In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, host Brandon Laws talks with Vince Molinaro about leadership accountability, something that many businesses value but struggle to put into practice. Vince outlines some leadership best practices from his latest book, Accountable Leaders: Inspire a Culture Where Everyone Steps Up, Takes Ownership, and Delivers Results. If you’re ready to learn more about leadership accountability methodology that won’t get lost in translation, this is the episode for you.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Vince Molinaro, Ph.D. is the New York Times best-selling author of The Leadership Contract and Accountable Leaders: Inspire a Culture Where Everyone Steps Up, Takes Ownership, and Delivers Results, among several others. He is also the Founder and CEO of Leadership Contract, Inc. and has consulted with leaders from all over the world. He is passionate about inspiring leaders to be accountable to themselves, their businesses, and their teams.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
THE INSPIRATION
“There’s no shortage of ideas or shortage of ways in which to develop leaders, but the translation into business results are lacking.”
What does it mean to be a leader? Vince Molinaro has spent most of his career in the leadership industry and has seen “a real evolution” in how companies have been approaching leadership to drive the success of their companies.
According to Vince, when we came out of the Great Financial Crisis, we had an opportunity to re-evaluate virtually every facet of the workplace, including leadership development. And what he found was growing frustration among CEOs and heads of HR. Despite their investment in leaders — through leadership development programs, partnerships with business schools, and executive coaches — they “weren’t seeing it translate into better leadership.” Clearly, something was wrong with the methodology.
“As I began to dive into it,” Vince said, “what I began to realize was that this idea of a contract kept coming into my mind. And it’s really quite simple. And so this contract, I believe, has always existed, but it’s been hidden.” Vince’s goal in writing The Leadership Contract was to teach companies how to create explicit contracts for leaders so that leaders would read, understand, and sign their names to their roles and responsibilities. And, of course, companies would use these contracts to hold leaders accountable.
As he started bringing this concept into organizations, Vince realized that companies expected more from their leaders beyond the accountability contract. They needed help translating the ideas in the book into their day-to-day operations, and that’s where Vince’s latest book, Accountable Leaders: Inspire a Culture Where Everyone Steps Up, Takes Ownership, and Delivers Results, was born.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Research and Accountability
“When Leadership Contract came out, and we started working with organizations, we also started doing a ton of global research. And what we found was that leadership accountability was a critical business issue. Companies that we surveyed around the world — pretty much three out of four — said it’s critical, but only 31% were satisfied with the degree of accountability demonstrated by leaders. In fact, only about 49% of leaders are seen as being truly accountable by the organizations that we surveyed.”
Expectations for Leaders
“This isn’t all on the leaders themselves. What we also found is that most organizations have never set clear expectations of their leaders. They’ve never said ‘here’s what it means to be a leader in our company. Here’s where we’re setting the standard and the bar. And here’s what we expect you to behave towards.’ And when companies don’t do that, then they leave it up to leaders to figure it out on their own. And why would you make what is already a tough role that much tougher?”
A Risky Situation
“Then we found some research that 80% of teams are seen as being mediocre but 1% as being accountable. And from an organizational culture level, 66% of companies say that they don’t have the leadership culture that they need to be successful. And to me, that just creates risk from a company and an execution standpoint.”
Setting Priorities
“In the last four chapters of my book, Accountable Leaders, I really wrote those chapters for the CEO, the head of HR, and the senior executive team because ultimately they have accountability. In addition to being accountable leaders at a personal level, they have an accountability to the leaders of their organization to really support their success. And they’ve got to make leadership accountability a priority.”
The Role of HR
“HR leaders are increasingly becoming more and more critically important in driving the success of their companies, both from a talent and leadership standpoint. But it begins with them understanding that they are leaders themselves. And that’s not always an idea that I find HR teams fully appreciate.”
Creating a Leadership Contract
“Create a clear set of leadership expectations by creating a custom leadership contract for your company. In the book, I map out the methodology that we use to do that. If you look out over the next 3-5 years, think about your business strategy and start extrapolating what’s going to be critical and how your leaders are going to step up. And then you really start articulating these expectations in very simple, clear language and 5 or 6 expectations. […] And I always suggest that you and your team create a contract that leaders have to read. And then they’ve got to decide, ‘Am I prepared to sign this?’”
Doing Hard Things
“The next step is the toughest one. This is where you now need to do the hard work as an organization to support leaders who are struggling in their roles. Just because they’ve signed the contract, that doesn’t mean they’ve got the capabilities they need to be successful. You also need to demonstrate zero tolerance for leaders who behave in a toxic way. Otherwise, you’ve just eroded any confidence or credibility that you have. And then the final step is you’ve got to find ways for leaders to connect with one another across the organization to build a sense of community.”
Neglecting the Hard Convos
“When we avoid tough conversations with a poor performer, we really don’t understand how it weakens us, weakens that person, weakens our team, and weakens the organization. But on the flip side, if you have the courage to tackle those things and make progress — even a little bit of progress — it just takes you to another level. And oftentimes, a lot of organizations and a lot of leaders and teams are stuck because there are one or two really thorny, tough issues that everyone knows about but no one seems to have the courage to have the discussion.
LEARN MORE
Interested in learning more about how to cultivate great leaders? Connect with Vince Molinaro on LinkedIn, check out his website at drvincemolinaro.com, or grab one of his books on Amazon or where books are sold.