Accountability begins with a personal decision to create a better outcome

I just completed the book Propeller: "Accelerating Change by Getting Accountability Right" and wanted to share a couple of highlights and personal applications. The authors start by defining accountability as "a personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results; to See It; Own It, Solve It, and Do It. This definition suggests that accountability begins with a personal decision to do something to create a better outcome. It urges the person to take accountability to avoid the temptation of falling victim to difficult circumstances and embracing the opportunity of working towards a better end result. No one gives accountability to you; you must take it, you put yourself in charge of the outcomes you want and need to deliver."

In the midst of difficult circumstances, it is easy to waste valuable time by making excuses and pointing fingers or waiting for "management" to offer up a magical solution to a troublesome situation. In my experience, I have learned that my time is much more productive when I can get my mind focused on applying my imagination to visualize what a better outcome could be and investing my creativity to create a strategy and tactics with specific next steps on how we might get to that better state. I find that once I have completed that exercise my mindset pivots to focus on potential positive outcomes and my problem solving collaboration efforts become more productive. As a leader I want to model behavior where I am part of the solution and not just transferring the problem to someone else.

In this See It; Own It; Solve It and Do It world of accountability, there are going to be times where certain outcomes are beyond your control. In my world of Retail Customers, I have seen tremendous disruption to business models where customers I have worked with have gone from share stealers to share donors and growth that once seemed like a given has disappeared. However, from personal experience, I can tell you that applying personal accountability to make a commitment to stay focused on how we can drive a better state will enable you to have productive conversations and uncover pockets of growth to keep you in the game as you wait for "transformation" to happen.

I encourage the people on my team to have three specific goals that they own and when they accomplish them will make a difference to our team's expected outcomes and will also provide personal fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment. We work together to align on the goals and how we will measure and track our performance. I encourage people to review those three goals daily and ask themselves: how did I make progress against my goals today? As their manager, it gives me great joy when they are able to update me on progress and it also allows me to be a potential resource when there are obstacles that are getting in the way of getting things done.

If you are in a situation today where you are discouraged and finding yourself making excuses and blaming others, I would challenge you to reach out to someone else you respect and ask them if they would help you engage in a process where you rise above the current situation, apply your imagination to create a different state and work through the strategies and tactics required to make it happen. I know it will change your perspective and energize you about today and the future!

However, you can make a commitment to