Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Leadership and Accountability
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.
- 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.
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