Building Trust and Relationships is like having a bath, one recommends having it as often as possible! Very often, silos are created between teams as there is no unifying vision/goal that enables every stakeholder to see the overall picture. Lots of work needs to be done at the leadership level to be role models for their teams. Most organizations look at rituals, and rightly so, but end up implementing these ideas very poorly. Leadership culture has to change organically and cannot be a product of “team building activities”
There is a formula for TRUST
There is a formula for TRUST
Credibility X Reliability X Intimacy / Self Orientation
Credibility –is a function of competence and character, Functional competence is the bare minimum that gets you skin in the leadership game and character is your leadership brand that is described by your stakeholders and not necessarily by you.
Reliability is a function of consistency and predictability –There are leaders who are schizophrenic and their stakeholders are constantly kept guessing about the how this particular leader would react.
Intimacy –refers to how well you know your stakeholders, the depth of awareness of their needs, values and norms
Self orientation –Based on a series of your interactions with your stakeholders, what is your give v take ratio? Are you helping them by investing time and energy?
Accountability
A Ceo lamented that he dreads AOP’s because of the amount of lack of accountability that crops up with his subordinates. It acts as dead weight that brings down momentum and energy in those sessions, elaborately crafted job descriptions with fine details ironed out does not cut it by far. These challenges are endemic and rooted in the subconciousness of the institutional memory of the organization. Structure and specificity is important, buts, that not ground ZERO
There are established stereotypes that abound in corporate circles based on accountability or the lack of it -Victims, finger pointers, responsibility duckers, clock watchers, wait and watchers –We have all been there in various avatars, sometimes as players and sometimes at the head of the table.
Some of the sins of low accountability are :
Staying confused and waiting for instructions –Laxity in seeking out clarifications, raising potential blocks and pertinent detailing are signs of low accountability
Rule book orientation-This is not the way it has been done in the past, I will wait around till it has become a part of an official record.
Denial –Shutting down any feedback and insisting that their approach is the best inspite of ample evidence to the contrary.
Wait and see-A head buried in the sand approach leads to serious fire fighting at a later and more crucial stage.
Not my job-Why should I shoulder someone else’s load?
Leaders need to ensure a 4 step process to bring in greater accountability – Awareness, Acknowledgement, action and accountability. A complete understanding of accountability in organizations must begin with an acceptance of the notion of “joint accountability.” One company president characterized what joint accountability meant to him: “everyone working together so that we don’t drop the ball; but when it does get dropped, everyone dives for the ball to pick it up.” “Unfortunately,” he said, “too many of our people see the ball falling to the ground between players but react by saying ‘that was your ball.
However, when people view their accountability as something larger than their responsibility, people find themselves feeling accountable for things beyond what a literal interpretation of their job description might suggest (i.e.,profits, customer complaints, sharing information, project deadlines, effective communications, sales, and the success of the overall company)
