Everyone wants to be a leader. However, few are prepared to accept the accountability that goes with it. But you can’t have one without the other. They are two sides of the same coin.
But what does accountability look like? First and foremost, it means that you accept responsibility for the outcomes expected of you—both good and bad. You don’t blame others. And you don’t blame the external environment. There are always things you could have done—or still can do—to change the outcome.
Until you take responsibility, you are a victim. And being a victim is the exact opposite of being a leader. Victims are passive. They are acted upon. Leaders are active. They take initiative to influence the outcome.
Once a month, we require all of our divisional leaders to write a report, detailing what happened the previous month. They submit these to the Executive Leadership Team and then we meet with each leader face-to-face.
These reports provide a summary of what happened and a review of the key metrics that drive the business. We also ask each division head to describe how their leadership succeeded or failed. We ask, “What was it about your leadership that produced these results?” The underlying assumption is that it is all about their leadership. We do not allow them to blame anyone internally or externally.
Allen Arnold did a particularly good job of this in his report. I have asked his permission to include it here, because I believe it serves as a great model for others. By way of background, Allen leads our Fiction division. It is one of our fastest growing divisions and Allen has done a great job leading it to it’s current level of success. But even great leaders, like Allen, have bad months. Allen had a tough October, and He took full responsibility for it.
As Publisher, I take full ownership of failing to hit October’s Target. I also take full responsibility to lead the turnaround to overcome the shortfall. The results reflect the results of my leadership decisions, including some key factors below:
- I made the decision to release [Novel A] in the last month of last fiscal year. As a result, we had all the revenue in our last fiscal year and all the returns in this fiscal year. I must be smarter about this in the future.
Starting with the F’09 Plan, I’m moving my major [Author A] release from March to April, which means we’ll start our year with a bang. It also allows for revenue and returns for our top titles to occur in the same year from here forward.
- I depended heavily on movie tie-ins for major revenue yet had no control over the timing of the movie release.
[Novel B], [Novel C], and [Novel D] movies were all set for Summer / Fall 2008 releases, yet the studios have delayed all three with no new release dates set. I’ve learned not to lock in firm revenue projections based on movies I have no control over. While novelizations can be profitable, I will no longer include titles tied to movies on the Fiction Title Plan. They will drop-in only when the movie release schedule is 100% firm. Lesson learned.
- I overestimated how easy it would be to sell-in our new line of [Category E] novels.
It is still early in our move into this category, but initial sell-in is lower than I anticipated. I remain convinced of the viability and strategic wisdom of the investment we’re making; it is simply a matter of building traction with sales, retailers, and consumers. My team and I have now stepped up and are doing more to drive [Category E] sell-in—and sell-through.
- I haven’t acquired enough [certain type of authors].
I’m committed to providing novels that satisfy this felt need in the marketplace. It is a successful genre and other publishers have had good success with it. However, I should have moved on this sooner since the time from acquisition to finished product is often well over a year. But I am now on track to recover the lost ground.
- I need to create a better balanced revenue plan.
As is apparent this November (with only one title releasing), the lack of major, revenue-driving products in every month is having a negative impact. I won’t let this happen again.
Notice several things about Allen’s comments.
- They all make heavy use of the pronoun “I.” Allen doesn’t hide behind his team (e.g., “we didn’t do such and such”) or blame others (e.g., “they didn’t do such and such.”).
- He is specific about the decisions he made and the results he achieved. He understands that the two are linked.
- He doesn’t wallow in remorse or self-pity. He simply accepts responsibility for his mistakes, learns what he can, and pledges to do better.
- He has already taken actions to correct the problem. This is the great thing about responsibility. Once you own it, you can begin fixing it. This eliminates a lot of wasted effort in playing the victim and blaming others.
It is also important for leaders to take responsibility for the good results they produce. When a leader exceeds his target, there is much he can learn, too. And we take the time to reinforce these actions, so that they continue.
The bottom line is that no organization can grow and prosper until the leaders are willing to step up and take responsibility. As that begins to happen, it opens up a whole world of possibility.
Building Champions has been coaching me since 2002. They have taught me to be more proactive and intentional in both my business and personal life. Visit their Web site to learn more and see their special offer for my blog readers.
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Thanks a million for posting this and a special thanks to Allen for allowing you to post this. We have a leadership culture at our company very similar to yours but I have never seen such a great example of leadersip action like this.
Great! I totally agree. Accountability is always with the leader. A good leader will never blame others for the failure of his team. Thanks for the post!
This didn’t surprise me about Allen. He is awesome and Superman to me! A leader inspires his people too, and anyone who has ever spent five minutes with Allen comes away inspired to climb mountains. I don’t know how he does it, but he infuses his enthusiasm into everyone he meets.
Colleen,
I agree. The other thing I love about Allen is that his team is TOTALLY aligned with him. It is very powerful!
Mike
Regarding Mr. Arnold’s point 1: Management decisions shouldn’t be based solely upon arbitrary accounting periods. Has Thomas Nelson considered an allowance for returns account at least for management accounting purposes?
Great post! A great leader does not walk alone. It can be lonely at the top-but only by one’s own choice.
BTW, I hope your achilles will be okay.
Randy
As a member of the TN team, I must say there’s been a palpable difference in the way my manager has been approaching his/her leadership since your leadership/accountability blogs have been published these last few months. And not just in my area–I’ve seen more collaboration across different areas of the company in order to make us successful as a company, not just a SPU/division. When you are fully accountable for your future outcomes, your vision isn’t limited to one division . . . or even one company. We’re trying to reach the world. And when you take ownership of that, a whole new world of solutions is opened. It’s a really cool thing to see these principles at work on a practical level.
Mike I’m not sure everyone outside publishing understands what a jungle it can be. Not every book finishes out as well as the first proposals. Rescheduled title releases at times step on the toes of titles coming out on time resulting in sales and marketing adjustments leaving some “left behind” on a full effort. Some stores don’t buy into the hype of some product and titles aren’t always stocked or displayed as you dreamed. Maybe demand was stronger than you dreamed and the printer can’t keep up. And remember the truck strike about ten years ago causing product to sit in warehouses. The opportunity for finger pointing and excuse making is wide, and often used.
You have a competitve acquisition team already. But to have given them to freedom to be honest and accept some blame vs throwing it all elsewhere is the only way an employee can grow, in any business. I hope a lot of mature managers will look at this because focusing only on monthly numbers causing people to spin the facts and bend the truth. Nobody wants to be fired because they make a mistake, but it has happened.
Great post. A leader has to take reponsibility for the outcomes expected of him/her. Personally, everyone has to accept responsibility of his/her own life. Since I admit “Life is a battle”, I am a better soldier now, more proactive, initiative and up-spirited.
That is a mindboggling report from Allen. That is what , i suppose is called standing up and getting counted.
Am I fan of your blog posts. I am in a way I think.
Great work, keep going.
“Everyone wants to be a leader”?
Well I don’t!
There is no way to effectively lead without having effective accountability in place.
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