Accountability by Rob LeBow

Author:Rob LeBow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 2011-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Owning your job takes the place of the supervisor. Now the individual is the boss. And by creating this context, each staff member becomes accountable to the whole organization and to his or her customers, both the internal and external ones. That’s the key strategy in creating long-term value.

“As the CEO, I decided that whatever happened, we weren’t going back to the old days. No, sir, we weren’t going to let anyone or anything drag us back to the way we used to think or act, and that commitment was key.”

“Kip, this seems to be an important point,” declared Pete. “From what you’re saying, I shouldn’t expect that our people will immediately jump at the chance to be responsible even after we’ve announced our intentions of becoming freedom based. Every manager and supervisor has to hold the course and not blink!”

“That was my experience, Pete,” remarked Kip. “You may even hear many of your people, when they learn about this new philosophy and approach, say, ‘If you want me to be responsible, then pay me like a manager.’ There were people at National who had developed patterns of behavior that led them away from accepting responsibility. They were fullblown entitlement junkies—’Gimme, gimme, gimme’ was their answer to everything, especially any changes we wanted to attempt.

“Yet our experience showed that most people, even those who were reluctant to accept responsibility, were capable of being responsible, provided they were treated with respect, patience, and trust.

“Not everyone on the staff came to this new approach easily or quickly. Some did, but most sat on the sidelines and waited for us to blink and to go back to the old ways.133

“But we didn’t blink, and they eventually became believers. My attitude became, ‘I will not change back to the old ways and will hold to this new belief about the way to treat people until hell freezes over!’” Both men laughed, but Pete got the message—don’t blink!

Pete asked, “What about those who never got it?”

“The few people who were unable to meet our new expectations,” answered Kip, “ultimately left the organization, usually of their own accord. In fact, we lost only about 2 percent of our total staff, not the 5 percent I had talked about earlier.4 I’m confident that you’ll have the same experience at your company.

“Overall, our turnover was significantly reduced when we moved to a freedom-based approach. Once we had staff members hiring staff members, our world changed for the good. It’s funny, but the staff’s perception of candidates was far different than that of supervisors.”

“I think I know why you got better at hiring the right people,” reflected Pete. “I bet your staff members realized that they now had more at stake if the wrong person was let in. After all, frontline people had to depend on each other. But how do you deal with individuals who won’t leave on their own and who continue to refuse to accept personal responsibility and accountability?”

Kip lowered his voice and fixed his gaze on Pete: “You must be direct and fair.

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