Mastering Accountability: Key Behaviors for Leadership Success

so we're gonna talk a little bit about accountability today this which is one of our key behaviors and the history of

this for for me and for the leadership team starts with Tim Sol so at least for me it really started to get with Tim

trying to figure out how he was going to change the culture at Cummins to still be stakeholder related still be thinking

about communities and employees as well as financial results but to dramatically improve financial results because the

challenges that we had had come off a period when he became CEO where we had not really delivered terrific financial

results and so we went from this idea of best efforts to delivering results and that's really what he was trying to get

at is I want to keep all those good values and how we treat people but I want us to be focused on we have we must

deliver results or we won't be the ones running the company in fact our company won't be around and and and I think that

became kind of the underpinning of our accountability thinking at that point he called it a performance ethic at the

time the F that we are we have an idea that we will do what we said we will do we will have high performance

irrespective of all the circumstances as opposed to the circumstances being read ways to explain why you didn't do it so

I think that became and since it was such a big deal to him and such a big deal at the time it be kind of became

the way that rich and myself and Jill and all of our colleagues this is the way we thought this is what we thought

accountability meant and and and and we went through all these you know the changes in the company and the

performance improved and that was all really good but as we began to began to write plans and strategies yeah and I

was again at CFO at first and then later in Powergen what I found out was that the more we told people you have to hit

your numbers no matter what the lower the numbers came in and I as the CFO I was watching people give me very low

numbers like when you added up their numbers the son essentially the shareholders should

immediately sell your company because the some of them was way worse than the stock price way worse and like whoa well

we can't say that because if we say that they'll just say we'll never mind then they were hitting their numbers that

they said it's just that nobody cares because they're too low and and then so then we would got into this big

discussion about like so I would go into their numbers and say well why did you put that because that's way too low it's

way too conservative and they'd explained to me why the assumption is conservative it was was reasonable they

just didn't feel like we were all standing up and say this is what our shareholders deserve or our employees

deserve and this is what we're going to deliver so because of this challenge when it came time to write

accountability definition I decided I was not going to pull one out of a book and so the team the leadership team was

all engaged in trying to figure out what is this definition and you'll see as I tell it to you it won't sound like hit

your numbers or else or you can give me 10% more because of course hit your own numbers or else means we should be

firing people regularly for missing their numbers and which and by the way half of our team when I asked them what

does accountability mean said it means hitting my your numbers or else and I said okay well how many people have we

or you fired in the last five years for missing their numbers and no one could name one person one person so even

though we were all assuming that was the what we meant we actually had enough I'd hurt anybody

for that we had fired people for being inappropriate for you know doing not doing values for but we had never fired

anybody that we could I mean there must be somebody but we couldn't come up with any names in that room of people we'd

fired for missing the numbers so we were all many of us were under the assumption that that was our accountant bill that's

what performance ethic meant and fire people who miss and yet we were if that was it we weren't really living up to it

and we start off with the the first behavior we were looking for everybody was to proactively assume personal

responsibility and and some keywords in there are proactively and and when you're going to be proactive it means

that you're not waiting for somebody to assign you something you're not submitting the the least challenging

annual operating plan that you can get away with so proactive responsibility means we all step up to take

responsibility and we are clear on the problem or trying to solve what is it we're trying to do and I get I would

can't emphasize enough how often it is that as a leadership team when we're not doing this right it's because we haven't

clearly defined what problem we're trying to solve in fact we all have a different idea in our head about what

Ron so to be a proactive accountable person you have to be ready to stand up and say the problem you're trying to

solve get get it get get alignment on that and then you need to be ready to step up and say I will be part of that

solution I will stand up and do it and let me just give you one example from my past that stands out in my mind like no

other for an example of proactive accountability we had as a leadership team we were really struggling with IT

implementations and especially our ERP or you know our Oracle implementations that were going across the company we

were spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars per year we weren't getting good results for it and it was

kind of dissociated from our basic strategy and in operations and and there was no nobody was really taking

ownership for the whole problem yes there were IT leaders who were doing their thing and there were operations

and supply chain people doing their thing but nobody was taking ownership and basically that looked like the

problem was the other guys most of the time whichever group you were in it was the other guys that were

the problem and when Lisa Yoda was on my team as a supply chain leader one of the reasons she made it to my team as the

supply chain leader is because she always exemplified personal accountability to me she always would

step up and say I got that and sure enough she stepped up and said I'll lead this Oh er P implemented in fact the

whole supply chain IT side I'll leave that for you and and for the team really I'll take it on and then I asked her so

what's your plan she goes I have no idea no idea what my plan is for how to do it but it needs to be done and I have you

know I've been in supply chain I've done some IT implementations I probably have the best shot as anybody so I'll do it

that is what I mean by proactive responsibility so there's she had Noah yeah how she was

gonna do it and by the way it wasn't going to go well we knew you probably know that right it's not it's not gonna

be win after win after him it's not gonna be like that but it needed to be done and while everybody else kind of

slipped their chair back she just slipped her chair forward and said I'll do it that's that's what we need to be

thinking about and I would just say that even for the person that isn't stepping up to be the very first leader I call be

the number one each member of the team has to say what else could I do to help resolve this problem what else can I do

from my place to help resolve it it can't be like one person pushes their chair for and you just say thank God I'm

not on that one because that's not going to help either that's this collective as a team

responsibility everybody has to step in individually so the teams that can succeed so proactive number one the

second part of this though is you have to be able to think not just in your organization but around the table and

that takes a certain mindset and willingness to to kind of engage in areas which you're not

but with I do think there are a number of people who have an accountability mindset in one scenario like I will

deliver what I want to do they'll be they won't you know play their numbers games they will really deliver you what

they know but it'll be in the areas they know how where they know their stuff they know what it takes but as soon as

it goes somewhere where they're not so sure then they think it's just irresponsible just to promise things

there because how do I know and the problem I think as your teams get more senior and you have more

complex responsibilities that won't work anymore because there's too many things in the middle which are not clear and

then all of us have to have some courage about how do I step into areas where I'm not so sure how it's gonna be done when

it's gonna be done and say I'm gonna go help figure it out not not promise things that I've you know but not

promise things willy-nilly because no but I will step in and have courage to be out there

second is verbalizing personal ownership so as a team and as individuals we need to say that

we are we this is our problem to solve we've met we have identified it now it's our problem to solve and we intend to

solve it and that's because when we step forward and say we're gonna do it that means that the rest of the company knows

we're in and we in we if we step forward and say we're in we're gonna help solve this that means that everyone who works

for us also now is tied into the solution to solving the problem and let me just paint the opposite picture when

one group says hey we're gonna solve this problem and another team member says I don't really see that being the

right thing to do or I'm I'm not in for that and that's and therefore doesn't verbalize their personal support for the

solution what happens to their whole organization they're not in none of them have their oars in the water alright and

we see that too you know sometimes we see like if if one a bo is off trying to solve this problem of growing market

share but the BU doesn't think that's a good focus they don't get as much support and resources as they need right

and that that means it's not going to succeed right probably so verbalizing personal

ownership it's not only the individual standing up and say I got it but it's also the other saying we're in we're

part of that solution to we're gonna lead helped lead the change for this solution I believe in it I believe in

this problem breeding we're solving and I believe in this solution and I'm gonna be part of fixing it it's really really

important so quiet support is not nearly as valuable as noisy support for the big issues that's what the behaviors I'm

looking for and sometimes if you do this proactively and you verbalize or before you know how to do it sometimes you may

not make it so I course has to be true that if you don't

succeed in every case you you know that that would that would be acceptable otherwise no one's gonna do it so I do

care about results but I also recognize that I'm gonna get better results when I get people stepping forward to solve big

thorny problems even if they don't have all the answers third area is communicate openly with

peers and colleagues so we've used peers and colleagues both here because we're thinking of you know colleagues more

broadly and your peers on your team right so it's the idea is inside the team and outside the team we have to

communicate openly and let me talk what I mean about that so when when Lisa stepped forward and said I've got I'll

lead this ERP problem for the the company the next question was you know how are you gonna do that and what

support do you need from me and if she says oh don't worry I got it I don't I'm good to go that's actually not gonna

help cuz she doesn't got it at this a big thorny problem she needs help from a bunch of people on

the team so being able to be open with your team members about what what you do actually have here's what I've got

covered and here's what I don't have covered and I need help on that's really important there's a element of

vulnerability than that isn't there like I don't have this covered I don't know what to do here or if if one of your

team members is is is leading misleading their section of it really isn't delivering they need behavioral feedback

people need to say hey you're you said you'd support and yet I noticed that you haven't put any staff on it yet that

doesn't feel like support to me what's going on so that stuff can't be quiet it can't be that we don't we won't address

each other with those things so there's a you know there's an element of behavioral accountability here are we

doing what we said we would do and we have to be able to talk to each other about that I can't wait for the boss or

the CFO to find that as peers or colleagues we have to call each other on the behaviors that we're seeing so

proactive responsibility verbalize and then communicate openly where do I need help where don't I have it where am i

vulnerable also where am I peer feedback colleague feedback when they're not delivering or their behaviors aren't

matching what their commitments are solution or I think this is probably one that you

will have thought about before but accountable people they do give feedback they do find issues but they also search

for solutions they want to be part of the solution so identifying issues identifying problems isn't enough it's

by the way it's important because otherwise you can't find the gaps if your truth if you want to know the truth

you better be out of the state where we're not but just stating where you're not will not get you to the end so it's

a combination of stating where we are and where we aren't and then saying so what could we do about that how can we

move to solutions and I guess the the the only other thing that I want to emphasize here is that sometimes when we

get to problem solving what I see happen in the team is each person kind of has a pet peeve or an issue that they want

addressed that they've thought about for a long time and they're kind of seeing the problem from that perspective like

their individual perspective you know like I the reason I think ERP needs to be solved is because I'm they've been

using too many of my staff for too long and I just need my staff members back alright so yes you you're right we

should solve this problem and really what they mean is I just want my people back so you're taking it over so I can

get my people back now that's not helpful that's not solution oriented that's salt

that's solving your a little problem right here and what we need people to do in the team collectively is take on the

full weight of the problem not converted into their little tiny problem right that this is a frequent behavior I see

so again solution oriented means I are thinking about I have positive momentum for change and improvement I always seek

truth and facts about where we are now in order to build a coherent and good plan and then I'm also thinking to

myself I'm solving this for the company company first the last one I wanted to is is is about

priorities and I said we're guided by agreed-upon priorities and what I really mean by this is that once we have

decided that we're gonna solve this problem we need to put resources in place to match the plan that says it's

going to solve it not short short it by a third or poor boy the thing or pretend like we're

going to do all the stuff and never put any resources to it but secondly once we've done that we have to recognize we

may not have as many resources for all the other things we were gonna do and you guys recognize this behavior and in

us right in our leadership team how we always have too many initiatives and never enough people you just don't

recognize it in yourself right those guys never figure this out they always have too many things too many priorities

they never give us enough money but you would never do that right and I do get pushed from both extremes by the way

there are those you know big thinkers that just we just need more we just need to do more stuff and there are those

people who are very good on delivery oriented and they just keep talking time you just have to take things off the

plate that's their constant push to me just take things off the plate there's too many things on the plate

I get it I mean I love it except for the fact that the shareholders keep wanting more money right they want good results

and I don't mean that gave they're essentially greedy I mean they just want I just want their retirement income they

just want their pension can you blame them right so so we have to be able to deliver results which means we live in

that uncomfortable ground between you know sign up for every single thing and sign up for one thing and make sure you

can do it we have to live in that ground and that means as leadership teams we have to be responsible for taking

greeing our priorities staffing our priorities and when things aren't going to be staffed we say we are delaying

this initiative we are not or we are cancelling we are delaying or canceling and here's why and we communicate that

clearly people so they know not to expect that result we're not going to work on that right now

and then we all work to that so Jill doesn't work on her priorities and Steve Chapman on his priorities no we all work

to the same priority list and I would just say just in just in full disclosure that I in as CEO with my team the couple

of times when I've been I think I failed on initiative that are important to me or not done as well as I would like to

say it that way it's because I didn't do a good enough job on greeing the priority agreeing what the staff was and

taking things off the plate that were otherwise gonna compete with this priority and even if I did at the start

I didn't fall through far enough deep enough to see did that actually happen did did we actually remove that one did

we move the people to the work did we just make sure everyone had leadership as they should have did I really check

that and and and when I didn't I think we didn't get as good results as I would have liked so I think that's a really

important one so one of the questions is you know what if personalized ownership verbalized

personal ownership means every time your boss tells you to take the hill you say yes ma'am I'm going because you want to

be one of those people that Tom loves and wants to promote which is personal ownership people and again I just want

to remind you that courage without capability is not worth is not accountability because you will not

deliver the results and that means that's not that's not what I'm looking for it's you know the company doesn't

get better because you're brave the company gets better when we deliver the results and you have to keep that in

your mind I used to have a CFO of Karen batten she's retired and favorite people in the world and she used to say to me

Tom you you know she'd get to a pleasure you said you've given me too many assignments now and I said well Karen

we've got a lot to do and she says Tom there's too many assignments I can't do all these assignments please take away

two of these assignments and she smiled since she's very nice and warm and friendly so of course I would do it but

um but what what she was managing is kind of her backlog and B in what happened is you get to a certain spot

I'm demotivating I'm just piling stuff on her with no way for her to see the end to it and she was okay if I just

kept the assignments in my paper put him away and then when she was done with those I handed those two back to her she

was good lad but she was good at managing me and it made her successful and me successful because she got all of

it she got a lot done by telling me stop stop so I do think that accountability has a lot to do with making sure that

you can actually deliver what you said you'd deliver not just verbalizing personal ownership

that's kind of talking about the role of safety too in accountability in the sense that if I can't if I can't talk

about what I'm concerned about or where I don't have it or like what it's been asked can i really be truthful with my

boss with my peers etc and I think it does I again I think almost everything of value in the team at some level has

to start with trust which and to get trust you have to have some level of safety I don't think you need the

ultimate level of safety you might need for telling your personal stories etc to be able to do anything and

accountability so again in every case but I do think there you do have to believe that that I can challenge you as

a boss or I can say no to you and it doesn't mean the end of my career or the or the that I no longer have a future

here or you're not going to do it and I think for all of us as bosses we have to know that like if we don't create an

environment where people think they can tell us know or I'm worried that you what you ask me for it can't be done

with the resources you gave me that I would just hear yes sir and I'll get a lot of lack of delivery that's what will

come back to me this is exactly why Matt I just said despite my team's discomfort with getting rid of the results thing I

said look slamming my fist on the table and saying I must have results yields exactly the behavior that we're talking

about people just say ok and then they don't do it maybe they can't do they have no way to do it I mean so we were

just kidding ourselves I mean that's the sad part about it we were just pretending and and all of our slamming

is just nothing but a you know report ending so I do think that it has to start with safety in the sense that I

need people to tell me be honest with me about what they can achieve and what they can't achieve in their AOP and you

know all those things or else I just have no chance of getting to the level of performance that I want to get to so

yes at some level it all starts with safety it all starts with creating an environment where people can tell me the

truth whatever the truth is and you know that that means you beget you need to see as

a leader you have to be able to show vulnerability and you have to be able to show your willingness to be told you're

not doing something right or you've asked too much or that your great ideas and so great or you know whatever and

that it's fundamental absolutely fundamental so your question is about accountability

is are you also willing to be the person that stands up and takes the hit if it doesn't happen if you know are you gonna

disperse blame or push blame or are you gonna accept the responsibility when things don't happen and I would just say

that I definitely see accepting the consequences or apologizing for mistakes or as a good example of accountable

behavior and the reason I think so is that there's nothing that turns you on to the urgency of addressing these

issues that have him be the one to say I blew it I didn't deliver for this customer I think the more often were

able to push things to other people the less urgent we feel about doing a better job so I think talking to customers

openly about where you let him down and why makes you focused on not letting the company do that again and I'll just give

a personal example and when when I was young my kids were young and I was the father you know my wife wouldn't want me

to come home and from work and take care of the children because they would basically were wearing her out you know

by by 6 o'clock she basically her head was screwed in the ceiling because the you know kids are driving her crazy

and so I you know I'm a it was making commitments to get home and I would be late sometimes and I remember sometimes

you know given or the reason well you know I got held over in a meeting or I'd but but the it's a third party

implication somebody held me over and I remember thinking about work-life balance and deciding at some point there

that if I don't say I'm a I didn't make the decision to leave on time that she would eventually hate the company she

had actually verbalized a few things about how she didn't love Cummings because they always made me late and I

realized that that's not the right trade-off for me so I started to say I left late I said I would be home at 6:00

but I actually stay didn't talk to Thad for 20 more minutes and so I'm 20 minutes late and I

apologize and I won't do it and of course remarkably you know what happened I started getting home on time because

now it's my fault I was accountable in same company saying boss home on time so I really believe

what you said that you know verbalizing ownership for results turns you into a more accountable person

the reaction that you mentioned Fiona about someone signs up and you go whew this is really normal right because we

are all kind of up against it frankly trying to balance our work our life all these things together and we and

especially when something sounds really horrible you're like really glad they took that it's in if you're close to it

and you could have maybe two thought you're gonna take it feels good that someone stepped up and take it you're

grateful and you feel a little bit of relief and so I think that's a normal reaction and that's but I think you know

what you're getting at is what what are the techniques of the team and the leader to say that's not going to be

acceptable for me so one of the things that I think is really important is to ask the person who took it to come back

and say what help do you need from this team because I think members of team are often willing to give help but they

haven't been asked and the person who took it maybe feels like I took it I got to figure it out myself

or I'll go ask them one by one or some other but they're postponing the help part so I think setting up a process

where they have to come back and say tell us what help you need and it's not a throwaway comment like there is a

schedule time for you to say here's my plan and here's the help I'm gonna need and and I also think making sure that

the entire team gets educated on what the issues trade-offs resource problems etc are because differentiy knowledge

also cause problems of commitment on the team I hope what you see in here is that this

is still a performance ethic based accountability definition one of the things sometimes people come away from

this discussion where they said oh I love that accountability definition see it's it's more comprehensive and some

people think I hate that case it's kind of too soft it means we're not holding people accountable for results there's a

lot of words in there but we're we still accountable for results yes we are still accountable for results absolutely the

way that we get there I think is not as simple as you gave me a plan you made your plan or you didn't because I

believe that that doesn't have anything to do with reality in our business some businesses it might it just is owned

with ours so please hear this as from somebody who cares you know deeply about results this results are what this is

about but the way that I think we get there is through these five behaviors right that's what I think and that

that's it's it is a stronger or a higher expectation of leaders and and team members in terms of their behaviors in

the team you know then it isn't just attitude it's not just about attitude it's about behaviors as well as I