Chapter 20
Fight City Hall...
Hold Leaders Accountable All the Way Down the Line
Philadelphia in the 1950s and 60s was a city known for inefficiency and corruption. We didn’t talk about it much except when someone asked, “Who do you know down at City Hall? My son got a parking ticket.” Or a neighbor said, “My lazy nephew needs a job...there has to be a do-nothing job for him with the City.” We heard these kinds of statements so often that it became normal to expect a certain level of corruption and ineptitude from our local politicians. So normal, in fact, that most citizens learned to operate within that framework. That’s just the way things worked.
What we didn’t realize was that something was definitely going on behind the scenes – something that created the problem and then allowed it to continue.
No, it wasn’t backroom payoffs or blackmail, although I’m sure those things weren’t uncommon. It was a lack of leadership accountability. Each bureaucrat had his own version of the excuse, “It’s not my job.” But even worse, it was perfectly acceptable to not hold others responsible for fulfilling the jobs they were being paid to do. Each leadership level at City Hall, starting at the very top, did not hold the level below it accountable. Eventually, the “it’s-not-my-job” mentality and culture trickled down to the local politicians – the Committee Men, as they were called – who were supposed to handle issues at the neighborhood level like fixing streetlights and potholes.
Now, you might say that this same sad situation still exists in government today. Maybe it does, but that is a discussion for another day. Equally unfortunate is that this same lack of leadership accountability frequently exists in organizations that we would otherwise think of as “enlightened.” I believe that most of today’s leaders are not being held accountable for huge portions of their stated responsibilities – specifically, those associated with the people side of their jobs.
If I had only a moment in an interview to discuss factors that negatively impact almost every business, I would talk about the lack of leadership accountability pandemic. As leaders, we all too often do not hold the leaders below us accountable for the critical aspects of the people side of their job – things like recognition, coaching, feedback and communication. And the irony is that we would never accept this lack of performance in operational areas. Imagine a controller who doesn’t understand or like working with numbers or a salesperson who refuses to talk with customers or close deals. How about an IT manager who’s intimidated by technology? We wouldn’t tolerate any of these situations for a minute. In fact, we likely wouldn’t hire these people in the first place. And yet leaders across Corporate America ignore their people-based leadership responsibilities every day virtually without consequence.
Leaders who say that they “just aren’t good” at the people side of business should be no more accepted and tolerated than a CFO who isn’t good at accounting and finance.
Look, I realize this is strong stuff, but someone has to say it. I’ve just spent the last 19 chapters sharing techniques to help you and the other leaders in your organization do what needs to be done. But quite honestly, if no one is holding you accountable for quality leadership, you just wasted your time. It’s that simple. It all comes down to leadership accountability, and I’m here to tell you that accountability isn’t happening for the most part in business today.
If you don’t believe me, let me ask you this: How many CEOs are held accountable by their board or stockholders for achieving results on the people side of their business? We could probably count them on one hand! There aren’t enough boards that truly hold their top executives responsible for financial goals, let alone people goals! Stories abound of CEOs earning big bonuses even when their company’s bottom line is suffering and their stock is underperforming the market.
Now consider, if the CEO is not held accountable for people results, what is the likelihood that he/she will hold senior leadership responsible for people results? Slim to none. And if senior leadership isn’t held accountable for the people side of business, you can bet middle management won’t be either. Before you know it, the “people issues aren’t my job” mentality and culture have trickled down all the way to front-line supervisors and managers. Sounds a lot like Philadelphia City Hall and the Committee Men of my youth!
Ideally, every leader in an organization, from the CEO to frontline supervisors, should focus on the people side of business. But in the real world – on the Corporate Streets – we both know that often doesn’t happen. Sure, there’s a lot of lip service paid to the people side of business, but those sentiments often don’t hold true in the daily operations and actual culture of the organization. Why is this lack of leadership accountability for people results so prevalent? For many of the same reasons that I’ve already talked about throughout this book.
First is the inherent difficulty of measuring results on the people side of business. While top executives often complain about the inability to measure soft skills, they think they can measure just about everything else and show a connection to the bottom line. But that’s simply not true. Constantly upgraded technology, lavishly decorated offi ces and lobbies, corporate conferences and million-dollar travel budgets are just a sampling of initiatives and financial-statement line items for which it is virtually impossible to prove a return on investment. I’m not suggesting these expenses aren’t important or valuable; I’m simply pointing out that you typically can’t tie them directly to fi nancial results. But just because you can’t measure the ROI of something doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Another reason for this lack of leadership accountability is a deep-down belief that people issues – engagement, retention, recognition, coaching, performance appraisal and the like – are nice, but not essential. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, many leaders still aren’t convinced that people issues have enough direct impact on the bottom line to make them worth the price in time and money. So it’s not surprising there is no accountability for people-based issues.
The accountability issue is especially difficult to deal with because it lies beneath the surface and is rarely talked about or exposed – just like it was at City Hall. Those politicians knew they would not be kicked out of office for their nepotism and corruption. Likewise, today’s leaders know they won’t lose their job for failing to deliver on the people issues, as long as they can deliver on the bottom line.
What we need is a “sunshine law” to get the truth out in the open. Honest dialogue about the realities of leadership accountability for people initiatives is the first step. We must go beyond platitudes and treat the people in our organizations with the utmost care. When it comes right down to it, the only way to make that happen is to hold leaders responsible for people interactions in the same way they are held responsible for materials, processes and profits. Things will never really change – no matter how much money, resources, time and training we throw at the people side of business – until leaders, from the CEO to the front line, are held accountable.
My challenge to you is this: first and foremost, hold yourself accountable for the people side of your job. Regardless of what other leaders in the organization say or do with respect to the people side of business, you have an opportunity and a responsibility to get it right. If you are a leader of leaders, you are in a position to enhance or destroy leadership accountability. You have the tools to make it happen, from role modeling to performance appraisal. The truth is, you know what you need to do, you just need to do it. Just a few leaders can shift the culture of an entire organization. All it takes is a few leaders who are willing to make the choice to be people-focused leaders. Soon, your impressive results will encourage other leaders to shift their focus, and before long, you will have a critical mass of leaders dedicated to the people side of business.
There are those who will say that there are plenty of successful people who are not (or were not) held accountable for their actions. The politicians in Philadelphia, for example, who drove big cars and smoked even bigger cigars. Or the star athletes and celebrities who break the law or violate basic ethics and yet are more popular than ever. Aren’t they successful without being accountable? I guess that depends on your definition of success. How do you and your organization define success? Is success achieving a positive bottom line at any cost – generating profits at the expense of people? Or are the means just as important as the end results?
How you lead is directly tied to your beliefs about the value of people and the role they play in the organization’s success. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if you don’t believe people are absolutely crucial to your organization’s success, then maybe a leadership role is not for you.
There’s an adage that you can identify people’s priorities by looking at two things: their calendar and their checkbook. These two items will show you how they spend their time and their money. I believe you can similarly identify an organization’s priorities by looking at where it spends its time and resources. As an organization, how you doin’? Do you spend your time and resources on profits alone or on profits and people? If you will hold yourself and other leaders accountable for the people side of your business, you will reap plenty of rewards with both people and profits.
How You Doin’?
- As an individual leader, what do your calendar and “checkbook” look like? Do you spend your time and resources on profits alone or on profits and people?
- Do you hold yourself accountable for the people side of business, even if your boss doesn’t?
- Do you solicit feedback from others (both above and below you) on how well you are doing with respect to your people responsibilities?
- If you are a leader of leaders, do you hire and promote individuals for their people skills as well as their technical skills? If not, why not?
StreetSavvy Techniques
The techniques for holding leaders accountable are actually quite
simple, just as so many things on the streets are:
- Establish crystal-clear, concrete responsibilities and expectations with respect to the people side of business. Then consistently and regularly communicate those to leaders and gain their commitment to follow them. Never forget that “stuff” rolls downhill – and down the line. Be cognizant of how expectations at upper management levels will translate to leaders way down the organizational chart on the front lines. Start with a few basic, reasonable expectations. After initial success, add more people-based expectations one at a time.
- Coach leaders who exhibit gaps between expected and actual performance on people issues. Since there is a good chance this will be the first time they have been held accountable for results on the people side of business, don’t expect them to know there are gaps. Remember to practice patience. New habits take time to develop. It will likely take months or even years to truly build a culture of leadership accountability for the people side of your business.
- Recognize and reward leaders who get it right. Publicly acknowledge accomplishments in meetings, emails, newsletters and on your intranet. Whenever possible, promote those leaders who achieve the greatest results on the people side of your business. More than likely, these same leaders will also produce the greatest operational results (no coincidence there). Public recognition also clarifi es expectations by providing specific examples of the kind of behavior you are looking for.
- Actually hold leaders accountable, up to and including termination if necessary. There’s nothing like a real-life example to show where you stand on a subject. When other leaders understand that you are serious about people results, they will usually fall in line. Taking action to genuinely hold leaders accountable will have a greater impact on the organization than any speech about leadership ever could.
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