“Most people believe accountability means blame. It doesn’t. Accountability is being held to the standard you have accepted as what you want, individually and collectively” – Jay Bilas
To truly pursue excellence, you need to WATCH, READ and DO!
Watch
Read
In order for your organization to maximize its potential, as well as achieve and perform at a high level, everyone on the team must know their role, embrace their role, and do everything in their power to fulfill their role.
It’s important to acknowledge that every role is important. Yes, some roles are bigger and some are smaller, but like a jigsaw puzzle, every piece is essential to the final picture. A way to illustrate this is for everyone in the organization to admit they can’t achieve the team’s mission by themselves. They need their teammates. However, it’s equally important for the organization as a whole to admit they can’t reach their goals without each individual doing their part. Every individual is responsible for their own specific role while simultaneously accountable to the team’s mission.
The executive team, along with managers, directors, and supervisors, should go out of their way to publicly praise employees with less prestigious roles to keep them motivated and make them feel valued, appreciated and make them feel like they’ve contributed.
Here is a step-by-step process on establishing roles, defining roles, and communicating roles:
Step 1: Each executive, manager, director, and supervisor should draft a detailed evaluation for each of their direct reports. What are their strengths? Weaknesses? Where do they add value to the company? Where are they a liability? What duties and responsibilities are they best suited for?
Then the executives, managers, directors, and supervisors should meet as a group to compare notes and openly discuss and debate until a consensus is reached and a role has been clearly established for every single employee.
Step 2: Each executive, manager, director, and supervisor should schedule an individual meeting with each of their direct reports to openly share the evaluation, as well as offer an action plan for their development. The employee should be encouraged to offer their thoughts, opinions, and concerns. Do they feel the evaluation is accurate? Fair? Is this a role they deserve? Is this a role they accept? Do they have the resources they need to fulfill this role? Where could they use help? The more honest the dialogue, the better. The meeting should not adjourn until both parties have agreed on the employee’s role.
Step 3: There should be a team meeting where every employee’s role is shared openly with everyone in the organization (or in their specific department if it is a large company). Everyone on the team should know what is expected of everyone else. Openly discussing roles promotes full transparency, which is essential to a team functioning at a high level.
At the end of the meeting, each executive, manager, director, and supervisor as well as each employee should sign an agreement acknowledging that they understand and accept their role.
Every member of the organization should be responsible for and held accountable for knowing, accepting, and embracing their roles, every day. This should be emphasized daily. Remember, that which gets praised gets repeated.
Each team member’s commitment to fulfilling their role will determine the organization’s results.
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Do
Make a comprehensive list of all of your job responsibilities (literally every task required for you to do your job at an elite level). Take each item on that list and assign it to one of these 3 buckets:
- Things I’m really good at and really enjoy
- Things I’m OK at and I don’t mind doing
- Things I’m not good at and I don’t like doing
To maximize your effectiveness and impact, how can you do more of #1 and less of #3?
Here are some Visual Notes of a recent keynote talk I gave in Vancouver (thanks to Rob Cottingham for creating these!). If you’re open minded to having me share a similar, yet customized message to your team or organization this summer or fall – please email me back to explore options!
If your organization could use a meaningful, memorable, and impactful keynote speaker, I’d love to work with you! All of my programs are customized and personalized for each audience. Contact Michelle Joyce, my Director of Events, for more information HERE.
Thanks for taking this Full Time Out with me. I appreciate your presence!
