accountability

TRUTH WITHOUT APOLOGY

Friend and colleague Mark Levy, author of Accidental Genius  agreed to give us feedback onour most recent newsletter, which included advice for “A Better Way to Deliver Difficult News.”  “That advice is refreshingly harsh,” he told us

Harsh? Ouch! Sometimes the truth DOES hurt.

We shouldn’t have been surprised. Others have been known to describe our message that way, only without the “refreshingly” modifier.

As we continued to talk, Mark backpedaled a bit, saying a better description would have been “unapologetically honest.”  He said he understood why asking people to “live the experience of truth” at work would be a concept people might turn from.

“It’s not like you're telling people they can get anything they want if they just visualize,” Mark said. “Part of the reason I said ‘unapologetically honest’ is because I am always apologizing for telling the truth.”

What spurs the impulse to apologize for being honest, we wondered. Then we had a revelation — people never apologize for telling the truth unless they are uncomfortable telling it, or they think it is something that might be difficult to hear.

When we talk to people about the rewards of telling the truth as a business practice, it is common for reactions to include fear, suspicion, and skepticism. In the context of most organizations, “telling the truth” almost always has a negative connotation.

If you start a conversation with “Can I tell you the truth?” what usually happens? Typically,  a step back. People brace themselves. They look for something to hold onto so the force of hearing something unpleasant won’t knock them flat.

How have we managed to create organizations where “telling the truth” is seen as a radical act? Why do people consider it as unpleasant as administering a dose of castor oil?

Nobody requests permission to tell the truth (or apologizes for it) if the message is: “I think you’re a terrific leader.” They don’t think twice about delivering a truthful “I really appreciate all the extra hours you’ve been putting in to make this project successful.”

But when the truth is difficult — “things aren’t going so well” or “we need more from you” — people are reluctant to deliver it. And that raises another difficult issue: People are often equally unwilling to hear the truth.

Helping people understand the business reasons for delivering difficult truths helps develop organizations where people can tell each other the truth.  Investing equal energy in coaching people to hear the truth — even if it doesn’t always feel good — fosters reflection, self-awareness and resiliency

NOTE: We’d really like to hear your stories about truth telling. Relate a time when telling the truth felt too risky, and how it turned out. Or an example of when you told the truth even in the face of your fear. What happened?

WHO HOLDs YOU ACCOUNTABLE?

Who besides you can impose accountability? I asked this question of a young woman, an HR professional, during a workshop onemployee engagement being presented by our friends and fellow Berrett-Koehler authors Dick and Emily Axelrod.

They had asked us to pair off with someone we didn't know. My conversation partner was a young woman who had begun working as an HR manager eight months earlier after earning a master’s degree in Organization Development. Her question about accountability got my attention.

HER: What do you think are really effective ways to hold other people accountable?

ME: I don’t believe you can hold other people accountable. That is one of the big myths in organizations, and this false belief that we can hold others accountable ends up wasting a huge amount of time and energy. People are always making their own choices about whether they're going to be accountable.

HER: But … but we have to be able to hold other people accountable to be effective!

ME: Can I ask who holds you accountable?

HER: Well, my boss holds me accountable. That is part of his job.

ME: So… if you didn’t have a boss watching you to make sure you did good work, you wouldn’t? You’d just show up and do the bare minimum in order to collect a paycheck?

HER: Of course not! I’m really committed to doing a good job! I take a lot of pride in the quality of my work.

ME: So then who is really in charge of your accountability?