Accountability: Do it Right the First Time

by John J. Trakselis Coaching Essay
"A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last." – Joseph Fort Newton

Many people talk about accountability. What is accountability and what does it look like? In the last year we heard from a number of public officials who oversaw failed government initiatives or departments. When asked who was accountable, each said, “I am”. I guess this is reassuring but it may not be satisfying because it did not give us a clear picture of what it means to be accountable. Yes, some of them ultimately lost their jobs, resigned or stayed on with diminished power, but we did not get a sense of what accountability meant to them. Public discussions about accountability, sometimes top headlines in the news, often generate a lot of heat but not much light. So in this short essay, I will attempt to put some parameters around the principle of accountability.

The Fog Surrounding Accountability

The big cloud surrounding discussions of accountability is the notion of punishment. It looks something like this: If I am accountable and something goes wrong on my watch then I must suffer some hardship. I can say that I am accountable for specific results, but if I fail in some regard, then I must experience a “to be determined” form of punishment. Punishment implies diminishment—of money, prestige, position, stature and in an extreme case ostracism. Let’s call this the guillotine approach.

"My belief is that personal freedom cannot grow beyond personal responsibility. The more people that learn to be fully accountable for their lives, the more freedom each of us can enjoy and the more fulfilling all of our lives will be." – Reed Konsler

A more productive way to look at accountability might be to regard it as consequences based on the effects of action or inaction. If someone is in a position of public trust then the more extreme forms of failure would strongly suggest that person should remove himself from his position. However, this is not an excuse for inaction or a claim that “it is out of my hands because I have been fired or resigned”. Also, this does not give one the green light to write a book about the experience. Why not? It is because accountability requires responsibility. I can make this case in pure and simple terms: When one makes a mess, or tolerates a mess, one has an obligation to clean it up and to implement safeguards that will prevent similar fiascos from happening in the future. Unfortunately, most of the public instances of breakdown do not shed light on the actions of of the supposed responsible parties and so we lose an opportunity to understand the lessons learned. Our public discussion tends to be about assigning blame and focusing on who won and who lost. This leads us down a rabbit hole. It makes for interesting water cooler discussions and increasing polarity in society but does not advance public awareness.

Shed Light on the Problem and Turn Down the Thermostat

Let’s assume you failed in some fashion. It could be in your job responsibilities, your relationships with friends and family or your commitments to yourself. In the more extreme cases you might have experienced:

  • Terror
  • Fear
  • Self-loathing
  • Anger
  • Sadness
  • Wounding (Hurt)

The emotional furnace is running hot. You literally can’t think because your feelings are overtaking you. In these cases it would seem the only way to get equilibrium is to turn down the thermostat so you can start thinking. This is the first responsible thing to do because your next action may be wholly reactive with insufficient thought and it will probably not be sustainable. Slow down your thoughts by acknowledging, rather than avoiding, your upset. Keep in mind that mindfulness of our emotional state is not wallowing in a sea of self-pity. It is a step in the process towards moving forward and not an end in itself.

"Accountability breeds response-ability." – Stephen R. Covey
Work a Plan

Once you begin thinking (not the same as scheming) you can start to put together a plan of action. I have often said that the only good plan is one that can be executed. Generally, a plan is more likely to be executed if it is well designed. Here are some elements to include when designing your plan:

  1. Making restitution
    1. To whom?
    2. When?
    3. How?
  2. Clean up
    1. What does it look like?
    2. Who needs to be involved?
    3. What resources do you need?
    4. What is the timetable and individual milestones within the timetable?
  3. Communication
    1. To whom?
    2. When?
    3. How?
  4. What does completion look like?
  5. What have I learned and what will I do differently?
Moving Forward
"If You Don’t Have Time to Do It Right, When Will You Have Time to Do It Over?" – John Wooden

John Wooden’s quote comes in handy when I sense that one of my clients has to deal with sloppy results, usually brought on by one of the people who reports to him. In our rush to get things done we end up spending more time because we end up doing clean up too. I realize that nothing is ever perfect but I think a more realistic standard might be excellence. Alternatively, I have heard that a quality job is one that is done according to specification. Ah, but you may say that you didn’t have any specification or that the process you were to reengineer was never engineered in the first place. Then I say, according to Vistage speaker Max Carey, things work exactly as they were designed to work. That means that your intentions as manifested in design or specification may have largely been unintentional and it reflects your mindset or a legacy system.

I think it is infinitely better to specify (and be conscious and honest about) how things should work rather than getting up after something fails and making an empty declaration that you are accountable for a dysfunctional result. There is no need to go through all that grief, aggravation and pain, to say nothing about the denigration of your self-image. Use the principle of DIRTFT—do it right the first time. That way you may never get into the question of accountability because you were responsible—for a success.

"At the end of the day we are accountable to ourselves - our success is a result of what we do." – Catherine Pulsifer

And, there is more, there always is.

Be genuine.

Copyright 2014 © John J. Trakselis, Chicago CEO Coaching

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