"If a boss is holding a team accountable then a lot of dysfunctional family dynamics will arise. People will project their parental issues on the leader. If a team holds itself accountable, all those issues go away."
"There’s an important distinction between expectations and standards. A lot of CEOs I work with fear that if they let go of their expectations for how team members behave or perform, then they’ll just tolerate team members who are below the performance or culture bar.
Expectations create suffering because you wish people behaved differently than they do. You can set and enforce standards by giving clear feedback and letting people go when they don’t meet the standards, without frustrating yourself wishing people performed differently than they do."
Thanks for taking the time to share these Justin; great insights. Reading them, I'm reflecting that accountability is both internal and external (but primarily the former?) - and I love the concept of creating pull-type standards. Interestingly one of my mentees shared with me recently that a big theme for her is learning to 'accept don't expect' - seems to tie in nicely.
Pull-type standards. Spot on. It just captured so well what I've seen happen on teams - if the boss it the ballast for accountability, rather than people primarily being accountable and reporting it out - lots of weird relational dynamics and stories come to the boss.
Two ideas that have been influencing my thoughts on accountability lately that I think you'd like:
From Joe Hudson: https://twitter.com/FU_joehudson/status/1731174424324260066
"If a boss is holding a team accountable then a lot of dysfunctional family dynamics will arise. People will project their parental issues on the leader. If a team holds itself accountable, all those issues go away."
From Dave Kashen (https://twitter.com/davekashen/status/1735729996537401541):
"There’s an important distinction between expectations and standards. A lot of CEOs I work with fear that if they let go of their expectations for how team members behave or perform, then they’ll just tolerate team members who are below the performance or culture bar.
Expectations create suffering because you wish people behaved differently than they do. You can set and enforce standards by giving clear feedback and letting people go when they don’t meet the standards, without frustrating yourself wishing people performed differently than they do."
Thanks for taking the time to share these Justin; great insights. Reading them, I'm reflecting that accountability is both internal and external (but primarily the former?) - and I love the concept of creating pull-type standards. Interestingly one of my mentees shared with me recently that a big theme for her is learning to 'accept don't expect' - seems to tie in nicely.
Pull-type standards. Spot on. It just captured so well what I've seen happen on teams - if the boss it the ballast for accountability, rather than people primarily being accountable and reporting it out - lots of weird relational dynamics and stories come to the boss.
Agreed. The even bigger risk in the boss as ballast scenario is what happens when the boss leaves..
So true. Culture over any individual person.
🙌🏾