This week on GAIN:
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accountability
The Advanced Level
Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.Many professionals want to be at the advanced level, preferring to take part in processes or education that employ advanced skills. While that’s noble, the advanced level isn’t what most people think.
Advanced selling, leading, recruiting or serving isn’t about learning and doing complex things. Rather, it’s about doing the simple things consistently, persistently, and insistently.
These include:
- Consistently employing core competencies from start to finish.
- Persistently engaging in these behaviors in every instance and interaction where they apply.
- Insistently being responsible and holding others as responsible for honing and perfecting these competencies through practice and application.
The most successful leaders, salespeople, recruiters, and service personnel aren’t typically super smart, super talented, or even super lucky. They are people who do the simple things all of the time. This alone is what distinguishes someone as being advanced at their role.
Operating at an advanced level, when done right, is straightforward. What makes it hard is when people are inconsistent in doing what matters most.
This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Practice being consistent, persistent, and insistent at the core competencies of your role. While practice rarely makes us perfect, practice does make profits.
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Tackling Technological Co-Dependency
This week on GAIN:
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Unforgettable Leadership
Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.How often is the leadership of yesterday forgotten today? In at least some instances, it’s probably like the artwork in your home or office.
When’s the last time you really paid attention to your art or decorations? Not just a quick glance, but really taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of a piece or remembering what attracted you to it in the first place. Most people admit that the only time they take notice is when someone asks them where they acquired a particular object OR its significance. Simply put, after a while everything blends in, even things that are especially meaningful to us. This is Artwork Affliction and it’s negatively impacting the work of many leaders.
Smart product manufacturers understand this concept, which is why they change their packaging from time to time. Last year, I remember seeing a Pepsi can that had the colors of a Coca Cola product. Just above the Pepsi label were the words “Great new look. Same great taste.” Did they new packaging work? Well, it got my attention enough to mention it here.
Artwork Affliction happens every day in corporations across the globe, and it’s not only the art that’s being overlooked. Those signs espousing your customer service best practices haven’t been noticed in months. The sales process document that you ask people to keep on their desks is collecting dust. Even the main page of your intranet barely gets a notice even though the content may change from time to time.
Radical Accountability, an unwavering responsibility for getting done what matters most, includes a number of methods that eliminate the need for heavy-handed leadership. Leaders all too often have to remind people to do the very things noted on the wall, sales process document, or computer screen because of Artwork Affliction. When leaders do this in the most positive way, it still can feel like micromanagement even though people haven’t been paying attention.
The cure for Artwork Affliction is relatively simple: change the look, location, or liability. You can alter the design, color, or formatting—the look. Moving the location, just like moving furniture, often recaptures attention. To shift the liability, delegate responsibility to team members for regularly modifying the look or location of key totems of workplace significance.
You’ve worked hard to build a company with processes and systems that drive your business. By avoiding Artwork Affliction, you’ll have your best practices doing what they are supposed to do. Now that’s truly unforgotten leadership.
This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Pick at least one key process this week and change the look, location, or liability of the supporting systems or documentation.
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Alleviating Automation Anorexia
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Down But Never Out
Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.Tennis star Novak Djokovic knows a thing or two about winning and losing. Djokovic won his second Wimbledon tennis title, beating seven-time champion Roger Federer, and moving past Rafael Nadal to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the world ranking. In interviews after his win, he acknowledged that his string of previous losses had gotten to him, effecting him mentally. Yet, being down didn’t mean he was permanently out, as he proved with this win.
The same is true for every corporate team and every individual business player, yet, many people often get stuck in a down and out mentality. Even the very best employees have moments of discouragement, or even despair, that they can’t seem to shake.
Persistent thoughts become pervasive beliefs, and some of these reek of inaccurate assumptions and dangerous misinformation. That’s why I’ve often thought it would be useful if humans had a reset button behind one ear to reboot our brains. With one press, we could start over, interrupting thoughts, words, or actions that are counterproductive or even harmful.
Since we don’t come equipped from the factory with such a device, I offer the following aftermarket alternative. When team members are stuck in a down and out mindset, offer one of these four options:
- Reboot… when a solid plan was in place, but wasn’t followed. A reboot allows for a fresh chance to work the plan from beginning to end.
- Reset… when parts of the plan weren’t followed, requiring only a reset on those portions of the plan. Without having to completely start over, momentum continues as the missing elements are integrated into the working plan.
- Reconfigure… when the plan was worked correctly, consistently, and completely, but the result was not meeting expectations. Without having to rewrite the plan, only the elements that were contributing to the issue need to be reconfigured.
- Redesign… if there was no plan and, no surprise, nothing good has come of that. Redesign allows for learning from this oversight, creating a plan for moving forward based upon what was learned in the process.
Feeling down is a great opportunity to keep what works and change or leave behind the rest. Reboot, Reset, Reconfigure, Redesign allows people to transform problems into opportunities that create better results.
This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Teach your team Reboot, Reset, Reconfigure, and Redesigned. And use it yourself, as you’ll benefit from this process and teach from a place of having walked the talk.
This week on GAIN:
Rapidly Linking with LinkedIn
Without realizing it, most recruiters are not getting the most out of LinkedIn. Case in point… Read more
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Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.
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If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182
Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com
Leadership Power Cycling
Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.When we call tech support for computer issues more often than not their first suggestion is to turn the system off, then back on. This simple step, called power cycling, often clears up many technical issues. Oh, if we could just do the same with employees to reset their issues!
While you can’t force other people to reboot their brains, leaders can reset their own. This is called Leadership Power Cycling—consciously taking a few moments to reenergize the mental, physical, and emotional abilities necessary for success in management.
How do you do this? The Leadership Reset, one of the most flexible and universal tools of Radical Accountability, is like switching off your capabilities and rebooting them within a matter of minutes.
Here are the steps:
Stop…whatever you’re doing.
Breathe…and feed the brain with oxygen. Just a few breaths enriches the intellect, slows down any nervous energy, reduces emotional reactions, and increases presence and use of all of your faculties.
Think…about the desired outcome. When dealing with an area outside your expertise, think about whose input on that outcome would help, and ask for their experience and wisdom. Using others’ insights and your own intellect, make a choice that is the most efficient and effective way to create the desired outcome.
Act…immediately once a decision has been made.
When should you power cycle? Anytime your personal systems start to become bogged down by conflict, distracted by emotions, or hampered by overwhelming quantities of information. Since our brains are advanced computing devices and our bodies house them, resetting them from time to time only makes sense.
This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Employ Leadership Power Cycling anytime you begin to notice yourself becoming inundated with information, emotions, or conflict.
Free Rapid GAIN Memberships Available for a Limited Time
For the next few weeks, I’m offering free, lifetime memberships to the Rapid GAIN level of GAIN (the Global Advisory and Information Network). You’ll get access to ideas and best practices every week, along with other valuable benefits. Use discount code SCOTT44 when you checkout. More…
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Excuse-Free Leadership
Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.Why is it that some companies consistently perform well, regardless of what’s happening in the world, while others do not? This can almost always be traced back to the excuses made by leadership.
Some leaders are great at spin, performing well as mouthpieces for their organizations. They have an answer for anything, a reason for everything that goes wrong, and use their gift for gab to attempt to inspire people to action, even though they often aren’t walking the talk.
Then there are the real heroes of the leadership ranks. They calmly respond to issues, focusing on execution instead of excuses. Problems are seen as opportunities, challenges as a chance to improve, and mistakes as a catalyst for deepening relationships.
In the Atlanta market are two perfect examples of these two types of leaders. CEO number one is busy explaining why his prominent staffing firm is experiencing slower than forecasted growth while CEO number two used the slow growth in Q1 as a learning platform for the best Q2 her company has ever had in its history.
Choosing between executing a plan or making excuses as to why things aren’t happening is a choice every leader gets to make each day. What’s yours?
This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Be an excuse-free leader. If you find yourself making excuses, ask yourself, “What’s the next right action I can take?” Then, immediately take that action.
Free Rapid GAIN Memberships Available for a Limited Time
For the next few weeks, I’m offering free, lifetime memberships to the Rapid GAIN level of GAIN (the Global Advisory and Information Network). You’ll get access to ideas and best practices every week, along with other valuable benefits. Use discount code SCOTT44 when you checkout. More…
Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.
You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.
Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.
If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182
Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com
Managing the Ups & Downs of Radical Accountability
Poor accountability got you down? Here’s how to manage the natural highs and lows associated with any form of improved responsibility.
This week on GAIN:
THE CONTRARIAN SELL: Buyers of staffing and recruiting services are used to getting their way, which is why that’s the worst way to sell. Giving prospects what they’re used to does nothing to get their attention. Read more
Stop Training, Start Learning
Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.Cracking her whip, the lion trainer runs these noble beasts through their paces in preparation for the upcoming circus show. At Sea World and other marine parks, trainers of aquatic animals go through their own training regimens, rewarding their charges with handfuls of fish. This is training, and training is best left for animals, not people.
You may find this commentary odd coming from a guy referred to, at times, as a trainer. While it’s true that I teach leaders and some staff, in addition to my consulting work, I’m an educator, not a trainer, as I don’t work with animals.
Education, done well and done right, is not training. Training works for animals because of the repetitive nature of the act of getting a lion or a killer whale to perform a task for a reward. Humans, while they benefit from repetition and rewards, also require additional interventions. These include:
Countermeasures for the human tendency of making the simple, complex.
Animals don’t have the cognitive ability to convert what’s simple to something complex. Humans, on the other hand, are masterful at making things much more complicated than they need to be. To counter this, quality education must promote simplicity, a systematic approach, and methods that are sustainable. These countermeasures mitigate or eliminate our innate foibles, especially when it comes to making mountains out of molehills.
Opportunities to apply what’s been learned.
Practice is said to make perfect. While it’s rare that humans achieve anything near sustained perfection at anything, we need more opportunities to try out new skills and behaviors. It’s through repetition that we gain mastery, and trying to master any approach or technique only in conversations and meetings with prospects, clients, and candidates often leads to poor or even disastrous results.
Radical Accountability to counter the momentum of the status quo.
Momentum keeps an object going in the same direction. Since the pull of the status quo is so strong, it takes something even stronger, Radical Accountability, to break the momentum and create a sustainable shift in the opposite direction.
By stopping training and starting education, you and your organization can start creating real learning opportunities that benefit all parties.
This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Begin to employ the three interventions to shift from a training culture to a sustainable learning environment.
Want to learn more about Radical Accountability? This topic is just one of many covered on GAIN. Learn more about GAIN.
Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.
You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.
Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.
If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182
Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com