need is a sound strategy on how to accomplish this task. You will invariably be met with challenges (behind schedule on work project, not feeling well, no internet connection, sick child...). If you plan for as many obstacles as you can think of, you'll be much better prepared to overcome them when you are met with them.
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