Three steps to claim your leadership super-power
Top Tips for Business Owners
You can't inspire accountability in others until you model it yourself.
While working with leadership teams, I discovered three powerful steps that elevate the performance of others.
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Transcript
Hey there! I'm Stuart Webb, your fellow businessman, entrepreneur, podcaster and CEO, with another one of my one-take video blogs, where all the mistakes stay in.
You can't inspire accountability in others until you model it yourself.
While working with leadership teams, I discovered three powerful steps that elevate the performance of others.
Let’s call them the three steps of accountability.
Remember this: Step one, don't blame. Step two, look for the source of the problem, starting at your own desk. Step three, engineer the solution. This sequence of steps has an almost magical effect on other people's behavior and helps in getting better results. These habits work not just for CEOs and managers, but for everyone who is trying to help others be better, whether as a parent, a coworker, or a volunteer.
"When was the last time you blamed someone for something? How did it work out? Probably not well. That's because our brains interpret blame in the same way they interpret a physical attack. Blame triggers the fight or flight response, which shuts down our problem-solving abilities in the brain. When I got angry at my daughters, it wasn't motivating them; it was actually impairing their brain function.
Researcher and doctor Amy Edmondson studied hospital teams to see how culture affects people's willingness to report medical errors. She expected that high-performing teams would make fewer mistakes, but to her surprise, they reported more errors. Why? Because when people aren't blamed for problems, they're more willing to admit their mistakes and learn from them. In cultures of blame, people hide problems or point fingers at someone else. No one takes accountability if they think they'll be blamed for it. Blame destroys teamwork, problem-solving, learning, and initiative.
In other words, blame kills accountability. So what should we do instead?"
Step two: Look in the mirror. Most of us are really good at noticing other people's mistakes, but we're not so good at noticing how we contribute to problems. One time, my assistant helped me mail out hundreds of expensive marketing packages to prospective clients. Three weeks later, no responses. So I checked one of the letters.
It read, "Dear Mister Smith. Insert company name here."
She missed one of the variable fields in every letter. Thousands of hours and money down the drain. Now she felt awful and said, "This is totally my fault." I was thinking, "You are darn right this is totally your fault." But then I looked in the mirror and I realized I didn't highlight any of the variable fields in yellow like they are in all our other templates.
If I had, she couldn't have missed it. Now, I'm not saying that every problem is my fault, but if I look closely enough at my problems, I can usually discover how my actions or inactions contributed to them in some way. This is a profound insight, because if I can see my part in a problem, I can do something about it.
The next time you encounter a problem, try asking yourself, "How may I have contributed to this problem?" I taught these principles to a construction company and followed up a few weeks later to see how things had changed. A project manager told me the following story: "Our general manager is a total blamer, and team meetings usually turn into blame sessions.
But the week after you taught us these principles, that meeting went very differently. When our general manager identified a problem, he was about to lay into the person who he thought was responsible. But then he stopped and put his head in his hand for a moment, then looked up and said, 'This is how I think I contributed to the problem.' The mood in that meeting changed instantly. And then I saw something I have never seen before. Other people began raising their hands, saying, 'No, boss, it wasn't just your fault. This is how I think I contributed to the problem.'
When leaders acknowledge their part in problems first, it makes it safe for everybody else to do the same. And if nobody else follows suit, then you've earned the moral authority to ask, 'And how may you have contributed to this problem?' Before others will allow us to hold them accountable, they must first see us hold ourselves accountable. Now, what if the cause of your problem isn't what you think it is?
Step three: engineer the solution. When bad things happen, our brains are hardwired to blame the person closest to the mess and ignore other causes. Fortunately, there's a fix. It's called systems thinking, which involves noticing how the environment and processes influence behavior.
Systems thinking emerged toward the end of World War Two, when the US Air Force noticed that many of their planes were crashing without any mechanical problems. Their initial conclusion was that the pilots were at fault, so they sought out consultants to help them select less error-prone pilots. However, the consultants discovered that the issue wasn't with the pilots but with the cockpit design. The confusing placement of controls and similar-looking gear handles were causing confusion and leading to crashes.
The consultants suggested that by improving cockpit design, the number of crashes could be reduced. The US Air Force then engineered the solution by simplifying cockpit design. Similarly, by looking at the overall system instead of blaming others, we can engineer a solution so that everyone has the information they need to take the initiative. Instead of asking, "Whose fault is this?" we should ask, "Where did the process break down?" This approach can help to bypass the blame game and find sustainable solutions to problems.
Remember, you can't inspire accountability in others until you model it yourself. The next time you encounter a problem, try following this sequence of steps and observe how it changes your outcomes. Instead of blaming, look in the mirror and engineer the solution. Be the change that you want to see in others.
Our world is in desperate need of more people who take ownership of problems and solutions in our workplaces, our homes and in our society. And the secret is, as you model these behaviors, so will those around you.
If you found this video helpful, remember to hit that like button and share it with fellow entrepreneurs. And, of course, subscribe for more insights and inspiration. Stay tuned for more valuable information, and share your thoughts in the comments below.
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