Season 2 Episode 27 - Stop “Holding People Accountable”

“Stop holding people accountable and inspire accountability.” – Kari Zeller

What if there were a way to have your team’s performance improve without “holding them accountable” or “holding their feet to the fire” or “enforcing standards”? There is a more effective and less painful way to generate results. Join Kari Zeller (FKA Granger) and Paul Adams as they debunk these traditional methods and show us how to, instead, inspire accountability.

In This Episode:

01:12 – Introducing today’s topic:

03:08 – Kari speaks to her experience working with the military in enforcing standards

05:06 – Kari reflects on the importance of shifting our language to achieve what we’d like to happen

05:54 – Paul breaks down the difference between having moral responses versus focusing on workability

06:57 – Kari expounds on what happens when organizations introduce morality into their commitment structure

08:08 – Unpacking the phrase “Holding People Accountable”

09:37 – Kari’s experience working with a client who kept their needs vague and ambiguous

11:59 – What ambiguous language sounds like

14:22 – Recognizing who is more committed to the outcome, you or the person who is supposed to be doing the actions

16:03 – The importance of reaching a shared future and outcome

18:28 – Kari provides language that can help to enhance communication for mutual partnerships

21:24 – Paul challenges the audience to inspire accountability and demonstrate what it means to have a culture that does what they say they’re going to do

Quotes:

“The phrase, ‘I need to hold you accountable,’ creates the context that, ‘You lack something that I have.’” – Kari Zeller

“Inherent in the phrase, ‘hold people accountable,’ is the idea that something that went bad, that there’s something wrong here.’” – Kari Zeller

“Keeping things vague, ambiguous, and hard to pin down, is a proactive defense that sacrifices the very future you’re out to accomplish.” – Kari Zeller

“When we don’t put ourselves out there by standing clear and strong in our own agreements and commitments, it almost invites other people to try to pin us down and hold us accountable.” – Kari Zeller

“When you find yourself falling into the default model of accountability where you’re more committed to the outcome than the person who made the promise and chasing them down, it’s time to stop and get reacquainted to the shared outcome that all parties equally care about.” – Kari Zeller

“Just beginning with the outcome in mind, shifts us back into partnership. ‘In our previous conversations, you saw this action was an obvious next step for us in achieving that outcome; do you still see that?’” – Kari Zeller

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• (Or wherever you listen to podcasts!)

Links:

• Kari’s Website

• Paul’s Website

• Kari’s Online Courses about Leadership Performance, Accountability, and Trust

• Paul’s Other Podcast

  
  

Acknowledgements: Our work is mosaic art. We read, study, and practice many philosophies, methodologies, and modalities of human performance, to ensure that our approach best serves our clients. We would like to acknowledge all of the thought leaders and organizations, whose ground-breaking work has influenced the TGN Consulting approach – especially Fernando Flores, Jim Selman, Michael C. Jensen, Julio Olalla, Pluralistic Networks,The Newfield Network, and the Strozzi Institute.

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