Accountability Is Happiness

by Judy Ryan

WHY “TEACHING OTHERS TO FISH” IS ONE OF YOUR gREATEST RESPONSIBILITIES AS A LEADER

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” said in a recent interview that while it doesn’t sound too exciting, to her, happiness is being 100% accountable. I couldn’t agree more. Being accountable is taking 100% responsibility for your relationships, your motivation, how much you get done and how passionate you are about your life. It’s taking ownership for living from purpose and values and building trust no matter what. When you lack accountability, you suffer. You feel disempowered, victimized and resentful because you are opting to be so.

In my work, I repeatedly emphasize to leaders (whether executives, managers and supervisors or parents and teachers) that their greatest responsibility is to transfer responsibility to others until they consistently manage their relationships, productivity and engagement. Their job is to stop managing others and teach them to “fish” instead. This is much more challenging than managing, motivating and evaluating their people. This requires them to demonstrate accountable behavior themselves and then help others do the same with effective systems and tools.

One way I teach this is through a tool called the thermometer. We often think that just because we are doing our best to communicate, messages we are sending are effective and respectful. For many reasons, we don’t often want to take immediate notice of or responsibility for what occurs in each exchange. The best indicator to help people determine the quality of their communication and their ability to influence effectively is right in front of them. They don’t need a 360 or even words. Feedback is always present in the results and in the face and behavior of the other person. It’s in the responses we get from others that we can either choose to pay close attention to or ignore.

When using this tool, a person considers each communication he offers and receives only minimal feedback in the form of a person moving backward, forward or not at all on a simulated thermometer. When he influences a person to move toward him, he has succeeded in influencing cooperation. What’s so interesting is how quickly people try to give up if they don’t get instant success and how reluctant they are to remain curious and consider, “Hmm … I wonder how I just got that result…” regardless of whether it is negative, neutral or positive. They want to lean on the other person instead.

I teach leaders to mentor their staff every month, encouraging them to help employees quickly identify needs for improvement and then select specific tools to effectively communicate, redirect negative behavior and get things done. The rubber meets the road in reminding their people that executing these skills is not dependent on any other person’s commitment. The No. 1 thing they hear is “But what if he doesn’t care? What if she doesn’t want to do this tool with me?” I encourage managers to remind them: “That’s not your responsibility or business. Yours is staying committed no matter what the commitment of others.” When this transfer of responsibility is done effectively and consistently by leaders, everyone experiences happiness commensurate to accountability. The job of good leaders is to adopt and support systems that foster self-directedness and personal responsibility.

As you grow your company, if you want to experience and promote happiness, a necessary precursor to widespread and far-reaching success that does follow, make proactive nurturing and support of accountability your No. 1 goal and commitment. I am here to help if you need my support.

Owners, community leaders and educators hire Judy Ryan and Lifework Systems because they want the advantages of an extraordinary workplace. Judy’s book, “What’s the Deal With Workplace Culture Change?” is available FREE at www.GetMyCultureBook.com. You can also contact Judy at 314-239-4727.