Carolyn Taylor — culture advisor, author, speaker, and accountability extraordinaire — has just released a new book: Accountability at Work: How to Make and Keep Promises and Have Others Do the Same. In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, Carolyn gives the audience some insight into her inspiration for diving into this topic, along with some helpful tips for finding accountability in the workplace.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Having worked with over 100,000 leaders in 35 countries, Carolyn Taylor knows what it means to affect change in the workplace. She is the author of Accountability at Work: How to Make and Keep Promises and Have Others Do the Same and Walking the Talk: Building a Culture for Success, both of which have been a source of inspiration and practical advice for other leaders across the globe.
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ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE WORKPLACE
When it comes to accountability in the workplace, the relationship and communication between two roles — the asker and the giver — is critical. The asker wants something and the giver is in a position to deliver it. According to Carolyn, both roles have a part to play in whether or not the ultimate delivery is fulfilled.
“I will often hear leaders complaining about the fact that their people are not delivering or that there’s no sense of urgency in their people,” Carolyn noted. Her response? That accountability, made up of in-depth conversation, must be lacking. When an asker makes a request and a giver makes a promise to deliver, there must be clear parameters and an expectation of follow-through. Otherwise, both the asker and the giver find themselves frustrated with one another.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Asking the whole group
“As soon as you have an individual involved, I think it becomes more powerful because, ideally, I think what evokes my sense of responsibility is when I feel that it was my word. And one of the dangers that leaders often have with their teams is that they will ask a whole team to do something. They ask everyone to accomplish something, and then no one owns it.”
Psychological safety
“Research has shown that there is a strong link between accountability and psychological safety — feeling that there is trust between us — and that takes time to build. What will tend to happen is, where trust doesn’t exist, often the asker ends up just telling — because that’s the easiest thing, the least intimate. The least engaging way is for me to tell you that you are going to do this, and then the giver will often end up just saying yes.”
The push and pull
“The asker tends to want a little bit more. I want it quicker. I want it cheaper. I want more volume depending on what the ‘ask’ is. They’re always going to push it a little bit. The giver on the other hand will tend to be worried that they’re not going to be able to do it, so they will, if given a free choice, want to have more time. Not everyone, but many people because the giver’s got lots of other priorities and there are lots of things that could go wrong. But what happens is because people don’t like tension and they’re uncomfortable with those sort of difficult conversations. ”
Before the promise
“Often, there’s very little time dedicated to the front end of the contract. And so what happens is that you never get to that ideal scenario, which is where the asker gets what they’re looking for and the giver feels that it was their word, their commitment. So that’s the kind of dream state we’re aiming for is that we can get the two parties to reach that point of equilibrium, but that requires conversation.”
The asker’s best interest
“There’s a skill element for the giver, of course, but there’s also a skill level element for the asker because it’s not actually in the asker’s interest that the giver fails. In most cases, when I’m asking for something, I’m also trying to deliver something. Now that might be because I’m your boss, and I need you to deliver for me to deliver. But it might also be because you and I are colleagues, and I need that piece of information from HR that is going to allow me to decide whether or not I’m going to hire this person. So it’s not in my interest that you don’t deliver to me.”
When the asker can’t go on
“There is a moment of discomfort where the giver is saying, ‘I can’t do it.’ And the asker doesn’t want to give up hope yet. And so we’ll perhaps sit with that tension — and only you can really judge what that moment is because sometimes, within that tension comes creativity. And the creativity is the solution that perhaps wouldn’t have been thought about if you had succumbed immediately and given up.”
Transforming the culture
“One of the most powerful techniques to help change a culture is to get ritual. That’s what this is, in a sense. It’s a ritual with a lot of complexity and a lot of skill, but it ultimately is a ritual. You can count on me as a ritualistic exchange between the two of us. And so one technique for changing culture is to put rituals in place and train people to use them.”
LEARN MORE
You can pick up a copy of Carolyn Taylor’s most recent book, Accountability at Work: How to Make and Keep Promises and Have Others do the Same can be found on Amazon.com. If you’re still hungry for more, check out Carolyn’s previous book, Walking the Talk, which is all about transforming workplace culture.