As discussed last week accountability stems from the public nature of an action and one of the best ways to inject strong accountability into your organization is with a positive review function that your people might actually like!

Sound impossible? It’s not and over the next few weeks we’ll discuss how to make it happen.

The first thing that you need to understand is that there are two totally separate parts of the review process.

The visible part, the mechanics, is dictated by your company, but that’s all it is—mechanics; usually a timetable and a set of forms.

The important part is invisible and is bound by your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).

In other words, positive reviews are a function of how you choose to think about them.

Done correctly reviews are painless and even enjoyable for both parties.

Done incorrectly reviews are painful, embarrassing, discouraging, upsetting, frustrating or all of the above—for both parties.

The bottom line of reviews can be summed up in two words—no surprises.

Any time an employee is surprised by information during a review means that you aren’t doing your job as a manager.

You avoid surprises by understanding the philosophy behind the review process and how it should work and then allocating the time and effort to make it work.

How many times during or after your own annual review have you said out loud, or silently screamed in your head, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

How many times since you were promoted has one of your own people felt the same way?

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More sage wisdom from our friend Anon(ymous). I have to say, she (he?) really has a way with words—and a certain subtlety of thought.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals. (Just before you trip and fall!)

Education is what you get from reading the fine print. Experience is what you get from not reading it. (Assuming you know how to read.)

THINK—it gives you something to do while the computer is down. (It’s really quite fun, worth turning everything off on purpose.)

My Reality Check bounced. (Damn! I am so tired of that happening.)

Everyone has a right to be stupid. Some just abuse the privilege. (But they shouldn’t work on Wall Street or run for office.)

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I was delighted when I was sent a free copy of Barack, Inc.: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign to review. Not just because I voted for him, but because this is a book about how to sell change, major change, to strangers and in doing so turn them into a community of supporters.

That’s what Apple did with the iPod and that’s what every CEO recognizes as being of paramount importance.

In a post last summer I said, “You must constantly change MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™)—your own, your people’s and your culture’s.

But it’s not just about managing change; it’s about creating a desire for it. It’s about creating an environment where changes are being driven by your workers, not just by you and your execs.”

That’s what Obama and his team did brilliantly and that’s why you should read the book.

Forget politics, think about the challenges your company faces. Survival isn’t enough.

The business world and consumer landscapes are changing—industries that downplay or ignore innovation to focus on survival and the status quo out of fear of upsetting their current business model are likely to be swept away by the transformation rocking the global economy.

To thrive, you need to engage your current stakeholders (investors, employees, vendors, current customers)—just as Obama did.

His success turned on three main points, he

1. kept his cool under all provocations,
2. applied social technologies, including blogs, texting, and viral videos, and
3. made himself synonymous with what he was selling—change.

Obama allowed nothing to be set in stone and moved swiftly when the landscape changed.

One of my favorite examples was his choice to reject funding limitations, although he had previously said he would accept them. Why?

Because he realized that the amount of money he would raise via the Net more than compensated for McCain’s bashing him for the switch.

Now substitute ‘innovation’ for money and ‘quarterly results’ for bashing and give it some hard thought.

Read the book; adopt/tweak/adjust its lessons and tools for your company’s situation and then execute, because all the theory and examples won’t help unless you have the courage to use them.

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In a comment Monday Denis asked, “What do the people you hire tell about your leadership style?”

The short answer has been around a long time in one form or another.

Good leaders (managers) hire people smarter than themselves and don’t feel threatened by people who are better at given tasks.

The people you hire tell more about who you are than just your leadership style; they are a reflection of  your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and your confidence.

No matter what the reality, the more insecure a leader/manager feels the weaker the people he hires.

At lower levels, you find that those less willing to delegate rarely hire people with skills similar to their own.

Just as your friends reflect your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and prejudices, so do those you hire. If you want to know who someone is, just look at who they hang with and who they hire, but not who they date and marry.

All bets are off when love/lust enters the picture.

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Can you imagine telling your boss that you deserve a raise because you come to work on time every day?

Or that she shouldn’t fire you for poor performance because you tried really, really hard?

Last week on Leadership’s Future a young man named Andrew started a conversation. During it he gave me a link to an article in the NY Times about student expectations.

Expectations based on that sense of entitlement which makes me nuts.

It seems that today’s students expect an A if they attend class and turn in assignments.

And it’s wrong for the professors to consider the quality of work, since a lower grade will affect their job opportunities and that’s not fair.

“A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading. … Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.”

It’s not surprising, since K-12 inflates grades, passes everyone in order to keep their funding, and fires teachers who cling to the out-moded idea that school is a place to actually learn.

Here are two student quotes that seem to sum up a majority viewpoint…

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade. What else is there really than the effort that you put in? If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point? If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.” –Jason Greenwood, senior, University of Maryland

“I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.” –Sarah Kinn, junior, University of Vermont

As hiring managers and potential colleagues I’m sure this attitude thrills you no end.

Do you find it terrifying that at some point in the future these same students may be your doctor or lawyer and that, reality forbid, these are the people who will teach the next generation? I do.

The story drew 131 comments; I didn’t read them all, but here are three that struck me.

“I think the disputes about grading also stem from students approaching education as consumers. Because they pay to attend school, they have an attitude of, “the customer is always right” and feel they should have their grades their way.” –Tiffany Mills, Detroit, MI

“Having been for a time peripherally associated with a Junior Year Abroad program in Paris, I was shocked to learn that certain parents of students whose grades were mediocre would actually telephone the program director and threaten her with various forms of retribution if the grades were not inflated. Apparently students are not the only ones with a sense of entitlement!!” — Jill Bourdais, Paris, France

I appreciated this one, since it sums up what should happen when grades are down…

“I received a D+ on my first paper for a history course in my freshman year of college. After the initial shock and indignation wore off…  That course was a turning point in my education. I wasn’t just regurgitating facts, but thinking about the source materials from the perspective of those who wrote it and really analyzing the content. It showed me a new way to read into materials in other courses and helped me earn better grades. I earned a B in the class and was delighted with the grade, considering how far I come. A bad grade isn’t always a bad thing. It can be an opportunity to improve.” — Maggi S, Chicago, IL

And finally, a comment that probably reflects what many of you are currently thinking.

“Students who think that just attending class and doing the reading is enough are in for a huge shock when (or if) they enter the world of work. I’m a writer. If I spend hours on a piece, but it doesn’t do what my client wants it to do, I’ve failed. I don’t get paid. Merely “doing the work” ain’t enough; it’s the QUALITY of the work that counts.” — JoMo, Minneapolis MN

On a practical note, hiring managers might find it of more value to look at grades a bit differently as I explain here.

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It seems that more and more people these days confuse accountability and consequences with ultimatums and punishment.

I thought it would be a good idea to sort this out, since the former is a part of a strong, healthy culture, while the latter is a major factor in an abusive one.

Accountability stems from the public nature of an action, whether planned or unplanned, and usually includes an unstated request for support and a greater incentive to follow through because others know (the reason for making it public).

Weight Watchers offers accountability and support through its public nature.

Consequences are the result of an action; they may be good, bad or depend on your view of the situation.

In other words, cause and effect—doing A results in B.

• The consequence of studying hard is a good grade on the test.
• The consequence of writing a check with insufficient funds in your account is having it bounce.
• The consequence of not immediately responding to an email may be neutral for you and frustrating for the sender.

Even if you don’t like the idea of consequences there’s no way to stop them. Everything you do, say, even thing has at least one effect if not more.

Business, obviously, is a hot bed of cause and effect—both little and large and often a domino effect.

The vp of engineering announces that the new product will be ready for the big trade show.

Accountability!

But…

The developer out for a week of jury duty is late finishing her part of the project, which slows the team and the project itself is late. Just-in-time purchasing finds a crucial part that was available at the original deadline is now on back order slowing the project still more; by the time the parts arrive manufacturing is in the middle of a scheduled software upgrade that can’t be interrupted, which forces marketing to use a prototype instead of a production version for a crucial trade show making it more difficult for the sales team to convince customers that the product will ship when they need it.

Consequences!

Everybody knows that actions have consequences and you lose credibility if you claim there are none, but consequences have nothing to do with punishment.

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“Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.”

Last year I wrote about the global glass ceiling; today I have seven fascinating articles on corporate women. More of the same—or are things changing?

Kids don’t think so; in fact they’re more pessimistic.

“The percentage of girls who say they believe that today both men and women have an equal chance of getting a leadership position has declined from 35 percent to 24 percent between 2007 and 2008.”

And the guys still seem to have problems if women “get tough” (like them), especially in male-dominated fields.

“Speak lowly and slowly, but smile frequently…This advice…was based on my observation that women must adhere to a narrow band of behavior in order to be effective in mostly male settings.”

WSJ Online republished an article from 2005 looking at the difference between how most women relate to numbers vs. most men and its effect on earnings. Sadly, it hasn’t really changed.

“Female M.B.A.s have a bias to nurturing and team building and male M.B.A.s to a more analytically driven focus on success and independence. My advice is that both should develop more well-rounded skills.”

And then there’s ‘that vision thing’

“Studies show that in almost all measures of executive performance women are equal to or outperform men, with one exception: vision. Ibarra’s review of the 360 degree reviews of nearly 3,000 women revealed that, in general, they were seen as less visionary.”

McKinsey, however, presents a trenchant case (requires free registration) on why women are important, not in terms of political correctness, but to the bottom line.

“The gender gap isn’t just an image problem: our research suggests that it can have real implications for company performance. Some companies have taken effective steps to achieve greater parity.”

But the world turns and times change. When the ruling class screws up big time, people often embrace the opposition.

Iceland’s meltdown is leading to a revolt by the country’s women.

“Icelandic women, however, are more likely to be studying the financial news than the recipes – and more likely to be thinking about how to put right the mess their men have made of the banking system than about cooking them comfort food. … But for a generation of fortysomething women, the havoc is translating into an opportunity to step into the positions vacated by the men blamed for the crisis, and to play a leading role in creating a more balanced economy, which, they argue, should incorporate overtly feminine values.”

And the same attitude is surfacing across Europe.

“John Coates, a researcher at Cambridge University concluded that traders made the highest profits when they had the highest levels of testosterone in their spit. The downside, he said, was that elevated testosterone also led to riskier behavior, a formula for disaster as well as profit.”

What do you think? Would the bankers have played derivative Russian roulette if there had been more women in the in the halls of Wall Street power?

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Now see what’s in Wall Street’s basket

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Do words really make a difference? Can just one word change people’s perception of a person or event?

I’ve read several items lately on the importance of influence in leadership. Several even make the point that it’s the ability to influence that marks a person as a leader.

Personally, other than socially acceptable definitions, I don’t see a lot of difference between influence and manipulation.

Both influence and manipulation seek to produce an effect without any apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.

But if you say someone has a lot of influence it’s a compliment; call the same person a master manipulator and you’d better duck.

It’s a good example of the real power that words have to inspire or crush even if their meaning is the same.

And it’s important to remember that words come with baggage that goes well beyond their actual definition.

That baggage was one of the main reasons corporate marketing departments made so many mistakes when moving from one culture to another.

• Braniff translated its slogan relating to seat upholstery, “Fly in leather” to Spanish; only it came out as “Fly naked.”
• Coors slogan, “Turn it loose,” means “Suffer from diarrhea” in Spanish.
• Clairol, introduced a curling iron called the “Mist Stick” in Germany and learned the hard way that mist is slang for manure.
• Gerber started selling baby food in Africa using US packaging with the baby on the label until they found out that in Africa the picture on the label indicates what’s inside since most people can’t read.

There are hundreds of similar mishaps. They made marketing departments a laughing stock, forced companies to hire locally, helped change the headquarters mindset and encourage global companies to be truly global.

The point of all this is to encourage you to take a few extra minutes to think through not only what you want to say, but also what your audience will hear when you say it.

That effort can make the difference between going up like a rocket or down like a falling star.

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One of the most popular series of articles at Leadership Turn was written shortly before I came. It’s about styles of learning and how they apply to you, your colleagues, your team and your kids. Written by my editor, Mary Jo Manzanares, they are well worth your time. In fact, you’ll find it useful to review them from time to time, it’s the kind of information that gets pushed to the side, but pays large dividends when kept in the active file.

For those of you who deal with products in one way or another, here’s an interesting interview with Alberto Alessi on how to sustain innovation over time. You may have to register (free) to read it, but you’ll find it a source of great information.

There are lots of articles out there about large corporations who spend millions to create environments that spark creativity, encourage teamwork and facilitate a generally happier, i.e., more productive, workforce.

Startups are known for their cool and or funky offices often done on a shoestring. But they aren’t the only ones. It’s not just the big guys or the upstarts that are jumping on the trend. Lots of small businesses create innovative environments. Take a look at Madden Corporate Services, a 15 year old branding biz that’s grown to 39 people and learn how their modest investment pays off.

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