As our nation’s economic speedboat threatens to run aground, the economic crisis is a hot topic everywhere including our blog discussions as well.
What can you say about the acceptance of accountability, or the lack thereof, by our leaders – for this economic disaster?’
Has a sense of victimization spread rampant through our society, alleviating all responsibility?
It seems as if no one is to blame – so are we all to blame?
Discuss these questions in the context of the Four Principles of Purposeful Action, with examples and appropriate links.
This post was written by Chris Miller, who will lead the discussion for the week starting February 24.
The world’s societies suffer from the current cult of victimization because its subtle dogma holds that circumstances and other people prevent you from achieving your goals. Such an attitude prevents a person from growing and developing.
A thin line separates success from failure, the great companies from the ordinary ones. Below that line lies excuse making, blaming others, confusion, and an attitude of helplessness, while above that line we find a sense of reality, ownership, commitment, solutions to problems, and determined action
http://www.enotalone.com/article/6584.html
I think chandrika some good points about accountability and how these points are matters when it comes to accountability. Monitoring Progress and Measuring Results, i think this step pretty critical. A measure of accountability can be shown throught this step.
Especially in a team these 7 steps are crucial. It also talks about gathering feedback. Only good accountability can provide good feed back.
Thank you for your comments Roy.
I would like to share some of my views about victimization.Please take some time to read as its few lines.
Victimization can be any thing right from domestic violence,child abuse,sexual harrasment,boss harrasment at office,verbal harrasment,physical harrasment….generally victimization can be anything.Even in the business or corporate world.On a personal note I would like to say to everybody that Accountability and victimization are very much related to each other.To beak this victimization cycle,people must stop thinking themselves as victims and only then they can break this cycle.The moment one thinks of himself/herself as a victim,they feel accountable for what has happened and they get trapped.How much ever we discuss on blogs with reference any article it all sums up to people,individuals and what they say and matter are more important.
Some examples where there can be a lack of accountability are:
-favored employees
-ego-centered management style
-inconsistent discipline for infractions
-expecting behavior without taking the time or effort to inspect that the behavior is actually happening
-inconsistent treatment of new employees
-inconsistent of family members who are employees
-varying compensation plans
-bonuses that are given with no thought for performance
[ http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Lack-Of-Accountability-Is-One-Of-Corporate-Americas-Biggest-Challenges&id=441463 ]
Thus, accountability is linked to performance, which is why see a correlation between the crisis we’re in and reports of lack of accountability within corporations. This, thus leads to loose morals and a tendency to victimize certain sections of the population for selfish desires.
“And we always have a choice. If someone sticks a gun in my face and says, “Your money or your life!” I have a choice. I may not like my choice but I have one. In life we often don’t like our choices because we don’t know what the outcome is going to be and we are terrified of doing it ‘wrong.’ [ http://joy2meu.com/Empowerment.html ]
Hmm, so everyone still has SOME kind of a choice in the most drastic of situations! Maybe, a better attitude is what’s needed on a large scale for the economy to recover?
Accountable Stance-
Gain clarity about issue and define the problem
Apply their attention energy and focus
Explore possibilities
Make plans for change
Implement change
Victim Stance-
Denial of business reality
Projection onto others
Deflection of ideas away from me
Resignation
Status Quo
The chart shows the distinction nicely as two different paths to a decision. In the accountable path, reality showed up, the leader became aware of the business reality, decided what to do and then took action. While not necessarily the easiest path, this approach provides the best long term business results.
In the victim decision making path, the leader was confronted with current business reality: the company is losing market share, there is a problem employee who is also a good friend of theirs, they are just barely meeting the sales numbers.
Management does not want to confront business reality so they place blame for problems on others. They may say things like, “We just don’t have the people to get the job done,” or “We didn’t have good information.” In the end, the leader as victim is left with hoping, waiting and resignation. Maintenance of the status quo is the outcome. Employee initiative and morale may remain low as well.
Great leaders are willing to act from a place of integrity and keep their commitments because it encourages others to act in a similar manner. The bottom line: improved performance.
Victimization detracts from both individual and organizational performance. Individual victims don’t get to experience and bring their best selves into the world. That is the cost to them and to others. The path to accountability is not easy because it requires a willingness to accept pain for growth and demands we become increasingly conscious of what we say, what we think and what we do.
Reference: http://www.resourcesinaction.com/down/acctability_vicitm.pdf
Great views Mirek. I went through a link which explains what you have posted here in detail I think so. Here it is.
http://change-management-process.com/executivecoaching12.html
Accountability is very serious business today. Communication and education are central to accountability, but they only go so far when it comes to ensuring positive actions and results. The current approach to accountability encompasses much more than the traditional approach of counting numbers. Here are seven key ingredients of any accountability definition.
1. Setting Goals
Goals drive organizational success. Without them, projects, initiatives and relationships are prone to drift and often become entirely rudderless. As a result of lack of direction, it becomes all but impossible to make real headway, because there is nothing in place to keep the organization on course.
Goals set the parameters that circumscribe the effort. They frame, define, and focus the work to be done, eliminate ambiguity, provide a framework for gauging progress and measuring success, and set a context for the work to be done. They also increase motivation, because they harness and focus energy and action.
2. Clarifying Expectations
Expectations are the assumptions we hold about others’ intentions and behaviors. They have a direct impact on our interactions and behaviors as well. The very act of articulating expectations promotes self-accountability. It is tempting to assume that everyone is on the same page and knows what is expected once goals have been set. Whenever individuals, teams, and organizations move too quickly from goal to task without first clarifying expectations, they usually find themselves disappointed in the ultimate outcome, be it performance or results.
3. Defining Roles and Responsibilities
Defining roles and responsibilities provides a mechanism to clearly assign accountability to those responsible for carrying out a task at all levels of the organization. When roles and responsibilities remain unclear, multiple untested assumptions often supplant them. The ambiguity that results leads to unintended consequences such as the following.
• Individuals do the minimum required;
• Attempts to get work done using a scattershot approach forces others to pick up the slack;
• Long hours and extra work are exacted that are not essential to obtaining the result;
• Resentment and frustration block productivity;
• Work gets completed but not as efficiently and effectively as it could have been otherwise;
• The lines of accountability become blurred.
Clear definition of roles and responsibilities promotes autonomy, ownership, and self-accountability. When individuals are confident about what it is in their control and what is not, they can step forward to accept responsibility with full knowledge of what is expected from them. Roles and responsibilities exercised out of a sense of ownership inspire commitment. Defining roles and responsibilities identifies specific benchmarks for performance and creates boundaries around the work to be done, both of which foster self-accountability.
4. Monitoring Progress and Measuring Results
It is not easy to monitor progress or measure results without having something against which to evaluate them. Setting goals, clarifying expectations, and defining roles and responsibilities provide that “something” — a frame or standard for evaluation.
Monitoring progress and measuring results go hand in hand. Monitoring progress allows us to understand “movement,” what is happening as learning unfolds. Measuring results provides data points to compare against a standard and each other. Both monitoring progress and measuring results can yield formative and summative data that promote process improvement and development. Monitoring progress and measuring results is an essential accountability process for individuals, teams, and organizations that want to build their capacity to grow and improve.
Monitoring progress should take place on individual, team, department, and organizational levels..
5. Gathering Feedback
Feedback encourages accountability in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. It, too, fosters ownership, nurtures commitment, and creates ongoing value for individuals, teams, groups, and organizations as a whole. The feedback process itself builds relationships, opens lines of communication, encourages participation, drums out resistance, engages people, and creates continuing interest and awareness. Information, insights, and learning gathered through the feedback process have tangible and immediate application. And as if that wasn’t enough, regular feedback fosters a culture of continuous improvement and is the backbone of a learning organization.
6. Formulating Action Goals
Failure to act on lessons learned is a major stumbling block. When we don’t act on what we learn, we block process improvement. When program champions sit on a task force, their sense of ownership, enthusiasm, and investment is high. The rose-colored glasses they don often prevent them from asking for and accepting feedback. After spending months planning and implementing a program, very few of us want to hear that we’ve missed the mark. But the lessons learned from such a circumstance are often more powerful than lessons learned from successes. Failure
7. Integrating Process Improvements
The final ingredient is actually the practice of the first six in a systematic way. Accountability is the portal to process improvement. It opens doors to action by requiring that goals are set, expectations are clarified, roles and responsibilities are defined, progress is monitored, results are measured, and feedback is continuously gathered and acted on. However, it is a demanding master. Without accountability doors remain shut to individual and organizational learning.
Too often accountability is used either tacitly or overtly as a synonym for blame. For many, the fact that it was “Everybody’s job” is enough; hold Everybody accountable. The reality is, accountability should be a positive part of an organization’s culture. The failure wasn’t Everybody’s alone; the entire organization failed Everybody and itself. The fact is Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody could have become a remarkable team if only they had taken the time to embrace the seven key processes needed to ensure that they achieved accountability.
source:http://www.leadservs.com/documents/accountability.htm
Impressive post on accountability!
“The problem is not that we managers lack the creativity and energy required to make people accountable. It’s that accountability isn’t something that managers can mandate. It’s not something managers can enforce. It’s something that subordinates feel. It’s a mental and emotional state, not some condition that managers impose. There’s no magical formula for making anyone feel this way.” [ http://www.leadinggeeks.com/pages/article_97.htm ]
Too many variables, but all influencable in my opininon!
Good quote Jimy. It is hard for a manager to hold someone accountable when they do not hold theirself accountable. Instead of taking the blame for their own actions and failures, they want to place the blame on someone/something else. When we try to hold them accountable, they play the victim rather than accepting the accountability.
Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as responsibility, answerability, enforcement, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving.
victimization – an act that exploits or victimizes someone (treats them unfairly).
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/victimization; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accountability;
Now lets relate these terms to our current economic crisis. Lack of accountabilty victimized lots of people in a bad way.