Sound Wisdom Blog

Eileen Rockwell 12/5/22 Eileen Rockwell 12/5/22

Building an Accountable Workplace Culture by Sam Silverstein

To build an accountable workplace culture, you first design it. How do you design your workplace culture? Through your values. Your values are the house rules. Values must be consciously chosen and they must be authentic to your organization. They should not be cut and pasted from some other organization’s values. They should be yours. Your values must say to everyone in the organization, “This is how we do it here.” Everyone in leadership must model the values that leadership chooses to live and evangelize.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

One of the most common questions I hear from leaders is: How do we build an accountable workplace culture?

The answer is simple…but it is not easy. In fact, the answer to this question gives us a textbook example of why simple principles often take immense amounts of time, energy, and effort to implement. The simple answer is as follows.

To build an accountable workplace culture, you first design it. How do you design your workplace culture? Through your values. Your values are the house rules. Values must be consciously chosen and they must be authentic to your organization. They should not be cut and pasted from some other organization’s values. They should be yours. Your values must say to everyone in the organization, “This is how we do it here.” Everyone in leadership must model the values that leadership chooses to live and evangelize.

In every decision, leadership must live the values. If one of your values is Trust, then it does not matter what we produce, it does not matter what your title is, it does not matter where you sit on the org chart: You cannot make a decision that undermines the value of Trust. Period. That has to start at the top.

Everyone must live the values. That is a condition of employment. You live and model the values with every decision, and you teach the values to each and every individual. And when people come into the organization, they see the values in action. If they choose to buy into those values and protect them, they get to stay on. If they do not buy into and protect those values, they have to leave.

You are continuously modeling, teaching, and protecting the values in every discussion, every meeting, and every communication, regardless of the platform on which that communication takes place. Whenever you protect the values, you protect the workplace culture. Typically, you protect the workplace culture through living the values in your relationships with people, so they are inspired to live the culture… and you protect it by noticing when people are not living the values. At that point, you as the leader must make an effort to coach them up to a point where they can and will live the values. If that effort fails, then you have to let them go somewhere else, somewhere their behavior will be accepted.

Sometimes it takes courage to defend the culture, but the alternative is a disaster. When you allow people who are refusing to live the values to stay in your organization because you are afraid of being unable to hire other people, or because you do not like starting uncomfortable conversations, or because you believe that people will not like you if you defend the culture, or for whatever reason, then you no longer have a culture by design. You have a culture by default, and you have sent a message to everyone in your organization that “anything goes here and we no longer believe those values. All you have to do is (fill in the blank): be pretty, produce, be related to the right person, have tenure, whatever, and you do not have to live the values.” That is not the way to go.

Once you identify the values that support your culture, it is important to celebrate it every chance you get: with teams, with individuals, for little victories, for big victories. An accountable workplace culture is precious. As the leader, you need to deliver positive reinforcement every time there is success, big or small, so that everyone in the organization will be motivated to continue and repeat that success.

When you protect the workplace culture, you make a better place to work for everyone. This is what attracts the best people and creates the desire within those people to stay. Building an accountable workplace culture takes effort—but the quality of that culture will always show up on the bottom line.

Eileen Rockwell 10/10/22 Eileen Rockwell 10/10/22

Accountability Is the Answer to the Great Resignation by Sam Silverstein

The Great Resignation is in full swing. People are quitting their jobs. It is rampant. But it is important to understand that people, for the most part, are not retiring. People are resigning from companies where they do not feel like they belong. They are resigning where they do not feel valued. They are resigning where they do not connect to the organization’s mission. They are resigning when they are not connected to a group of peers. They are resigning when they do not feel like they are being developed and grown for future opportunities. People are resigning when they cannot work remotely or build their work life into their lifestyle.

The list goes on and on. Mostly people want to be valued, be a part of something, and live a fulfilled life. When they do not, the Great Resignation comes into play. What many workers find out is that when they resign because of money and go somewhere else the grass certainly isn’t greener. I always advise people to leave an organization with a weak culture. For the most part, do not leave for money. When you go someplace for money, you will, many times, find yourself in an environment where you are not happy.

So, what does this all mean for the leader who is fighting the Great Resignation? It means you better have your culture right. During the pandemic we found that the organizations that excelled were the ones who had strong, positive, sustainable workplace cultures. The ones that did not, suffered greatly. This still holds true through the Great Resignation.

People do not leave organizations where they feel valued, developed, a part of a community, and connected to the mission of the organization. People leave when leaders believe that people are simply a means to an end. And most of the leaders that treat people this way do not even realize they are doing it.

How does your culture shape up? Do you have an annual workplace culture assessment tool that you use to get real data on what is going on inside your organization. If you do not have real data, how can you address real problems?

The accountable leader puts their people first, makes sure that all decisions are made with the people’s interest in mind as well as the future of the organization, and ensures that everyone has a voice that is heard.

When an accountable leader would rather die than let their people down, then the people would rather die than let that leader down. It always comes down to relationships. When you create a workplace culture that truly values people then the people value the organization, and the Great Resignation is not even in their vocabulary.

Eileen Rockwell 8/1/22 Eileen Rockwell 8/1/22

Achieve Everything You Want by Sam Silverstein

What if I told you that accountability was at the center of achieving everything you ever wanted? Does accountability really seem that powerful?

Here’s the thing—what happens to us is based on the actions we take. Those actions are determined by what we believe. What we believe about people will determine the level of accountability that we have. And what we believe is at the very heart of determining what we achieve. Let’s discuss.

What if I told you that accountability was at the center of achieving everything you ever wanted? Does accountability really seem that powerful?

Do you know what you believe? This is the most powerful question I have ever asked a leader or any audience I have spoken to. Action follows belief. So, if your beliefs determine your actions, and your actions determine your results, it only makes sense that knowing what you believe is not only important—it can be life-changing.

Let’s say you believe, as one leader once shared with me, that you have 35 problems in your organization and each one has a first name. If that is how you see your people, then you will treat them accordingly, and you will get a specific result from that.

If you believe that your people can solve your problems, then you will support them differently, empower them differently, commit to them differently, and you will get a different result.

If a child in school sees everyone around them as the source of their problems, they will act one way. If that same person sees people as the potential solution to challenges, as teammates, as friends, they will act differently and get a different result.

What you want in life will always be connected to what you believe about yourself, the people around you, both your and others’ capabilities, your responsibility to help them be successful, and more.

What the accountable leader understands is that at the very core of their achievement, high or low, is a belief, right or wrong, that is leading directly to that result.

Don’t just change what you are doing if you’re not getting the results you want. Question the beliefs that are leading to the actions that deliver those results and then evaluate if you should change those beliefs to achieve a different result.

That really is accountability in action.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. Get his book The Theory of Accountability and discover the formula that enables you to be an accountable leader in your life and organization. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 5/9/22 Eileen Rockwell 5/9/22

Build an Organization Good Enough to Attract and Retain the Best People by Sam Silverstein

Are you having attraction and retention problems? Do you constantly struggle to hire and keep the right people? Are there always unfilled job openings in your company? Does your door feel like a turnstile at times? If you can’t find enough good people, then maybe you haven’t built a company good enough to attract those people.

And it’s only going to get worse.

Recently, consulting firm Randstad conducted the Workmonitor global study. The study revealed that more than half of Gen Z and millennials would rather not work than work for a company they don’t like.

Specifically, the trend is that people want to work for companies where their personal values align with the organizational values. But here is the challenge: most companies do not have a set of values to align with.

Oh sure, marketing or HR or someone along the way created a set of values and put them on the wall in the cafeteria and on the website. But that does not mean the company has a set of values. How do I know?

When I ask people in the company what their values are and they do not know them, they don’t have a set of values.

When I work with people in the middle of the organization chart and they say that they live the values, but their boss doesn’t, they don’t have a set of values.

When I hear that the company took the values from another company that was doing well and made them their own, they don’t have a set of values.

When I hear that leadership lets people stay who may be producing at a high level but are not consistently living the values, they don’t have a set of values.

Your values, the ones you have identified and are living ALL—yes, all—the time define your culture. Want to attract and keep great people? Build a great company by first creating and living, all the time, a great set of values.

Eileen Rockwell 12/13/21 Eileen Rockwell 12/13/21

Your Source of Excellence by Sam Silverstein

Usually, when we run into a challenge, we focus most of our effort on changing what we do…and we make little or no effort to change the way we think. Yet the power of thinking far outstrips the effects of doing. It is only when we change the way we think that we change what we do in a sustainable way. This is a key principle of accountable leadership: Action always follows belief.

Usually, when we run into a challenge, we focus most of our effort on changing what we do…and we make little or no effort to change the way we think. Yet the power of thinking far outstrips the effects of doing. It is only when we change the way we think that we change what we do in a sustainable way. This is a key principle of accountable leadership: Action always follows belief.

If you fix only the way you do something, but you are still thinking things through in a way that does not support your best self or the best potential of other people, your relationships will suffer, and you will descend into negativity when you encounter a challenge. On the other hand, if you fix the way you think by connecting yourself with the fountain of personal wisdom that I call your Source, you will automatically upgrade the way you do things—and improve all of your relationships.

Your Source–the set of unique personal lessons, examples, and reference points that clarify your beliefs and instantly direct you toward your best course of action–enables you to turn even the gravest challenges into opportunities.

Your Source always draws you toward the best person you are capable of being. It brings out the very best in you and in others. If you are in touch with your Source, you are in touch with your purpose in life.

Your Source is clarified by Source Experiences.

Action always follows belief.

What Is a Source Experience?

A Source Experience is an event, good or bad, that taught you an important lesson about life. From that lesson you gain clarity about what does and does not work for you…and you are able to trace what does work back to its origin: Your Source.

That Source you track down could be a person who served as a mentor or guide to whom you kept coming back, or it could be a transformative personal experience (such as nearly dying), or it could be a book that you return to over and over again, such as the Torah, the New Testament, the Quran, the I Ching, or even The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Your Source is the foundation of your deepest and best beliefs. You encounter signposts along the way in life that point you toward your Source. Those signposts are Source Experiences.

Let me give you an example of how all this works, an example from my own life. Growing up, I was lucky to have parents and others who taught me to treat people with respect and consideration. I was told countless times by the people I loved most, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And: “Treat people the way you would want to be treated.” And: “Don’t discriminate against people based on their race or religion or anything else.” There were innumerable variations on this message.

But even though I was taught these important lessons growing up, even though I knew intellectually that they were a vitally important part of family and social life, I had not internalized those lessons. I thought I had incorporated those lessons into my life, and I thought I was doing a pretty good job of living according to them. But there came a day when I had to acknowledge to myself that I had not yet completely built what my parents had taught me into my belief system.

Here is what happened. About five years ago, I was heading home from a speaking engagement with my assistant, Sharon Miner. We were great working partners; she and I had become a team, a well-oiled machine that served as the engine of my business.

That day, we were headed home—me to St. Louis, Missouri, and Sharon to Amarillo, Texas. We arrived at the airport early. I noticed there was an earlier flight to Amarillo than the one Sharon was booked on. I told her, “Look, there’s an earlier flight. You should get on it. You’ll get home quicker.” Sharon agreed. We went up to the gate agent.

This is the part of the story where I need to tell you that Sharon is African American. She said to the little bald man behind the counter, “Hello, I’m on this other flight. I want to get an earlier flight. Is there any chance I can go standby?”

The airline worker looked her up and down, made a strange and dismissive expression with his face, and said in a derogatory tone, “I’m sorry, but you would have to have status to go standby on an earlier flight.”

Not “Do you have such-and-such status with our airline?” Just: “You would have to have status to go standby on an earlier flight.” Because she was a woman of color, he made the automatic assumption that Sharon did not and could not have the status necessary to go standby!

As it happened, Sharon had platinum status on that airline!

She flew all the time! She was already qualified to go standby at no charge, at the top of the list. But the little man behind the counter had not seen fit to ask about any of that.

Now, I was standing right by Sharon’s side, and I heard every word of this exchange. When the man said that, the experience literally pushed me backward. That is how stunned I was. I had to take half a step back. My eyes started to tear up a little bit.

At that moment, I felt for the first time what it was really like to be a person of color in the United States of America. To be instantly marginalized. Discounted. Dismissed. Based on absolutely zero meaningful information.

That man had looked at her and seen the color of her skin and made an assumption about who Sharon was as a person. And in that moment I felt shame for the little bald man at the counter, shame for my country, and shame for myself at having made similar assumptions about people in the past.

I stepped forward, and I intervened. I said, “She’s platinum with your airline. She qualifies.”

The little man bristled but then realized he had made a huge mistake—and set about fixing it. Once we got the booking straightened out, Sharon and I turned and walked off. I looked at Sharon as we were walking.

I said, “I know you have talked about this a million times. But I have never physically experienced that kind of discrimination before. And this time I did. This time I got a glimmer of what it must be like to have to go through something like that on a regular basis.”

Connect to Your Source

That, for me, was a defining moment—a Source Experience. That was a moment of understanding what it really meant to love another human being as myself. I deeply felt what Sharon was going through; I knew what was behind it from the airline worker’s standpoint, too, because I realized that like him, I had made plenty of assumptions about people based on zero meaningful information. But I also knew that that could not happen again, because making those kinds of assumptions was the exact opposite of what I had taught people for years and what I had always said I believed.

That experience at the airport galvanized something deep inside of me. It was the moment when I realized in my gut that I could never participate in or support a situation like that ever again, even accidentally. I could never look at someone and prejudge them or make a determination about who they are or what they are capable of based on something superficial like the color of their skin. It may be easy to do that, but I realized in that moment that I could simply never allow myself to do it again. And I could never allow someone in my presence to do the same thing without my speaking up, regardless of whom I might offend.

That day, I realized what love your neighbor as yourself really means…for me. After that incident at the airport, I had the opportunity to think very deeply about the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” And I found myself going back to the verse in the Torah from which it sprang:

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”

After that experience with Sharon at the airport, I realized that that verse had to be a central element of my code for living. It had to be something I took action on regularly. It had to be part of my belief system. Because it was my Source. And I had to connect to it if I wanted to be the person I was capable of being.

That’s my Source. I don’t know what yours is. But I do know this: There is an art to transforming what you believe. Mastering that art begins with getting deep clarity on your Source…and it continues with making choices that support that Source.

To learn more about the art of identifying and connecting with your Source, order Sam Silverstein’s book PIVOT: Three Big Questions That Reframe Your Perspective, Maximize Your Potential, and Improve Your Life! Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 10/25/21 Eileen Rockwell 10/25/21

Accountable Leaders Live in the Mindset of Abundance by Sam Silverstein

There is something special that happens when you give—and give freely. If you operate from the position that you are looking for opportunities to give without remorse, without feeling coerced, if you truly give from your heart, something opens up inside of you, and new possibilities present themselves in support of the generosity you have initiated.

Do you begin with the assumption that there is enough for everybody? That a rising tide lifts all boats? That giving makes more of a positive impact on the world you live in than taking? That when you look for, and find, something you can give to a person, or to a team, to an organization, everybody benefits? That the best way to support a relationship is to find something you can give to the other person in that relationship? Accountable leaders do. They are committed to the concept of “It’s all of us,” which means, among other things, “There is enough for all of us.”

This is the Accountable Mindset of Abundance. It is the expression of the much-discussed principle that you get what you focus on giving. Many people refer to this idea as the Law of Attraction. I prefer to think of it as a basic principle of human fulfillment. I believe abundance and possibility is our “factory setting”—we just lose sight of that sometimes. But we can always hit the reset button.

There is something special that happens when you give—and give freely. If you operate from the position that you are looking for opportunities to give without remorse, without feeling coerced, if you truly give from your heart, something opens up inside of you, and new possibilities present themselves in support of the generosity you have initiated.

As you might expect, this Mindset shows up in the act of giving. People who live in a Gratitude Mindset make a point of sharing freely of their time, their talents, and their treasures—meaning all their available resources.

It is worth mentioning here that giving from a Mindset of Abundance does not mean making a decision to give because you already have a lot and you are willing to share what you think you will not be needing. It is making a decision to give because you know much has been given to you, because you believe the source of those gifts is limitless, and because you believe that what you have been given was given to you conditionally, not simply as a result of your efforts or your merit. It was given to you on loan, with the understanding that you would take good care of the resources and pass them on to someone else. Another word for this Mindset is stewardship. If you believe in Abundance, you believe that we come to this world empty-handed, we leave it empty-handed, and in the period in between those two events, it is our job to be a good steward of the resources we have been entrusted with. You do not worry about running out. If someone needs something, and you feel you can make both of your lives better by giving it, you give it.

The opposite of this Abundance Mindset is the operating assumption that there is not enough for everyone, and that we are justified in grabbing what little is available for our own benefit. This is the toxic Mindset of Scarcity. It produces fear, lack, and conflict. It undermines and eventually destroys, not just working relationships, but all relationships. It also runs counter to the goal of helping people to reach their full potential by elevating them. When I am in a Scarcity Mindset, I am hoarding resources for myself rather than looking for ways to give them to you.

The accountable leader chooses Abundance over Scarcity!

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book is The Theory of Accountability: Building a Truly Accountable, High-Performance, High-Growth Life for Yourself and Your Organization. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 9/20/21 Eileen Rockwell 9/20/21

Mastering Accountability by Sam Silverstein

Accountability is not a way of doing. It is a way of thinking. Plenty of leaders talk about “holding people accountable” for certain narrowly defined outcomes: getting a report done on time, hitting a performance target, taking out the trash, whatever. What they do not grasp is that these are transactional commitments. They are items people can put onto their to-do list and then check off. When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.

We can only inspire accountability. We can never bring it into existence by demanding it. This is the Principle of Accountability. And the only way to master accountability is to change the way we think.

Accountability is not a way of doing. It is a way of thinking. Plenty of leaders talk about “holding people accountable” for certain narrowly defined outcomes: getting a report done on time, hitting a performance target, taking out the trash, whatever. What they do not grasp is that these are transactional commitments. They are items people can put onto their to-do list and then check off. When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.

“When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.”

The real challenge for all of us is to begin approaching accountability as a way of thinking, and specifically a way of thinking about the people in our lives. Accountability is all about keeping commitments to people—and the commitments that matter most are not tactical, but relational. These are commitments like the commitment to tell the truth, the commitment to stand by people when all hell breaks loose, and the commitment to help individuals achieve their potential and be their best.

How do you master accountability? By fixating less on the to-do list…and thinking more about the long-term relational commitments you make to people. What are they? How committed are you to them? And how do they drive the decisions you make? It is following through these relational commitments, day after day after day, that builds powerful bonds, creates enduring loyalty, and inspires people to want to be accountable to you, the team, and the organization.

To find out just how accountable you are right now and what you need to do next to master accountability in your world, visit AmIAccountable.com and take a free sixty-second personal accountability quiz.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book is The Theory of Accountability: Building a Truly Accountable, High-Performance, High-Growth Life for Yourself and Your Organization. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 8/23/21 Eileen Rockwell 8/23/21

Building an Accountable Workplace Culture by Sam Silverstein

One of the most common questions I hear from leaders is: How do we build an accountable workplace culture?

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

One of the most common questions I hear from leaders is: How do we build an accountable workplace culture?

To build an accountable workplace culture, you first design it. How do you design your workplace culture? Through your values. Your values are the house rules. Values must be consciously chosen and they must be authentic to your organization. They should not be cut and pasted from some other organization’s values. They should be yours.  Your values must say to everyone in the organization, “This is how we do it here.” Everyone in leadership must model the values that leadership chooses to live and evangelize.

In every decision, leadership must live the values. If one of your values is Trust, then it does not matter what you produce, it does not matter what your title is, it does not matter where you sit on the org chart: you cannot make a decision that undermines the value of Trust. Period. That has to start at the top.

You are continuously modeling, teaching, and protecting the values in every discussion, every meeting, and every communication, regardless of the platform on which that communication takes place. Whenever you protect the values, you protect the workplace culture. Typically, you protect the workplace culture through living the values in your relationships with people, so they are inspired to live the culture…and you protect it by noticing when people are not living the values. At that point, you as the leader must make an effort to coach them up to a point where they can and will live the values. If that effort fails, then you have to let them go somewhere else, somewhere their behavior will be accepted.

“You either have a culture by design…or a culture by default.”

Sometimes it takes courage to defend the culture, but the alternative is disaster. When you allow people who are refusing to live the values to stay in your organization because you are afraid of being unable to hire other people, or because you do not like starting uncomfortable conversations, or because you believe that people will not like you if you defend the culture, or for whatever reason, then you no longer have a culture by design; you have a culture by default, and you have sent a message to everyone in your organization that “anything goes here and we no longer believe those values. All you have to do is (fill in the blank): be pretty, produce, be related to the right person, have tenure, whatever, and you do not have to live the values.” That is not the way to go.

Once you identify the values that support your culture, it is important to celebrate when they’re put in action every chance you get: with teams, with individuals, for little victories, for big victories. An accountable workplace culture is precious. As the leader, you need to deliver positive reinforcement every time there is success, big or small, so that everyone in the organization will be motivated to continue and repeat that success.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book is The Theory of Accountability: Building a Truly Accountable, High-Performance, High-Growth Life for Yourself and Your Organization. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 7/19/21 Eileen Rockwell 7/19/21

Accountability Is Impossible Without the Truth by Sam Silverstein

If you are a leader, you are either fulfilling your personal commitment to tell someone who is counting on you the truth, or you aren’t fulfilling that commitment. If you aren’t, then accountability within the relationship and the organization you lead is impossible, because you’ve already failed to be accountable to your team coming out of the gate.

For a leader, there is no such thing as “kind of” telling the truth.

That’s the high standard that leaders of teams and organizations must meet: they’re either telling the truth or they aren’t. It’s kind of like the old joke about having a baby: you’re either pregnant or you’re not. There’s no such thing as being “a little” pregnant. It’s an absolute state. And so is being a leader who expects—and shares—the truth.

You can depend on a culture where truth is consistently present. You cannot depend on a person who passes along, or accepts, less than the truth. Accountability and lying can never exist in the same space.

“Accountability and lying can never exist in the same space.”

People who seek truth want only truth and do not want anything else around them. They don’t want “BS.” They are not afraid of being told the truth. They love the truth, even when it hurts, and they don’t want to associate with anything that is not the truth or with people who accept less than the truth.

What happens to people who don’t want to hear the truth? What happens when they would rather have their egos stroked than deal with the reality of their situation? What happens to their organization? I’ll tell you. The viewpoint of the entire organization becomes distorted. The viewpoint of the company’s people becomes distorted. The viewpoint of what their people can accomplish becomes distorted. There is a false picture of where they are, both individually and organizationally. This false picture leads to bad decisions, and those bad decisions lead to an ever-growing wave of less-than-favorable outcomes. It’s a downward cycle.

When people consistently don’t want to hear the truth, they lead themselves and the people around them in the wrong direction. This is the ultimate recipe for failure.

The truth produces something. It produces a freedom. We have all heard the expression, “The truth will set you free.” This concept originates in the New Testament—it’s in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32. But what does it mean, this idea that the truth will set you free?

Free from what? What kind of freedom is it, and what will that freedom allow you to do? What happens if you do not have that freedom?

“Truth frees you by allowing you to be you.”

The reality is that truth frees you by allowing you to be you. When the standard by which you live your life is the truth that guides you, when you make your decisions based on this standard, you move closer to the person you are supposed to be. And you become more consistent in both your actions and your results. When you build your life around truth, you are free to move forward because you know how to make decisions, you know what your decisions are based on, and you know that the decisions you make, when they are based on the standard of truth, will always be the best decision you could have made.

That is true freedom, for leaders and for everyone else.

For more on this important topic, see Sam Silverstein’s book No Matter What: The 10 Commitments of Accountability. Sam is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This post originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 6/28/21 Eileen Rockwell 6/28/21

Transforming the Diversity Conversation…the Accountable Thing to Do by Sam Silverstein

Viewing people differently because of race, religion, gender, sexuality, physical attributes, ability, or personal style choices means you will always miss out on seeing their true potential. When leaders do this and/or enable others to do this, they not only make the workplace feel unsafe; they rob the people they lead of a more promising future…and they rob their organization of talent, ideas, and a better-looking bottom line. A leader can never lead a person to their true potential if that leader sees only superficial differences and false limitations.

Most leaders miss a huge opportunity when they talk about diversity.

In the wake of multiple high-profile news stories about diversity and inclusion, and any number of hastily assembled “damage control” initiatives from companies at the center of those stories, I wonder if it’s time to reframe our national workplace conversation on diversity.

Here’s a start: If you’re a leader, you are already accountable to each member of your team to fulfill your organization’s commitment to provide employees with a safe place to work—not just physically safe, but emotionally safe as well. That’s non-negotiable, and yes, your commitment to diversity is part of that commitment.

If you have any doubts about what you’ve just read, try looking at the question this way: Is there any way any member of your team will be able to contribute to your organization at an optimum level if they don’t feel safe at work? Of course not. As the leader, you cannot mandate creativity, teamwork, customer service, and accountability. You can only create a safe place that allows those elements to flourish naturally and to their very highest potential. Employees will always want to go to a safe place; it’s simple human nature to seek out the feeling of safety. Whenever your people look forward to going to work because they feel safe as they pursue the organization’s mission, you have created a powerful competitive advantage. Whenever they don’t, you haven’t. It’s that simple.

Some leaders will say, “But, Sam, this isn’t the home. This is the workplace.” My response would be, “Do you want the very best out of your people, or do you want half or three-quarters of what they can do?”

I would follow up with this question: “How safe do you imagine someone feels at work when they see evidence, reinforced day in and day out, that they fall into the category of ‘second class—not because of their performance, but because of who someone else thinks they are?” The answer is: Not very safe at all.

Which brings us back to the diversity conversation. Most leaders miss a huge opportunity when they talk about diversity…which means most organizations miss that opportunity.

Here’s what I mean by that. Most company leaders wait until there is a major problem, some kind of triggering incident, to start talking about diversity and making it a priority. That’s essentially reactive! Why not be proactive? Why wait for a crisis?

The typical reactive approach we see from top management has a troubling ripple effect. It leads to a predictable “do-I-really-have-to” attitude towards diversity initiatives in general. Because diversity only shows up as a meaningful priority when there’s a potential problem, people tend to think (and, yes, say out loud) things like, “Too bad I have to go to diversity training tomorrow”—as though the training session were some kind of a distraction from their real job.

That’s how most people think of diversity training: as part of a public relations initiative. And unfortunately, all too often, that’s just what it is!

Here’s my point: getting a clearer sense of what it takes to make everyone in the workplace feel safe can’t be just a PR stunt. It has to be how you do business. It must be what you believe.

Understanding what makes our people feel safe must be part of our leadership strategy for our teams and for the organization as a whole. Why? Because diversity training affords us as leaders the opportunity to better understand more people.

If we can better understand more people, we can connect with more people.

If we can connect with more people, we have the ability to serve more people.

The more people we truly understand and connect with and figure out how to serve, the more people we can make meaningful commitments to.

And you know what else? When we build deeper relationships with our people, when we have an understanding of how best to serve them at a high level, and we make personal commitments to them, then we are naturally going to be more accountable to them…and in the process we will be creating an environment where they’re inspired to be accountable to us.

Which is what we really want!

So here’s what this all adds up to: Diversity, when approached properly, as an ongoing priority, isn’t a distraction from our real job. It’s one of the keys to building an accountable organization. For every single one of us, starting at the top, diversity is part of our real job, every single day! Not only that: It’s a major competitive advantage, waiting to be claimed…and we need to start treating it that way.

Eileen Rockwell 5/31/21 Eileen Rockwell 5/31/21

Know Your Purpose; Know Your Mission by Sam Silverstein

What is your Purpose in life? What is your Mission? They are not the same. It is quite common for people (and teams and even entire organizations) to get a little confused about what a Purpose is and how it differs from a Mission. This confusion does not exist for accountable leaders and the team members who report to them.

Photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown on Unsplash

What is your Purpose in life? What is your Mission? They are not the same. It is quite common for people (and teams and even entire organizations) to get a little confused about what a Purpose is and how it differs from a Mission. This confusion does not exist for accountable leaders and the team members who report to them.

Truly accountable leaders know that their Purpose is the reason they are here, phrased in the form of service that they render to others. Their purpose is their big WHY.

Their Mission, by contrast, is their Purpose IN ACTION. It is what turns the Purpose into a tangible reality for someone else. The Mission is WHAT you do to take action on your Purpose.

For the sake of example, in distinguishing these two ideas, let me share my own Purpose with you. It is:

To help people be better, discover their potential, and be the best they can possibly be.

This Declaration of Purpose is the north point on my personal compass. Notice that it is concise. That one sentence is what I use to determine whether any direction, any idea, any proposed course of action, any attitude, supports who I really am. But my Declaration of Purpose is not, technically speaking, a destination. In order for me to have a destination, I need a Mission that aligns with my Purpose. I must identify that Mission by asking myself, What actions support and fulfill my Purpose?

As a general but reliable rule, the personal statement of Mission you create and pursue needs to have more depth and be more detailed than your Declaration of Purpose. I believe the words you use to craft the Mission can and should be built around three action words of your choice. These words give a deeper understanding of your Mission. They are unique to you. It is important to notice, though, that your mission is never about just having a list of three words that you can tack up on a wall. Your words must connect to a longer Mission Narrative.

Dig deep with those three words so you clarify everything of consequence that connects to the actions you are taking in support of your Purpose. That way you—and others—can see and buy into the story of your purpose in action. Your Mission Narrative, in other words, must clarify the ACTIONS of your Mission in a compelling way for you and for other people. The narrative tells you, and anyone else the mission attracts, exactly what it means to step out and go about achieving the Mission.

The Mission Narrative is all about action, all about doing. It is not abstract or theoretical. It is dynamic and totally in sync with your deepest personal reason for being.

If you do not have clarity about the Actions you are taking in support of your purpose, how can you possibly expect to share your Mission with others?

You will know you have found the right Mission when you find that writing or talking about it gives you instant calmness. This calmness is addictive, and it is capable of existing side by side with profound excitement about you Mission. It comes from the very center of your being, and it only appears when there is total certainty about both your Purpose and the action steps you are taking—the Mission to which you have committed yourself—in order to fulfill that Purpose.

By way of example, here is my personal Mission Narrative. Notice that it supports and fulfills my Purpose. Notice, too, that I use three powerful action words to create a Mission Narrative about WHAT I DO that supports my Declaration of Purpose—and that the Mission Narrative defines exactly what those three words mean to me.

My mission is to build a more accountable world. I serve my mission through three specific activities:

Teach

I am a teacher. I educate people on ways to improve and be their best. I share new insights and ways of looking at issues, challenges, and opportunities. I share different ways of believing and thinking.

Inspire

Through the use of events, experience, and evidence I support the beliefs that I teach. This breathes life into the beliefs and helps people take action. I come alongside and help people take the “first step” in their new adventure.

Support

I provide ongoing encouragement and resources to help people stay on course. Change is difficult. We all face challenges throughout our journey. I stay ready to help others overcome those challenges and achieve the goals they aspire to.

This Mission Narrative has resulted in people all over the world buying into my Mission—very often, people I do not even know and have never before spoken to!

I’ve shared my Purpose and my Mission with you so you can easily see the difference between the two. But these things are unique to each of us. My Purpose is not yours, and my Mission isn’t yours.

What is the north point on your personal compass? What is the reason you are here, phrased concisely in the form of service you deliver to others? Once you find it, you will have your own Purpose.

What is your Mission? What is your Purpose IN ACTION? What turns your Purpose into a tangible reality for someone else? What three action words describe WHAT you do to take action on your Purpose? How do you unpack those words, so that it is obvious what they mean to you?

Accountable Leaders invest the time and effort necessary to fully understand their Purpose and Mission. You can, too. Once you know the answers to these questions, you will be in a position to move forward on your Purpose, and inspire others to join your Mission.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, Pivot!: Three Big Questions That Reframe Your Perspective, Maximize Your Potential, and Improve Your Life, is now available from Sound Wisdom. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 4/26/21 Eileen Rockwell 4/26/21

Accountable Leaders Learn to Spot Cultural Drift by Sam Silverstein

Then he asked the big question that I’ve noticed truly accountable leaders always make a point of asking me when I use this term in a conversation for the first time. He said: “How do you define cultural drift…and how do I deal with it?”

What if the culture you designed for your company isn’t the culture your people are actually living?

A client of mine recently told me, “I know in my heart that fundamentally we have a great culture at our company…but lately, I feel like something is off, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.”

I said, “Does it feel like you’re not quite hitting the bull’s-eye that you used to hit routinely as a company, each and every day? Like your people’s standards are slowly dropping? Like things somehow slipped just a little bit while you weren’t looking, or you were focused on an acquisition?

He nodded.

What you’re dealing with,” I explained, “is called cultural drift.”

He said, “Exactly!”

I realize you may be asking yourself the same questions now, so I’ll give you the same answers I gave my client.

Let’s begin by defining what we mean by culture. A culture is what’s accepted and what’s repeated in your organization. And here’s the most important thing to understand about your workplace culture: You’re going to have one, whether you realize it or not, and it will always come in one of two possible varieties. You will either have a culture by design or a culture by default. That means your culture either drives accountability in the workplace…or your culture does not drive accountability in the workplace.

“Culture by design” means you’ve actually stopped and thought about what kind of culture you want in your company, and you’ve built the workplace accordingly. You’ve asked yourself what you want your culture to be, you’ve identified and closely examined your values, you’ve found the best ways to model those values in the workplace, and you’re teaching and protecting and celebrating those values…consciously.

“Culture by default,” on the other hand, hasn’t done any of that. This is the workplace culture that just kind of happens. Nobody designs it with intention. It’s defined through the lowest common denominator. Inevitably, a lowest common denominator culture means a lack of accountability to people; it probably also means a lack of responsibility when it comes to fulfilling specific assignments. (Remember: we are responsible for things, but accountable to people.)

Here’s the point. Nobody ever stood up and said, “Okay. We hereby launch a culture where you don’t have to be prepared for meetings or show up on time, where you don’t have to treat people with respect, and where you don’t have to communicate effectively when it looks like something unexpected it going to keep you from getting the work done that you said you were going to get done. From today on, that’s what we’re going to notice and celebrate around here.”

Nobody designs that kind of culture. But if those behaviors are tolerated and repeated, they become part of the workplace culture…by default. People come in for meetings late and unprepared, and they treat their colleagues and customers with disrespect, and they miss deadlines and think nothing of it. It’s just what happens, because that’s the kind of culture leadership has allowed to take root.

Culture by default usually incorporates some cultural elements (like the ones I’ve identified above) that no one would consciously choose, but that end up being toxic daily workplace realities. All too often, a culture by default can lead an organization into a major downward spiral. This is not an issue of accountability vs. responsibility…because this organization will be lacking in both!

As you have probably already guessed, the most successful organizations are the ones that have created, and live, a culture by design. There are five steps to creating this type of culture:

Define the culture
Model it
Teach it
Protect it
Celebrate it

However, even if you do all five of those things, and do them right, something interesting can happen over time to change the culture.

Maybe you have acquisitions, and you acquire other companies. Maybe you grow organically, perhaps by adding new branches or new divisions that aren’t directly exposed to the cultural experience that people in your main facility have. Or maybe some key people leave and are replaced by other people. When those kinds of changes take place, what often happens is that the culture that you designed starts to drift.

What do I mean by that? I mean the culture starts to be not exactly the bull’s-eye of what you initially defined it and designed it to be. It’s not that your company has suddenly become a bad place to work…but it’s also not in the ideal place that you once had it. It’s drifting.

Now—how do you correct that drift?

Well, the first thing you have to do is you have to recognize that the culture is drifting. The sooner you recognize that (like my client did), the better off you are going to be.

The next thing is to identify what part of your organization is affected. It could be the entire organization…or it could be some subset of it. The drift could be taking place at a certain level of leadership. It could be between the first and second levels of leadership, or between the second and third levels of leadership, or anywhere down the line. By the same token, the drift could be in a regional area. You could discover the drift is centered in a regional office someplace. Some of that drift might be contagious; it might be affecting other areas of your business. The point is, you have to be able to identify where the drift is (and isn’t), so you can make the corrections necessary to get your culture right back where you want it.

Once you recognize where the drift is, you can take steps to correct it. We’ve designed a tool called The Accountability Index™ that helps you to do exactly this. This assessment allows you to identify the specific strengths and weaknesses of the current culture and helps you to identify the specific changes you need to make within the organization to get your team back to the routine of living the culture you actually designed…day in and day out.

Accountable leaders notice, assess, and take action to compensate for the cultural drift they experience in their organization. They know that, if left unattended, cultural drift can turn an empowering, productive culture by design into a downward-spiraling culture by default.

To learn more about The Accountability Index™…check it out here!

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, Pivot!: Three Big Questions That Reframe Your Perspective, Maximize Your Potential, and Improve Your Life, is now available from Sound Wisdom. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 3/29/21 Eileen Rockwell 3/29/21

The Accountability PhD by Sam Silverstein

How do you earn a PhD in accountability? What sets you at the peak of the mountaintop when it comes to being accountable individually and building an accountable organizational culture? I believe there are seven core requirements.

You have identified your non-negotiable values. These are unique to you and take time to unearth. Reading someone else’s poster and saying, “Those are my values!” does not count.
You are living those values individually. Those values are showing up consistently throughout your area of responsibility within your organization. They drive your decision-making.
You do not confuse relational commitments with tactical commitments. Tactical commitments sound like this: “I will do the dishes tonight.” They can be crossed off a to-do list. Relational commitments, by contrast, are enduring. They are about making connections with other people stronger. They have no expiration date. They are the work of a lifetime.
You have studied, internalized, and now live all ten of the relational commitments that comprise accountability. These are ten critical commitments that strengthen human bonds and empower human relationships. They are:
• Commitment to the Truth
• Commitment to What You Value
• Commitment to “It’s All of Us”
• Commitment to Stand With You When All Hell Breaks Loose
• Commitment to the Faults and Failures as Well as the Opportunities and Successes
• Commitment to Sound Financial Principles
• Commitment to Helping Individuals Achieve Their Potential and Be Their Best
• Commitment to a Safe Place to Work
• Commitment to Your Word Is Your Bond
• Commitment to a Good Reputation
You are actively working to inspire accountability in the people around you. The key word here is inspire. Notice that inspiring accountability is not the same as demanding accountability.
You have taken on the challenge to build a more accountable world. In other words, you do not pretend that accountability stops at your family, your team, or your organization. It connects to everyone.
You are consciously building a legacy designed to outlive you. Sometimes people ask me: “When does a relational commitment end?” The best answer is: never. If you want to make a real difference…if you want to leave a legacy…you make these commitments, not just to your family, not just to your colleagues and team members, not just to your organization, but to the entire human family, including those people who will benefit from them long after you are gone.

Those individuals who meet all seven of these criteria have earned what I call the Accountability PhD, meaning they have attained the very highest level of accountability.

Learn more about how to Pivot! and be more accountable by visiting: https://mypivotlife.com/.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, Pivot!: Three Big Questions That Reframe Your Perspective, Maximize Your Potential, and Improve Your Life, is now available from Sound Wisdom. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 2/22/21 Eileen Rockwell 2/22/21

Accountability—“It’s All of Us”—in the Pandemic Era by Sam Silverstein

Accountability is all about commitment, and commitment is all about relationships. Values connect us and strengthen us in deeper and deeper relationships, relationships that keep us moving forward when times are good—and also when times are not so good. Through relationships, we can accomplish a wondrous multitude of things. Never has this been more obvious than now, when our nation and the world is struggling with a global pandemic that has left so many feeling disoriented, alone, and unsupported.

There are ten core commitments that support accountability, and the one that seems worth discussing today, given where our world is now and what we are all struggling with, is the commitment I call “It’s All of Us.” This is the point of entry, the commitment that truly accountable leaders (and followers) are adopting and sharing at this critical moment.

When someone commits to “It’s All of Us,” they have an attitude of “We succeed together. We fail together. We are all on this journey together.” When someone who is fully committed to “It’s All of Us” connects with you, they have got your back. You are on the same team. They know that if you look good, everybody looks good. If you look bad, everybody looks bad. They are willing to connect with and support you, in the process of building something that is bigger than either of you are on your own.

Often, I talk about “It’s All of Us” in the context of team leadership or company leadership, which are vitally important subjects. But equally important now is the commitment of “It’s All of Us” on a global scale. Now, more than ever, it is obvious that we really are all in this together, and we really do need to support each other as human beings, every chance we get. There is no winning team or losing team when it comes to dealing with a crisis like the one we face. We are all in it together. And the best among us will make that commitment and find every possible opportunity to follow through on it—in ways large and small.

I believe that the small ways to follow through on this critical commitment “It’s All of Us” are just as important as the big ones, and perhaps even more important. Do not wait for the opportunity to do something newsworthy. Everyone has the ability to make a difference in someone else’s life. Everyone has the opportunity to have a positive impact on someone’s day. Everyone has the chance to send the all-important message “We are all in this together; I’ve got your back.”

Not long ago, a friend told me a story about “We are all in this together” during the age of isolation and social distancing. He was out early one morning walking his dog, who was (and is) a little skittish sometimes. Across the street, a woman wearing a face mask was walking her dog in the other direction. My friend’s dog started barking loudly, which is not an unusual occurrence with this dog. The woman across the street started talking animatedly. She was eager to connect.

She told my friend that for weeks, she had had a similar problem with her dog. She then explained, at length, what she had done to help the dog calm down on their walks together. She made a number of recommendations about the resources my friend could use to help his dog learn to stop barking at other dogs.

“Within just a few seconds, I could tell she really needed to talk,” my friend said. “It seemed like it must have been a while since she’d had the chance to talk to someone. Even though my dog was still barking, I decided to stay there as long as I could.”

With the dog straining against the leash, my friend stood there shouting across a street about dogs to a total stranger, and being shouted at in turn (pleasantly!) for ten minutes. Eventually, the woman across the street wished him and his dog a good day and went her way. As she was leaving, my friend said, “Stay safe.” And meant it. The woman replied, “You too.”

That was an “It’s All of Us” moment. You do not have to be a team leader or a company leader to have one. And what you do does not have to be something extraordinary. All it has to do is let someone who needs to know that you are both on the same team.

Today, why not find an opportunity to share an “It’s All of Us” moment with someone who needs it? Help them smile. Help them connect. Help them feel part of something larger than themselves. Help them spread the word: we really are all in this together.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. He is the author of numerous books on accountability, including I Am Accountable: Ten Choices That Create Deeper Meaning in Your Life, Your Organization, and Your World. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 1/11/21 Eileen Rockwell 1/11/21

The Root Cause of Burnout: Letting Other People Set Your Purpose by Sam Silverstein

Do you sometimes feel stressed out, off track, spread too thin, or simply lost in a vast maze of urgent priorities? Do you ever wonder where you are headed, personally or professionally…and then find yourself wondering whether maybe, just maybe, you may be drifting toward a destination you never chose, a destination called “burnout”?

Guess what? Those feelings and wonderings are all symptoms. So: What are they symptoms of?

You might be tempted to say that they are symptoms of inadequate or poorly implemented “stress management” techniques. But I have a different answer to suggest: Those feelings and wonderings are symptoms of a lack of clarity about something that truly accountable people are always crystal clear on: their own unique, deeply personal sense of Purpose.

I believe that each of us has our own big Why—our own unique Purpose. The challenge is that at any given moment, we may not have recognized that Purpose. We may not have or released ourselves to it. We may have lost sight of it momentarily…or we may even have bought into an excuse that prevents us from making decisions that align with that Purpose. Yet I believe that, as long as we are above ground and breathing, that unique Purpose is always there, waiting for us to internalize it and take action on it.

This Purpose can drive everything we do as we move through our day, and through our life. We can seek to live it and act in alignment with it. We cannot “burn ourselves out” when we are acting in alignment with our unique Purpose. Our priorities become clear. Our work becomes play. Our path becomes joyous, not “stressed,” because we know who we really are and what we really need to do right now.

Being present in the moment and identifying and acting on our unique Purpose is the antidote to so-called “burnout.”

And here is even better news: Each of us has the opportunity to articulate that Purpose in such a way that it inspires us constantly and moves us into a realm of joyous engagement, a realm where it is easy and natural to move beyond “stress.”

Beating burnout is really a matter of deciding “NO MORE EXCUSES,” releasing ourselves to our true Purpose, and then taking the actions and the decisions we were born to take.

It helps to have a single, powerful statement that instantly reminds us of who we really are and (by extension) what we need to be doing right now. Solely by way of example, my Purpose is:

To help people be better, discover their potential, and be the best they can possibly be.

This proclamation is like a compass. It always points in the same direction. It always tells me where I need to go.

Once we get clear on our unique Purpose, we have a compass, a self-correcting mechanism we can take advantage of in a heartbeat. Using it, we can move past excuses like “I am just too tired” or “I do not have the experience I need” or “I do not get the support I deserve.” Hanging on to those excuses creates so-called “stress” and “burnout.” Excuses take us Off Purpose.

Let me explain what I mean by that. At any given moment, we are either On Purpose or Off Purpose. When we are Off Purpose, we feel this thing called “stress,” and we experience our decisions as difficult. When we are On Purpose, though we have a clear sense of direction that makes “stress” vanish into insignificance, and “burnout” an irrelevance.

When we are On Purpose—even when what we are doing takes effort or involves making a sacrifice of some kind—we experience a special kind of joy, a sense of accomplishment, a flow that we can incorporate into our lives with astonishing ease. Good things seem to happen when we are in that flow. We may not even realize that we are “working” or “solving problems.” We are just releasing ourselves from our excuses and to our unique Purpose. We are fulfilling the possibility of our very best self, the person we were born to become.

Most of the people I work with who say they are suffering from “burnout” are actually suffering from something very different: a lack of clarity about their own unique Purpose! All too often, they have let someone else set their purpose for them.

Here is how you can tell when you have allowed another person, or society at large, to set your purpose for you: Your stated purpose is all about things, and not about people.

When I ask people suffering from “stress” and “burnout” to tell me their unique Purpose, their reason for being here on this earth, I sometimes hear answers like this:

To make a million dollars.
To drive a Ferrari.
To become a famous (whatever).

Notice that these kinds of answers are focused on money, possessions, and status, respectively. That is an instant tipoff to me that the individual in question has let society set his or her individual purpose. That is a ticket to the destination called “burnout.”

Understand: There is nothing inherently wrong with possessions, money, and status. But if those things are what are motivating your actions and guiding your decisions, you have bought into an aspiration that does not support you. You are Off Purpose.

Things can be a goal…but things can never be a Purpose.

A truly accountable person has a unique sense of Purpose that is rooted in service to others.

A truly accountable person makes commitments that align with that unique Purpose.

That unique Purpose is what motivates them, sets their priorities, and guides them through their day!

Notice: Society often puts things in front of us that we mistake for our purpose, things like popularity or sensory gratification or cash or recognition. These are things, not people.

If you are focusing on things, and not on people, you have not yet released yourself to your Purpose—and you are headed, sooner or later, for trouble!

We have to discover for ourselves, concretely, what our own unique Purpose is — and then we have to stay On Purpose. If we do not do that, we are subject to the manipulations of others, and of society at large, when it comes to identifying and acting on our true Purpose in life. Once we have identified our own unique Purpose, and we make decisions and take actions that align with that Purpose, burnout is literally an impossibility!

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, Pivot!: Three Big Questions That Reframe Your Perspective, Maximize Your Potential, and Improve Your Life, will be released on January 19, 2021, and is available for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Porchlight Books. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 12/14/20 Eileen Rockwell 12/14/20

Living the Values: The Key to Accountability in Trying Times by Sam Silverstein

As 2020 draws to a close, many leaders find themselves facing a challenge they are not used to addressing: team members who get sidetracked by intense disagreements about social and political matters having little or nothing to do with the team’s goals and objectives. What is the accountable leader’s response to this situation?

Social and political issues can cause serious divisions within the organization if leaders are not careful. Team members can start making assumptions about each other: “He probably supports XYZ policy—I know all I need to know about him.” That’s toxic.

That kind of bias and lack of respect has any number of equally toxic parallels: “She doesn’t come from the ‘right’ school—I know all I need to know about her.” Or: “He comes from a different department than I do—I know all I need to know about him.” When people take action on such beliefs, the actions are both unproductive and disrespectful.

How does a leader handle these kinds of divisions?

Here is my answer. In an accountable organization, people can disagree about a lot of things: politics, personnel moves, strategic decisions, the color the breakroom walls should be painted—you name it. But there are some things that everyone in the organization, without exception, has to agree on. We call these non-negotiable points of agreements Values because they are so valuable and so important to the organization and to each individual within it that, if one of them ever goes missing or is overlooked, we drop everything and figure out how to get it back.

Accountable leaders know that the values of the organization must always connect to the actions and decisions of each and every team member. They also know that Respect has to be one of those values. If team members are not willing to treat each other with respect—whether that is over a political disagreement, a disagreement about how to redecorate the breakroom, or anything in between—then the accountable leader has to call time-out and make sure the value of Respect is restored. If for some reason there is someone on staff who chooses not to live that value at work, regardless of how productive they are, that person has to be transitioned into finding some other opportunity elsewhere. It is as simple as that.

The values of the organization must always connect to the actions and decisions of each and every team member.

These are trying times, divisive times that we are now living through in the United States — perhaps as divisive as any in American history. It is understandable that some team members will feel strongly about certain issues, including political and social issues. That is not something that accountable leaders can change. What they can and must do, however, is uphold the organization’s real-time commitment to live its stated values daily, by both personal example and by making decisions that align with those values, even when they are difficult.

So, if you haven’t already done so, identify the organization’s core values, and make sure Respect is one of them. Then, defend those values whenever and wherever necessary. Finally, accept that anyone who can’t agree to those values—by making sure they are evident in every decision and every interaction—does not belong in your organization.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, The Accountability Circle: Discovering Your True Purpose, Potential, and Impact with Accountability Partnerships, is now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Books, and other fine retailers. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 10/26/20 Eileen Rockwell 10/26/20

Masters of Accountability by Sam Silverstein

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash — Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

What is the first and most important commitment of accountable leaders? What do true Masters of Accountability always do?

I ask this question often, and I get a wide variety of responses. It surprises me how rarely people share the answer I am looking for: Accountable leaders are committed to developing their team members to their fullest potential.

That is their #1 priority. That is one of their “no matter what” commitments. That is what makes them Masters of Accountability: a commitment to developing their own people.

Leadership is always—repeat, always—about the people you lead. It is about developing your people to be the best they can possibly be. If you call yourself a leader but you are not all in with that commitment, you are in the wrong line of work.

There is a fascinating paradox at work here, however. We must start with ourselves. As accountable leaders, we cannot give what we do not have. That means we have to develop our own skills—so we can model and teach those skills to the team and the entire organization. We need to set meaningful development goals. We have to make a personal commitment to our own growth and development, not for our own self-aggrandizement, but as part of the larger organizational commitment to growth and development. That is what true Masters of Accountability do.

If we want to develop our people, then we have to develop the ability to understand what accountability is in our own world, and we have to make sure that we are living and leading with accountability consistently. That means figuring out where we are starting from and coming up with a personal growth plan. So, as leaders, we should have a personal growth plan for ourselves—and we should also be helping each of the people we lead to develop their own personal growth plan. Here are three simple steps that leaders who are Masters of Accountability take in support of these interrelated goals.

STEP ONE: Invest one minute in a Personal Accountability Assessment. You will find it here. This free assessment will give both you and your team members instant insights into those areas where your personal accountability is already strong, as well as those areas where there is room for improvement. This is the all-important first step in setting up the right personal growth plan: self-evaluation.

STEP TWO: Discuss what you have learned, and set a personal development goal. Clearly define where you want to be, based on the feedback you have received. Knowing where you are now, find out where you want to go next as a leader—and when you want to get there. Once you have done that for yourself, sit down with each of your people one on one and help them to set up a compelling vision of what is possible in their lives.

STEP THREE: Close the gap. Build a plan for getting from here to there, and start executing that plan. Your plan may take the form of a study group, or a book you choose to read, or an online course you choose to pursue, or any number of other opportunities for personal development. Choose one and build it into your weekly schedule. One powerful development option you and the members of your team may want to consider is the Pivot! course, which focuses on the three critical questions we all need to answer in order to become a more accountable leader, spouse, parent, family member, and friend.

Never forget: it is the commitment to develop yourself as a leader so you can develop your people that sets you apart as a Master of Accountability.  That is what communicates to the team that you care about each of them as individuals and that you are loyal to them. That commitment to help them reach their full potential is what creates unshakable loyalty from them back to you. So be sure you follow the three steps I have just shared with you. Commit to your own growth and the growth of your team, no matter what!

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His newest book, The Accountability Circle: Discovering Your True Purpose, Potential, and Impact with Accountability Partnerships, is available from Sound Wisdom on November 9, 2020. Preorder it now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, or Porchlight Books. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 9/28/20 Eileen Rockwell 9/28/20

Who Are You? Are You Accountable? by Sam Silverstein

You and I are living through a strange time, a time that will be written about in history books for decades and centuries to come. We are living through a time when the pressures and challenges we face are causing many among us to choose to perpetuate cycles of fear, anger, and greed. Yet this is also a time when others around us are just as prominently motivated by choices that sustain love, compassion, and generosity in their lives and the lives of those around them.

Make no mistake: These are not easy times in which we find ourselves. These are times when our character is being tested. These are times that produce extreme responses. And each of our responses is the answer to a critical question: Who are you and what do you believe?

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash — Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

It is worth remembering as we navigate these times that it is always up to us to choose the responses we will make to the challenges we face. We always have a choice about how we will respond. We always get to choose who we are and what we believe. All of our responses to a situation say exactly who we are and what we believe.

We always get to choose the Source of our beliefs and values—it may be the Bible, it may be the Quran, it may be the Torah, it may be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It may be the silent question “What would my grandfather do in this situation?” To be defendable, our Source and our belief system must value people and respect the rights of others. But the point is, we must choose to follow that Source once we identify it. We always have a choice about what voices and influences we are going to listen to when it comes to deciding what we really stand for…and where we draw the lines of right and wrong in our life.

We always get to choose whether our words and actions align with what we say we believe. When we ignore our Source and make decisions that do not align with our best selves, we make the world a darker, more dangerous place, and we make our lives smaller and more self-absorbed. On the other hand, when we choose words and actions that align with our most deeply held beliefs, we deepen our character, we make the world a better place, and we are better positioned to serve the larger human family.

We always get to choose whether we are focusing on things we can control or on things we cannot control. When we choose to focus on that which we cannot control, we make excuses. When we choose to focus on that which we can control, we make decisions and we move forward in our lives.  

We always get to choose the commitments we will make, and honor, in our relationships. When we make commitments but fail to honor them, we damage our relationships and undermine our own sense of whom we are meant to be. When we open ourselves up to making and keeping relational commitments—commitments that serve others and support our connections to people—something extraordinary happens. Eventually, someone we have touched in a positive way tells us about the impact we have had on their life, the obstacles we have helped them to overcome, and the contributions we have inspired them to make. When that happens, we know we are on the right track.

Our actions, our focus, and our commitments tell the world who we really are and what we really believe. We always get to choose the person we will share with the larger world. As we look for ways to make sense of the many challenges that lie before us in 2020 and beyond, let’s be absolutely certain we are sharing the highest and best expressions of ourselves with the rest of the human family.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His newest book, The Accountability Circle: Discovering Your True Purpose, Potential, and Impact with Accountability Partnerships, is available from Sound Wisdom on November 9, 2020. Preorder it now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, or Porchlight Books. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 8/31/20 Eileen Rockwell 8/31/20

Accountability: It’s Personal by Sam Silverstein

One powerful lesson that accountable leaders can take from the last few extraordinary months is that personal commitments matter.

Photo by Words as Pictures from StockSnap — Photo by Words as Pictures from StockSnap

One powerful lesson that accountable leaders can take from the last few extraordinary months is that personal commitments matter.

That may seem like an obvious point. It is not. It requires constant reinforcement, especially within leadership circles. You would be surprised how many leaders I run into who imagine that their commitments do not need to be personal. They say things like “I am committed to quality” or “I am committed to making this company number one in its field.” Yet somehow they never grasp the importance of making personal commitments to actual human beings.

So let’s be clear. Without a personal commitment, there is no accountability. Teams and companies that struggle with sustaining good relationships also struggle with accountability. Without strong relationships, we cannot achieve anything of consequence, live up to our full potential, or make any kind of meaningful contribution as leaders or as human beings.

We are interconnected and interdependent, and our personal commitments matter. This principle holds true whether we are talking about a relationship that unfolds in our personal life or one that unfolds in our professional life. The kinds of commitments that support relationships are exactly the same in each realm.

Precisely the same rules apply whether you are the leader of a Fortune 1000 enterprise struggling to chart its path through an unprecedented economic downturn…or a member of a family struggling to stay sane and whole and safe in the midst of the global pandemic. The rules of the game are identical in both situations. They are extremely simple, and can be summarized as follows: accountable relationships require personal commitment in ten specific areas.

These ten RELATIONAL COMMITMENTS break down as follows:

I commit to discover and realize my own potential…so I can help others to reach theirs. We help other people get better and achieve more in their lives.
I commit to the truth. Lying and accountability cannot coexist.

I commit to live my values. Our core values state our principles and our standards of behavior. They are what we stand for. If we stand for nothing, we are wasting our lives. If we don’t know what our values are, we need to find out. Once we do know what our values are, we must honor them in our decision-making.
I commit to “It’s all of us.” When we commit to “It’s all of us,” we accept that we do not succeed unless the other person succeeds—and we accept that if the other person fails, we fail. This commitment starts with the people in our lives, and extends outward until it eventually encompasses the entire human family.
I commit to embrace faults and failures as well as opportunities and successes. We speak up about our own shortcomings, and we see discussing them as opportunities for growth. We do not judge others based on their worst moments. We are not perfect, and we do not expect others to be perfect.

I commit to sound financial principles. We come to this world empty-handed. We leave it empty-handed. In between, it is our job to maintain “our” resources responsibly—including, but not limited to, financial resources. We make giving a priority.

I commit to a safe space. We create and sustain an environment of physical, emotional, and psychological safety. What we allow in our space, we condone.

I commit to “My word is my bond.” What we say must align with what we do.

I commit to stand with you when all hell breaks loose. There will be tough times in life. We give people the support they need when they need it most, even if that is not convenient or easy.

I commit to a good reputation. Our actions matter—not just in terms of the outcomes they deliver today, but in terms of what people say about us, our family, our organization, and our team tomorrow.

There is no separate list of commitments for your professional life that is different from the list of commitments for your personal life.

These relational commitments are exactly the same.

If we expect to thrive in our families, in our organizations, or anywhere else, we must make each of these commitments on a personal level.

The people and organizations that will thrive during this time of challenge, the people and organizations that will come out of any crisis quickly and with the best prospects for success in the future, will be those that take on, and support, all ten of these relational commitments by means of actions—not words.

Accountability is based on accepting our interdependence, on understanding and fulfilling our personal, relational commitments to one another. If you want your family, your company, your society to be accountable, if you want to come out of hard times stronger than you went into it, I have good news for you: you really can make that happen by making, and following through on, these ten personal commitments.

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book, I Am Accountable: Ten Choices That Create Deeper Meaning in Your Life, Your Organization, and Your World, is now available to buy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Porchlight Books. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This article originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 8/17/20 Eileen Rockwell 8/17/20

The Importance of Showing Up by Jason Hewlett

Have you ever had one of those nights where you absolutely could not miss your alarm going off? Whether it be a flight, a very important meeting, or something you promised your child you’d do with them, there is something so profound about how serious we take these commitments.

Yesterday, I needed to be somewhere by 6:00 a.m., and if I wasn’t there on time it would ruin a lifetime event for six families. How do you think I slept, even though I couldn’t fall asleep before 1:00 a.m. because I was so worried about sleeping through the alarm?

I woke up every hour on the hour, sleeping with one eye open, even having set two separate alarms (phone and old-time digital alarm clock). I finally got up at 4:00 a.m. even though the alarms were set for 5:15.

How seriously do you take your Promises and the things you said you’d do?

An acquaintance said he wanted to meet up for lunch. We confirmed the time and place an hour prior, just to be sure we were on the same page. I texted him 10 minutes after he was late, and then again 20 minutes. Finally, at minute 29 he strolled up like he was right on time. Who does that? And why?

No reason, just couldn’t make it at that time was the response.

Hmmmm…

We hired a handyman to help fix a few things around our home. The hour he said he’d be there came and went, and eventually three hours later he showed up.

Hmmmm…

I had a client call recently with the whole planning team. I called in five minutes early to be sure I was set with my Zoom angle, lighting, and sound. It was their meeting; I was just listening in. After the host didn’t start the meeting for five minutes, I texted them. Nothing. Ten minutes later, still nothing. I finally hung up the Zoom call and called the client, who texted and said they’d be right on. I logged back on. Twenty-five minutes later, the call started. Quick apology…on we go.

Hmmmm…

Yes, all of these deal with people being late. I’ve been late before. Once I was accidentally double-booked by an agent for events in two different countries on the same date. Instead of canceling on either client or going the safe and cheap route on commercial airline travel to fulfill the contract, I spent a good chunk of what I made that day to get to the second destination in time by chartering a private jet. I was almost late for that event, in that other country, but still an hour early…

I understand excuses. I get that there are valid reasons for being late. If there’s an accident, I can sympathize and forgive you, but there’s a power and, I believe, a sacredness in being on time.

It’s the importance of showing up.

There’s a power and, I believe, a sacredness in being on time.

Just show up! At this point in time, that is literally a big deal. Just show up. It’s pathetic that this a real statement. But people just don’t show up. And if they do, they’re late!

Don’t be that person.

Show up on time.

Do what you said you’d do.

That’s called keeping a Promise.

That’s what Leaders do. It’s what people who respect other people do.

Do you want to know why I couldn’t sleep last night? Was it for a flight, to take someone somewhere, or a big paid event?

Nope. It was for my voluntary, unpaid, happy-to-do-it church assignment.

I am assigned to fill up the baptismal font for people to be baptized. I consider this a sacred duty and a wonderful honor. I arrive before 6:00 a.m., alone, to prepare the building for a person’s special day and lifetime commitment. What a thrill! If those people are making that type of commitment, a Promise so great, then I’m going to lose sleep in order to be there for my responsibility.

I know you’d do the same.

That’s the Importance of Showing Up!

Jason Hewlett is a leadership expert, author, Hall of Fame speaker, and award-winning entertainer. His book The Promise to The One is available in both paperback and e-book form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Book Company, Google Play, Apple Books, on August 18, 2020. This article originally appeared here on The Promise blog and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog. Subscribe for more inspiring content from Sound Wisdom.

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