Team accountability (cont.)

I always get a lot of comments about each “Leader Newsletter” issue I send to you on the first Tuesday of every month.

I love receiving them because they are as varied as your particular circumstances – like your country’s ideology, your company’s culture, your hierarchy within your organization, etc.

This time however – I liked so much the comments’ quality I got from Kevin McGlynn (one of my readers) – that I asked him if he would be open to publish them on this Newsletter.

And he said “yes”

So – with his permission and for your enjoyment – it is my pleasure to present to you his comments (here below) as this month’s Newsletter – and as an addendum to last month’s issue (from November 3, 2015) …

Thank you very much Kevin !!!

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Joseluis, as always your November Newsletter was another great article on leadership. I agree with your vision – and I see a few additional steps to help change a culture as you develop an empowered and accountable work team:

Expectations:



Clear expectations must be presented, understood and lived by all. This starts by fully understanding your company goals & objectives. Once these company goals & objectives are understood and clear, the work team's mission should be to create an environment that supports and accomplishes these company goals & objectives.

Decision-Making:

Decisions should be based on the team's mission that supports the overall company goals. This will help with the team's decision making and will help eliminate the "silo" mentality that exists in so many organizations. This “silo” mentality isolates and stifles communication between teams, making accountability and culture change throughout an organization almost impossible.

(As a side note, I do use what I call the “silo principle” within work teams in the decision making process, where everyone's "silo" with the decision must be at least 70% full to implement the decision, meaning they may not be 100% in favor of the decision, but can live with and will support the decision. This also means owning the decision, where the team member doesn't say to others outside the team, "It was their decision, not mine. I didn't agree with the decision." If anyone’s silo on the work team isn’t at 70%, we continue to adjust to see what can be done to gain consensus. Note that there are subjects such as contractual subjects, etc. that are not applicable to the “silo principle” and those are communicated up front.)

Resisters-to-Change:



The difficulty exists when you have that one or two individuals that do not wish to participate. These individuals are the ones who might be extremely talented and add value, but their attitudes are normally negative about everything including change. This tends to drag down the entire team. Sometimes getting these individuals involved early on in the development of changing the culture can change their attitudes (if they understand they are a part of the change) and sometimes it can generate a leader for the change.

If this does not occur, how you deal with this type of individual that refuses to change and makes it their life's goal to de-rail any team improvements and culture change might be a great leadership topic for you to discuss in future monthly leadership newsletters?

Celebrate-Success:



Lastly – the leader needs to celebrate the improvements with their team. Working in a team that does nothing but go from project to project and doesn't review and celebrate victories, or learn from defeats, will not thrive. Sustainability is most difficult when you try to change a culture.

Too many leaders take the stance where they simply inform the team they are now empowered and accountable and all is now complete. These leaders expect almost instantaneous sustained change, which is unreasonable and impossible. This does nothing but frustrate and confuse the team members. That is why I like your three points in your November Newsletter towards the development of a new team culture.

Kevin McGlynn
Facility Engineer III

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