In a previous post, I talked about two things that are Table Stakes for someone to be part of a company’s Leadership Team. Today I’m going to talk about one things that defines a GREAT Leadership Team.
EOS is all about driving accountability throughout the organization. As goes the Leadership Team so goes the rest of the organization, so if the Leadership Team doesn’t hold each other accountable it becomes extremely difficult to drive accountability to the rest of the company.
The idea of holding others accountable makes a lot of people uncomfortable because it implies difficult conversations. Americans tend to be conflict averse, it is part of our culture. So difficult conversations make us uncomfortable and we tend to avoid them.
Yet I work with many high accountability Leadership Teams who are very direct with each other and it really ISN’T uncomfortable….it’s just what they do. But in many cases, they didn’t start out that way. Many teams needed to establish that culture and those relationships with each other over time, and some Leadership Teams struggle with getting over that initial hump.
When your gut tells you that someone isn’t doing what they need to do, how do you even start that conversation? A lot of opportunities to increase Leadership Team accountability get stuck on that very point. Team members sense something is wrong, but they don’t know how to articulate it in a culturally acceptable way. So they say nothing.
To overcome that, I teach four words that help a team with their journey to high accountability:
“That’s Not Good Enough”
Maybe a team member has provided a poor explanation for underdelivering. Maybe it’s a weak plan for addressing a difficult issue. Maybe it’s one member of the team telling the rest of the team that an issue really isn’t that big of a deal. Those four simple words are enough to deliver the message that at least one member of the Leadership Team thinks what’s being said or done isn’t giving the company the leadership or solutions it deserves. The ability to get that concern on the table is the essence of holding each other accountable.
The single most important factor in a high-performance Leadership Team is the ability to hold each other accountable. Moreover, when every team member knows their teammates will call them out when needed, it increases each team member’s sense of personal accountability. On the best Leadership Team’s I work with, any member of the team is willing to say – and hear – those four little words: “That’s Not Good Enough”.
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES