When it comes to holding people accountable:
- 8% said "I don't do it very often; I avoid it."
- 79% said "Do it, but often don't get the results I want."
- 13% said "I do it successfully"
One of our recent studies revealed that only 13% of executives surveyed felt they successfully held others people accountable for results. 86% of those surveyed said that there are people they depend upon today to get things done that they need to do a better job holding accountable or else it will lead to their failure to achieve results.
Finally, we think it is fair to say that there is a leadership crisis in organizations today when it comes to holding others accountable. This important organizational challenge is showing up in the research. One recent quality of work life study revealed that, as a result of organizational change efforts, 71% of managers saw a decline in morale, 64% saw a decline in job security, 60% personally felt less motivated and 57% felt less loyal to their organization, while 50% indicated a decline in their personal well-being.
There are people I depend upon today to get things done that will cause me to fail in my ability to get results for the organization if I don’t do a 
better job holding them accountable now.
better job holding them accountable now.
- TRUE
- FALSE
Here are some examples of the results clients get with the Partners In Leadership; Leadership Development training and executive coaching process:
Search all client stories:
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The Story: Kroger Personal Finance, a division of Kroger, one of the nation's largest grocery retailers and listed in the top 50 of the Fortune 500 list, was faced with unprecedented economic conditions and regulatory changes in their industry. Looking to optimize organizational performance, they engaged employees in a leadership development program using all three Tracks of Partners In Leadership's Accountability Training® - Self, Culture and Others.
Over 40,000 Kroger associates have been trained in the Self Track™ to date. Kroger has nearly 350 people certified as internal facilitators of the Accountability Training, and that number continues to grow. Gary Millerchip, CEO Kroger Personal Finance, had this to say about the training: "The process we have been through created a step change in alignment and engagement across all levels of the organization and this in turn has led to significant growth in customers and profitability."
The Accountability Training has helped them produce meaningful results: Employee Engagement increased from 29% to 74%, Product Penetration has grown 40% and Net Profit increased 70% in an 18 month time span. According to Millerchip, "I do not believe these results would have been possible without the culture change that Partners In Leadership helped facilitate."
Accountability: They're Eating it Up!...
The Results: A leadership development effort that resulted in an increase in employee engagement from 29% to 74% and a 70% increase in net profit in 18 months.
The Story: Kroger Personal Finance, a division of Kroger, one of the nation's largest grocery retailers and listed in the top 50 of the Fortune 500 list, was faced with unprecedented economic conditions and regulatory changes in their industry. Looking to optimize organizational performance, they engaged employees in a leadership development program using all three Tracks of Partners In Leadership's Accountability Training® - Self, Culture and Others.
Over 40,000 Kroger associates have been trained in the Self Track™ to date. Kroger has nearly 350 people certified as internal facilitators of the Accountability Training, and that number continues to grow. Gary Millerchip, CEO Kroger Personal Finance, had this to say about the training: "The process we have been through created a step change in alignment and engagement across all levels of the organization and this in turn has led to significant growth in customers and profitability."
The Accountability Training has helped them produce meaningful results: Employee Engagement increased from 29% to 74%, Product Penetration has grown 40% and Net Profit increased 70% in an 18 month time span. According to Millerchip, "I do not believe these results would have been possible without the culture change that Partners In Leadership helped facilitate."
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The Story: David Evans & Associates is a national leader in sustainable design and management solutions, and is known for their award-winning approach to transportation, energy, water resources, and land development design, planning, and management. David Evans & Associates engaged Partners In Leadership to assist them in their three key objectives of employee participation, client satisfaction and profitability. Creating a Culture Of Accountability® was a key strategy for them, as they knew a positive and motivating approach to creating accountability was vital to developing their leadership team and their bench strength.
David Evans & Associates implemented the Self Track™ Training within their management team by using the Steps To Accountability® model. This fundamental tool was a platform for developing their leadership team's proficiency at creating accountability around key organizational imperatives. The Results Pyramid® model was also instrumental in helping leaders understand how to change the way people within their organization think and act by directing them to focus on changing the experiences that create beliefs, drive actions and improve results throughout 22 offices in seven states. Executive Vice President Al Barkouli, P.E. shared "In our first year of focusing on results, our company exceeded all three metrics. Thanks to (The Self Track Training), leadership and staff at David Evans and Associates, Inc. have a greater awareness of the experiences we are creating--and are developing joint accountability for creating the experiences we intend. We have found 'The Results Pyramid' to be a thought-provoking tool in our day-to-day work and a way to keep efforts on track." The results: from 9% profitability to 12% profitability, improved employee satisfaction scores to 85% and increased client satisfaction from 85% to 95%. Barkouli also stated, "In today's complex and changing world, our company needs a breadth and depth of perspectives to navigate and achieve our vision. The (Self Track Training) encourages and empowers our people to share their thoughts, ideas, and perspectives."
Empowering Leaders With The Tools to Lead...
The Results: Leadership training that led to an increase in profitability from 9% to 12% improved employee satisfaction scores to 85% and increased client satisfaction from 85% to 95%.
The Story: David Evans & Associates is a national leader in sustainable design and management solutions, and is known for their award-winning approach to transportation, energy, water resources, and land development design, planning, and management. David Evans & Associates engaged Partners In Leadership to assist them in their three key objectives of employee participation, client satisfaction and profitability. Creating a Culture Of Accountability® was a key strategy for them, as they knew a positive and motivating approach to creating accountability was vital to developing their leadership team and their bench strength.
David Evans & Associates implemented the Self Track™ Training within their management team by using the Steps To Accountability® model. This fundamental tool was a platform for developing their leadership team's proficiency at creating accountability around key organizational imperatives. The Results Pyramid® model was also instrumental in helping leaders understand how to change the way people within their organization think and act by directing them to focus on changing the experiences that create beliefs, drive actions and improve results throughout 22 offices in seven states. Executive Vice President Al Barkouli, P.E. shared "In our first year of focusing on results, our company exceeded all three metrics. Thanks to (The Self Track Training), leadership and staff at David Evans and Associates, Inc. have a greater awareness of the experiences we are creating--and are developing joint accountability for creating the experiences we intend. We have found 'The Results Pyramid' to be a thought-provoking tool in our day-to-day work and a way to keep efforts on track." The results: from 9% profitability to 12% profitability, improved employee satisfaction scores to 85% and increased client satisfaction from 85% to 95%. Barkouli also stated, "In today's complex and changing world, our company needs a breadth and depth of perspectives to navigate and achieve our vision. The (Self Track Training) encourages and empowers our people to share their thoughts, ideas, and perspectives."
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The Story: Each year, Youth Villages (a non-profit organization) serves more than 17,000 emotionally and behaviorally troubled children throughout the country. Eighty percent of Youth Villages children have multiple problems, which may include developmental or learning disabilities. In this challenging, yet rewarding endeavor, the staff in the Mississippi region struggled to create a culture and environment that drove retention and results.
Leaders were faced with the challenge of front-line workers, and themselves, avoid the trap of falling Below The Line® as they all struggled with what they felt was an unrealistic workload, unachievable goals and unclear communication, all in such a high intensity environment. The leadership team of this region realized they needed a stronger focus on employee engagement and retention and determined to use the Self Track™ and the Steps To Accountability® to help them develop their leaders to address these issues.
As the leadership team developed in their personal ability to operate and lead from Above The Line,® the impact was felt in the front-line workers. They began to transform their thinking. Accountability became the core for their continuous improvement efforts and the leaders took the initiative to develop their teams, improve customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Chief Human Resource and Information Officer, Cliff Reyle, said, "I consider Partners In Leadership an example of a mentor leader and a true business partner." Accountability Training® develops leaders by helping them focus on the key results they need to achieve and then create a Culture of Accountability® that is positive, motivating, focused and results-oriented.
It Takes a Village: Leading The Way To Employee Retention...
The Story: Each year, Youth Villages (a non-profit organization) serves more than 17,000 emotionally and behaviorally troubled children throughout the country. Eighty percent of Youth Villages children have multiple problems, which may include developmental or learning disabilities. In this challenging, yet rewarding endeavor, the staff in the Mississippi region struggled to create a culture and environment that drove retention and results.
Leaders were faced with the challenge of front-line workers, and themselves, avoid the trap of falling Below The Line® as they all struggled with what they felt was an unrealistic workload, unachievable goals and unclear communication, all in such a high intensity environment. The leadership team of this region realized they needed a stronger focus on employee engagement and retention and determined to use the Self Track™ and the Steps To Accountability® to help them develop their leaders to address these issues.
As the leadership team developed in their personal ability to operate and lead from Above The Line,® the impact was felt in the front-line workers. They began to transform their thinking. Accountability became the core for their continuous improvement efforts and the leaders took the initiative to develop their teams, improve customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Chief Human Resource and Information Officer, Cliff Reyle, said, "I consider Partners In Leadership an example of a mentor leader and a true business partner." Accountability Training® develops leaders by helping them focus on the key results they need to achieve and then create a Culture of Accountability® that is positive, motivating, focused and results-oriented.
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The Story: “Universal” produces aluminum rigid container sheets for the packaging products market. Customers use those sheets to manufacture the bodies, ends and tabs of beverage and food cans, which are used in the soft drink, juice, energy beverage, packaged water, food and pet food industries. Universal’s leaders decided they needed to “go big or go home” with one of their key units, the Flexible Materials Division (FMD), a North America–based business. At one point, FMD accounted for over 30 percent of total company revenues and won praise as Universal’s flagship division.
With the implementation of a global strategy for organization-wide growth, however, FMD’s revenue contribution to the parent company had dropped to less than 10 percent, motivating the Universal board to question whether FMD should remain in the portfolio. The board threatened that if the FMD business could not get itself above the cost of capital and realize a reasonable return on that capital, then the parent company would find more promising opportunities for investing its money in the global markets.
In a final attempt to turn things around, the board decided to bring in someone from the outside to run FMD and recruited “Ken Jones” to serve as the division’s CEO. With prior experience in the steel industry, Ken brought a fresh perspective to his job. He knew that FMD’s “boss-centered” (C1--the current culture) culture, replete with boss-centered leaders, did not make sense for his division and its unionized workforce. He had learned that in such an environment, employees who were closest to the problems and who often had good ideas about how to solve them would not speak up and talk about what wasn’t working, that they would not easily tolerate risk, and that they would fear punishment for any and all failures. After quickly assessing the current culture, Ken determined that to save the business and drive success, the division would need to create an “employee-centered” (C2-the desired culture) culture in which everyone at every level was engaged in making the plant productive again.
As far as he was concerned, creating C2 meant blowing up the current “silo-like” organization and putting the business back together flatter, with more responsive pieces. At this point, Ken brought us in to help implement the Culture Track™ Training and change the culture of the organization. He needed game-changing results and knew that a focus on culture could make that happen. As the central theme of the new C2 culture, Ken encouraged what he called a new-business owner mentality. His Case for Change argued that the company’s survival as a viable entity depended on its ability to reduce costs rapidly while at the same time making the business more competitive. Ken believed, and communicated to every member of his team, that because Universal would probably end up selling them anyway, they might as well operate as though they had just bought FMD and take the risk to make the changes they thought the business needed. He convinced his management team to step up and act as if they were the new owners of the FMD business.
Ken knew that in order to become competitive and save the business, his team needed to boost return on capital (ROC) from 2 percent to over 10 percent. This became FMD’s R2: 10 percent–plus on ROC. To do that, he knew that one of the plant’s key production lines needed to produce 10 million more pounds than it currently churned out and that it needed to do it with the same number of people. With R2 in mind, he challenged his team to figure out how they could make that happen.
As a central part of the Culture Track Training, Ken and his team created a Cultural Beliefs® statement that captured the essence of the change they needed to make in order to achieve R2. At every opportunity, they reinforced those beliefs, which included major cultural shifts like Think FMD, Step Up!, Speak Up!, and Proudly Invest.
The end result? A 12 percent return on capital! Ken and his team changed the game for both FMD and Universal. They not only staved off the threat of closing the plant; they returned to their profitable status as a revenue producer in Universal’s portfolio. The culture changed so completely that it survived the turnover of almost every key player involved in establishing the new cultural direction, including Ken, who tragically died shortly after the transformation. The new leader, “Bill Weston,” found, to his surprise that the culture did not depend on Ken’s personality, but on the B2 beliefs that had been instilled at every level of the organization. On his first day, someone handed him a card containing the Cultural Beliefs, suggesting that he should start asking people about what they had done to change the way they work to reflect the Cultural Beliefs. He was also told that he should seek Focused Feedback® from a wide mix of people throughout the plant. Bill quickly learned that the way a leader responds to that feedback can make all the difference in continuing to move the culture change forward.
About on-boarding new leaders in the Culture Track Training effort, the SVP of Human Resources at FMD recounts: “Perhaps most telling is that our efforts have remained undaunted although we’ve experienced transitions and an 80% turnover of senior leadership. As one key leader said following her 90-day orientation, ‘I wish I had this 20 years ago! It is so simple and so powerful for leaders in today’s business environment’.”
Saving the day from 2% to 12%
The Results: A 12% return on capital, saving the plant, partnering with a unionized workforce.
The Story: “Universal” produces aluminum rigid container sheets for the packaging products market. Customers use those sheets to manufacture the bodies, ends and tabs of beverage and food cans, which are used in the soft drink, juice, energy beverage, packaged water, food and pet food industries. Universal’s leaders decided they needed to “go big or go home” with one of their key units, the Flexible Materials Division (FMD), a North America–based business. At one point, FMD accounted for over 30 percent of total company revenues and won praise as Universal’s flagship division.
With the implementation of a global strategy for organization-wide growth, however, FMD’s revenue contribution to the parent company had dropped to less than 10 percent, motivating the Universal board to question whether FMD should remain in the portfolio. The board threatened that if the FMD business could not get itself above the cost of capital and realize a reasonable return on that capital, then the parent company would find more promising opportunities for investing its money in the global markets.
In a final attempt to turn things around, the board decided to bring in someone from the outside to run FMD and recruited “Ken Jones” to serve as the division’s CEO. With prior experience in the steel industry, Ken brought a fresh perspective to his job. He knew that FMD’s “boss-centered” (C1--the current culture) culture, replete with boss-centered leaders, did not make sense for his division and its unionized workforce. He had learned that in such an environment, employees who were closest to the problems and who often had good ideas about how to solve them would not speak up and talk about what wasn’t working, that they would not easily tolerate risk, and that they would fear punishment for any and all failures. After quickly assessing the current culture, Ken determined that to save the business and drive success, the division would need to create an “employee-centered” (C2-the desired culture) culture in which everyone at every level was engaged in making the plant productive again.
As far as he was concerned, creating C2 meant blowing up the current “silo-like” organization and putting the business back together flatter, with more responsive pieces. At this point, Ken brought us in to help implement the Culture Track™ Training and change the culture of the organization. He needed game-changing results and knew that a focus on culture could make that happen. As the central theme of the new C2 culture, Ken encouraged what he called a new-business owner mentality. His Case for Change argued that the company’s survival as a viable entity depended on its ability to reduce costs rapidly while at the same time making the business more competitive. Ken believed, and communicated to every member of his team, that because Universal would probably end up selling them anyway, they might as well operate as though they had just bought FMD and take the risk to make the changes they thought the business needed. He convinced his management team to step up and act as if they were the new owners of the FMD business.
Ken knew that in order to become competitive and save the business, his team needed to boost return on capital (ROC) from 2 percent to over 10 percent. This became FMD’s R2: 10 percent–plus on ROC. To do that, he knew that one of the plant’s key production lines needed to produce 10 million more pounds than it currently churned out and that it needed to do it with the same number of people. With R2 in mind, he challenged his team to figure out how they could make that happen.
As a central part of the Culture Track Training, Ken and his team created a Cultural Beliefs® statement that captured the essence of the change they needed to make in order to achieve R2. At every opportunity, they reinforced those beliefs, which included major cultural shifts like Think FMD, Step Up!, Speak Up!, and Proudly Invest.
The end result? A 12 percent return on capital! Ken and his team changed the game for both FMD and Universal. They not only staved off the threat of closing the plant; they returned to their profitable status as a revenue producer in Universal’s portfolio. The culture changed so completely that it survived the turnover of almost every key player involved in establishing the new cultural direction, including Ken, who tragically died shortly after the transformation. The new leader, “Bill Weston,” found, to his surprise that the culture did not depend on Ken’s personality, but on the B2 beliefs that had been instilled at every level of the organization. On his first day, someone handed him a card containing the Cultural Beliefs, suggesting that he should start asking people about what they had done to change the way they work to reflect the Cultural Beliefs. He was also told that he should seek Focused Feedback® from a wide mix of people throughout the plant. Bill quickly learned that the way a leader responds to that feedback can make all the difference in continuing to move the culture change forward.
About on-boarding new leaders in the Culture Track Training effort, the SVP of Human Resources at FMD recounts: “Perhaps most telling is that our efforts have remained undaunted although we’ve experienced transitions and an 80% turnover of senior leadership. As one key leader said following her 90-day orientation, ‘I wish I had this 20 years ago! It is so simple and so powerful for leaders in today’s business environment’.”
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The Story: This Medical Center is known as the state's first Hospital for Nursing Excellence and the leader in patient satisfaction, garnering four Summit Awards for patient satisfaction. The organization was struggling with prioritization of projects. The engaged Partners In Leadership and implemented the Self Track™ Training. Currently, they are on schedule to implement the Culture Track™ Training and the Others Track™ Training as well. They were doing quite well in many areas:
The CEO outlined the problem. "We were doing well in these areas but not so well in many others. In fact, were consistently challenged at achieving better than average financial performance; market share growth; employee satisfaction and Medicare quality indicator performance. Management, Employees and our Physicians were frustrated... Our decision-making process was overly focused on consensus building, our managers felt overwhelmed by priorities and reprioritization had become a daily challenge, employees did not feel that they could really influence their work or understand the connection between their work and our organization's success."
Focusing on the top priorities had always been an issue for them because of the compartmentalization of their departments. Everyone was working hard trying to make a difference, but as an organization, they struggled to understand how to focus on their priorities. The question heard over and over again was, "when do I give up my priority for another leaders' priority?" With 16 key initiatives, the CEO stood up in the middle of the Self Track Training workshop with his ten direct reports comprising his senior team and said, "I've got it. I've just figured it out. I have been so focused on getting you focused on all of your projects that I haven't stopped to identify why the projects are important. I haven't helped the organization understand what the key results are that we should be focused on to give us the lens we need to help us prioritize."
The team realized they never had the lens of clear organizational results to look through in prioritizing their efforts. In the past, they were focused on their department's projects, fighting turf battles to get the help needed from others to reach project deadlines. This silo orientation compounded the lack of clear organizational results as their top priorities, slowing down the organization and making it difficult to move forward on key performance metrics. Applying the principles and practices of the Accountability Training, the team developed new leadership skills that allowed them to turn around this performance. The CEO shared, "(the Self Track Training) has helped our leadership 'walk the talk' in empowering our staff. They taught us how to identify and communicate key result targets and build accountability into every employee's job and at every level of management for accomplishing those key result targets. They taught us how to facilitate a culture in which all employees provide routine feedback to each other and to those they report to ... suddenly staff are coaching each other as well as their manager and this opened up a doorway to even higher levels of performance than we anticipated; Their training programs and consulting guidance is helping each employee to act decisively and proactively in removing barriers to higher levels of performance in their work. Their tools are fun to use and are viewed as very effective at all levels of leadership. Our staff is learning how to reenergize their work, influence it and enjoy it more than ever before.
Our leadership team can already feel the change that is beginning to evolve in our culture. Employees are excited about their accountability training... I am convinced this was just what we were looking for to address the performance plateau we had arrived at and it is moving us to the next level. I would certainly recommend Partners In Leadership to any company who is looking to change their internal culture and to find better methods for achieving key business results.
We are grateful for their work and the dynamic energizing learning they have brought to our leadership team and our entire staff. They are just what the doctor ordered for the world of fast paced change and shrinking resources in which we must thrive."
Leadership in the Hospital Is Just What The Doctor Ordered...
The Story: This Medical Center is known as the state's first Hospital for Nursing Excellence and the leader in patient satisfaction, garnering four Summit Awards for patient satisfaction. The organization was struggling with prioritization of projects. The engaged Partners In Leadership and implemented the Self Track™ Training. Currently, they are on schedule to implement the Culture Track™ Training and the Others Track™ Training as well. They were doing quite well in many areas:
- National patient satisfaction survey scores were consistently above the 90th percentile.
- Received national recognition in patient satisfaction and quality from the Voluntary Hospitals of America.
- The American Nursing Association has designated their hospital as a Magnet Hospital for professional nursing' practice.
- The Institute of Health Care Improvement has a designated SVMC hospital as Mentor Hospital in Mortality reduction strategies.
- Their Nursing home was consistently achieving state quality awards.
- Their Home Health Agency was outperforming most others on licensure surveys.
The CEO outlined the problem. "We were doing well in these areas but not so well in many others. In fact, were consistently challenged at achieving better than average financial performance; market share growth; employee satisfaction and Medicare quality indicator performance. Management, Employees and our Physicians were frustrated... Our decision-making process was overly focused on consensus building, our managers felt overwhelmed by priorities and reprioritization had become a daily challenge, employees did not feel that they could really influence their work or understand the connection between their work and our organization's success."
Focusing on the top priorities had always been an issue for them because of the compartmentalization of their departments. Everyone was working hard trying to make a difference, but as an organization, they struggled to understand how to focus on their priorities. The question heard over and over again was, "when do I give up my priority for another leaders' priority?" With 16 key initiatives, the CEO stood up in the middle of the Self Track Training workshop with his ten direct reports comprising his senior team and said, "I've got it. I've just figured it out. I have been so focused on getting you focused on all of your projects that I haven't stopped to identify why the projects are important. I haven't helped the organization understand what the key results are that we should be focused on to give us the lens we need to help us prioritize."
The team realized they never had the lens of clear organizational results to look through in prioritizing their efforts. In the past, they were focused on their department's projects, fighting turf battles to get the help needed from others to reach project deadlines. This silo orientation compounded the lack of clear organizational results as their top priorities, slowing down the organization and making it difficult to move forward on key performance metrics. Applying the principles and practices of the Accountability Training, the team developed new leadership skills that allowed them to turn around this performance. The CEO shared, "(the Self Track Training) has helped our leadership 'walk the talk' in empowering our staff. They taught us how to identify and communicate key result targets and build accountability into every employee's job and at every level of management for accomplishing those key result targets. They taught us how to facilitate a culture in which all employees provide routine feedback to each other and to those they report to ... suddenly staff are coaching each other as well as their manager and this opened up a doorway to even higher levels of performance than we anticipated; Their training programs and consulting guidance is helping each employee to act decisively and proactively in removing barriers to higher levels of performance in their work. Their tools are fun to use and are viewed as very effective at all levels of leadership. Our staff is learning how to reenergize their work, influence it and enjoy it more than ever before.
Our leadership team can already feel the change that is beginning to evolve in our culture. Employees are excited about their accountability training... I am convinced this was just what we were looking for to address the performance plateau we had arrived at and it is moving us to the next level. I would certainly recommend Partners In Leadership to any company who is looking to change their internal culture and to find better methods for achieving key business results.
We are grateful for their work and the dynamic energizing learning they have brought to our leadership team and our entire staff. They are just what the doctor ordered for the world of fast paced change and shrinking resources in which we must thrive."
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The Story: "KHR Products" employs some 27,000 people and serves 40 million customers worldwide. They implemented the Self Track™ Training to develop the leadership skills of their management team in direct response to an Employee survey that identified "the need to take ownership of our actions, our decisions and, ultimately, our results." With the Accountability Training®, the client reports "With the advent of this program, we are seeing changed behaviors in meetings, conflict resolution and overcoming barriers to action. Besides the actual 'Oz' training, I am certain some of these changes are directly linked to the common vocabulary engendered by the workshop and the tools that the participants have with them afterward. In recent meetings with senior management, I have had feedback regarding the applicability of "Oz" to our organization and the importance of bringing accountability training to a wider audience.
The training helps leaders gain new leadership skills and helps them identify what they may need to shift in their leadership style. Here is the story of one CEO who found the process very useful to his own personal effectiveness in his leadership role. The story is told in the words of the Senior Consultant working on the engagement:
This leader found the process incredibly useful to him as he worked to shift the belief that people held. This led to a more open environment, more candid conversations, earlier reporting of problems and better morale. The Accountability Training® helps leaders look at their Accountability Styles® and understand how to further develop their leadership capability.
Its Just My Style...
The Story: "KHR Products" employs some 27,000 people and serves 40 million customers worldwide. They implemented the Self Track™ Training to develop the leadership skills of their management team in direct response to an Employee survey that identified "the need to take ownership of our actions, our decisions and, ultimately, our results." With the Accountability Training®, the client reports "With the advent of this program, we are seeing changed behaviors in meetings, conflict resolution and overcoming barriers to action. Besides the actual 'Oz' training, I am certain some of these changes are directly linked to the common vocabulary engendered by the workshop and the tools that the participants have with them afterward. In recent meetings with senior management, I have had feedback regarding the applicability of "Oz" to our organization and the importance of bringing accountability training to a wider audience.
The training helps leaders gain new leadership skills and helps them identify what they may need to shift in their leadership style. Here is the story of one CEO who found the process very useful to his own personal effectiveness in his leadership role. The story is told in the words of the Senior Consultant working on the engagement:
"Their COO, who's been with the organization for over 25 -years, had a reputation in the organization of being a very difficult man to deal with. The story is told that if you walk in a room with him, within 30 seconds he would just be shredding people. And to make it more difficult, for 25 years this has been his reputation. And the guy is really incredibly smart, on top of everything else. So you walk in a room and the story is 'Oh, here he comes, I'm going to get shredded.'
"So we conducted our first Self Track workshop with him and he comes up to me, the CEO and the Senior Vice President, and says 'After going through this, I can understand that I can no longer continue to be the way that I have been and expect to get different results in the future. And, so I know that I need to change the experience for our team.' That is the first step Above The Line,® See It,® being able to see the hard things.
"Fast-forward about 30 days, and we got a call from the Senior Vice President of HR and there was some panic. The COO wanted to drop out of the process and was ready to give up. So we sat down with the Senior Vice President of HR and this is what we were told... During a meeting, the COO entered and a young man in the meeting presented a report to the COO. And said 'I need you to review this.' And the COO made the comment that everything was fine with the report. 'Make this one correction and it will be good.' The young man takes the report and goes back to his workspace and his buddy says, 'How did it go?' And his response was 'You're not going to believe it. He shredded me. It was the most horrible thing. You are not going to believe how bad he chewed me out. I mean I really got it.' And his buddy looks at him and says, 'Oh yeah, that is just the way he is, isn't he? Right?'
"So they wear these experiences with this guy like the badge of honor. This experience circled all the way back around and got back to the COO and now he was discouraged. He says 'now look, I am trying to change. I am trying to make a difference. But yet, I can't win.' So he called the Senior Vice President of HR, and said, 'look, I am going to give up. I am trying to put everything I can into this and it is not working.' So the coaching we provided back to him was when you are changing a belief that has been in place for a long time, this goes back to a Type 2 Belief (a belief someone holds that does not readily change without a lot of conscious interpretation), when you are changing a belief, there are times when it is appropriate to interpret the experience prior to creating the experience. So, the same scenario the next time, interpreted, would be, 'hey look the kid hands me a report. I notice there are corrections that need to be made and I say to the kid, you know two weeks ago I probably would have shredded you over this. This would have been ugly if we would have had this meeting two weeks ago, but now I realize that I can't continue to create those types of experiences for everyone because it is not getting where we need to go. So what I am going to do is I am just going to review this. This report doesn't look bad but there are some corrections that need to be made. Go ahead and make these correction on the report and it will be good to go.' By interpreting the experience from the correct belief, it is then laid in place and the belief is able to shift.
This leader found the process incredibly useful to him as he worked to shift the belief that people held. This led to a more open environment, more candid conversations, earlier reporting of problems and better morale. The Accountability Training® helps leaders look at their Accountability Styles® and understand how to further develop their leadership capability.
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The Story: Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, working in over 80 countries worldwide with more than 60,000 people. They use the Self Track™ Training in their Business Development unit, as well as other parts of the organization worldwide.
Halliburton launched a company-wide initiative known as iMPACT to help leaders build their leadership skills and further their career development. Co-founder and Chair of iMPACT Halliburton, Christi Gell, writes about the impact the Self Track Training has had on getting their leadership development program up and running:
"I am writing to share the successes we have had in developing our young professionals group at Halliburton, iMPACT. My first encounter with Partners In Leadership came when I was offered a spot in an Accountability training session you were doing with Security DBS.... I was so impressed by this training that I knew it would be something beneficial to our iMPACT members. The feedback from the leadership workshop we did with you in December... was fantastic: almost all who attended said the workshop helped them understand the importance of aligning what they do on a day to day basis with the company's overall goals, as well as the importance of personally staying above the line. Last year we were running on pure energy, and we needed to find a way to keep the group going. The visioning session you facilitated in March, 2008, I believe was a turning point for making iMPACT sustainable. You know how difficult it can be implementing The Oz Principles in an organization, especially a few months after training and the excitement of the class has worn off. Your guidance in "always bring it back to the results" has moved the board from event planners to strategists, and the members from stagnant participants to owners in the success of the organization. One of the results we have for 2008 is Growth, specifically to grow by two chapters in the Western Hemisphere and one in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is August, and we have already reached that result, with four chapters started in the West and one in the East.
Another result we have for this year is Voice. We want to have a presence in key internal communications and also highlight members outside of the Halliburton community. To date, iMPACT has been featured 12 times in our daily company-wide newsletter, is on our University Relations website, and we are also working towards mentioning iMPACT in our corporate sustainability report for 2008. Additionally, Laura Schilling and I wrote a paper about iMPACT that was accepted for the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference September 21-24, 2008, in Denver, CO. This is a huge honor, and is an indication that what we are doing with iMPACT is different from what our industry has seen in the past and will hopefully be used as a guide for young professionals at other companies to take ownership in their own companies' success. I hope to continue using iMPACT as a springboard for promoting Accountability at Halliburton. It is a grass roots effort, but the principles are sound and are what will make Halliburton a successful company in the future."
Halliburton continues to use the Accountability Training® to develop leaders throughout the world.
Making an iMPACT...
The Results: Establish the Halliburton iMPACT program within the organization-ahead of all major goals!
The Story: Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, working in over 80 countries worldwide with more than 60,000 people. They use the Self Track™ Training in their Business Development unit, as well as other parts of the organization worldwide.
Halliburton launched a company-wide initiative known as iMPACT to help leaders build their leadership skills and further their career development. Co-founder and Chair of iMPACT Halliburton, Christi Gell, writes about the impact the Self Track Training has had on getting their leadership development program up and running:
"I am writing to share the successes we have had in developing our young professionals group at Halliburton, iMPACT. My first encounter with Partners In Leadership came when I was offered a spot in an Accountability training session you were doing with Security DBS.... I was so impressed by this training that I knew it would be something beneficial to our iMPACT members. The feedback from the leadership workshop we did with you in December... was fantastic: almost all who attended said the workshop helped them understand the importance of aligning what they do on a day to day basis with the company's overall goals, as well as the importance of personally staying above the line. Last year we were running on pure energy, and we needed to find a way to keep the group going. The visioning session you facilitated in March, 2008, I believe was a turning point for making iMPACT sustainable. You know how difficult it can be implementing The Oz Principles in an organization, especially a few months after training and the excitement of the class has worn off. Your guidance in "always bring it back to the results" has moved the board from event planners to strategists, and the members from stagnant participants to owners in the success of the organization. One of the results we have for 2008 is Growth, specifically to grow by two chapters in the Western Hemisphere and one in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is August, and we have already reached that result, with four chapters started in the West and one in the East.
Another result we have for this year is Voice. We want to have a presence in key internal communications and also highlight members outside of the Halliburton community. To date, iMPACT has been featured 12 times in our daily company-wide newsletter, is on our University Relations website, and we are also working towards mentioning iMPACT in our corporate sustainability report for 2008. Additionally, Laura Schilling and I wrote a paper about iMPACT that was accepted for the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference September 21-24, 2008, in Denver, CO. This is a huge honor, and is an indication that what we are doing with iMPACT is different from what our industry has seen in the past and will hopefully be used as a guide for young professionals at other companies to take ownership in their own companies' success. I hope to continue using iMPACT as a springboard for promoting Accountability at Halliburton. It is a grass roots effort, but the principles are sound and are what will make Halliburton a successful company in the future."
Halliburton continues to use the Accountability Training® to develop leaders throughout the world.
