Latest / Daily Influence / 660. The Accountability Gap: Why Expectations Aren’t Enough Anymorex

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660. The Accountability Gap: Why Expectations Aren’t Enough Anymorex · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody Brian Smith here with the IM team series and your daily influence and today we are going to talk about accountability, but we're going to talk about accountability in a little bit of a different way we're going to talk about why there's a gap in accountability and why expectations aren't really
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: enough anymore.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: Most believers believe that they've been clear.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes we haven't been so accountability actually starts with us, but they believe they've set expectation, they've communicated goals, they've explained what good it looks like and yet execution oftentimes still breaks down.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the gap isn't the effort, the gap isn't the intent, the gap is accountability.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today, I want to talk about why expectations alone no longer work and how accountability has quietly become misunderstood and out disciplined accountability actually freeze people instead of pressuring them expectations without ownership are just wishes and clarity without ownership doesn't create accountability it actually creates frustration if no one can clearly answer who owns this.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: by when and how will we know it's done, then accountability can't exist.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Only hope does.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: And ownership is the missing bridge between expectations and results.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: Accountability has been confused with control for the longest time.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not about control.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: Many leaders avoid accountability because they don't want to micro-manage.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: they don't want to damage the relationships they have.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they also don't want to be seen as too rigid.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But accountability is not about control.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's clarity with follow-through.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: And when done well, accountability removes ambiguity and replaces tension with trust.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: What that means is that people begin to understand that they own.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they begin to understand why that ownership is important, not just to the organization, but to themselves.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that sense of ownership for what they've agreed to do when whatever area of influence they have lends us to that.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And look, when accountability is weak, that's when leaders compensate with pressure.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, without accountability, leaders will repeat themselves, chase updates,
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: set back into the work and try to do it themselves, and they'll also escalate emotionally through frustration, anger, and others outbursts that you can see in organizations that many of you might be familiar with.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pressure fills the vacuum that accountability should occupy.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Strong accountability reduces the need for reminders,
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  [SPEAKER_01]: urgency and rescue behavior?
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why is that?
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  [SPEAKER_01]: It's because people again have that ownership.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: They know what it means to fulfill and to feel good about it and be trusted.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And because of those feelings, because of that consistent positive behavior, we see people getting the work done without having to exert this emotion or these overarching leadership tendencies that we see a lot of leaders trying to fall into.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: One thing that I really like about Smart is that it really makes accountability visible.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Smart gives you something to measure into or with accountability.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Without a motion, accountability fails when it's subjective, but Smart removes emotion by making progress observable, gaps, obvious, and conversations factual.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: How much easier can it be when we run into a problem just to ask the question, what's not smart about this?
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: People in our smart environment understand that means, what specifics are missing, what measurement?
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  [SPEAKER_01]: What about attainability that we understand?
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  [SPEAKER_01]: relevance and timeliness.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: When accountability is visible in that way, it stops feeling personal.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: It starts feeling professional.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's where smart can get us.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Another thing that accountability is is a gift to high performers.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: High performers want accountability because it protects their time and it clarifies the priorities.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: It also prevents others lack of
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: want accountability is inconsistent your best people carry the way and eventually that will burn them out look accountability isn't about pressure it's about respect respect for people's time respect for clarity.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: and respect for progress.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: If execution feels stalled, don't communicate harder, anchor accountability, better, get smart.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because expectations set direction, but accountability is what actually moves the work forward.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: look, I hope you have got another contextual understanding of why accountability is so so important in organizations and how smart can help not only support through the framework and foundation of specific measurable attainable relevancy and timeless, but how it can also integrate its behavior characteristics into how we work through every area of influence that we have.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you'll join us again in the future for individual influence.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day.