Module 2: Accountability and Stewardship Roles & Responsibilities - Module 1 Review Objectives of The Module Understand what it means to be a manager or supervisor in your agency. Understand your personal identity as a leader and how you can optimize your strengths and improve upon your weaknesses. Apply new skills in key leadership competencies for success (emotional intelligence, values, and influence). Define the differences between leadership and management and how both skills are necessary to the agency’s success. Large Group Discussion: 1. What is one behavior that is important for successful management? What is one behavior that is important for a successful leader? _______________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 2 Overview of Module 2 A foundation for effective leadership is: accountability and stewardship. These traits are the basis upon which all work is performed. They are reflected in your attitude toward others and your integrity in making and keeping commitments. They are reflected in how you hold yourself accountable for your own responsibilities and differentiate between what you and your staff are each accountable for. To effectively manage people, managers and supervisors rely heavily on their ability to informally influence inside the organization. Your willingness to be a good steward – to be accountable to the agency’s mission and values, for the resources of the organization or your department, and the well being of your staff and the customers you serve – affects your influence with leadership and your credibility with staff. In Module 1: Roles and Expectation of Leaders, we explored the primary objectives and expectations of your job as a manager and what it means to be a leader. In this module, we will explore what it truly means to be accountable in your role and what it means to help your employees be accountable for their part of fulfilling the agency’s mission. Objectives of This Module By the end of this module, you will be able to: Understand accountability and what it means to be accountable as a leader in your agency. Increase your level of accountability as a steward of public resources with which you are entrusted. Apply effective methods for holding yourself and others accountable for job expectations and agreements. Become a better steward of your time and energy and the public trust, money, and property. Understand how to become an effective steward of your time. 3 SECTION ONE Accountability “ “Accountability can be seen as taking action that’s consistent with our desired actions. It is also the willingness, after the fact, to answer for the results of one’s behaviors and actions.” - Mark Samuel 4 What is Accountability? Accountability: A responsibility to account for and/or explain actions undertaken. Public accountability is where an agency has to account to the electorate or the wider public for a decision e.g. on policy or involving the expenditure of public funds. – Department for International Development Ask yourself: Did I complete each step of my agreement? If successful, celebrate your achievement! If unsuccessful, avoid placing blame, take responsibility for fixing the problem, and learn from the experience. – Accountability That Works! www.learn.com Accountability: The responsibility for implementing a process or procedure, for justifying decisions made, and for results or outcomes produced. – Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University Individual Exercise Create your own definition to share with others. My definition of accountability is: How Do You Know When You Are Being Accountable? Accountability is a quality based on integrity. Accountability is the basis for trust. How do you know when you are being accountable? The answer is found in your awareness, attitude, agreements and actions – each of which has a part to play in the cycle of accountability. The following chart outlines these four skills. The Cycle of Accountability The cycle of accountability requires us to be: Responsible for our self Respectful of others Reflective on the process Four Competencies of Accountability BREAKDOWN: HOW BREAKTHROUGH: COMPETENCY ACCOUNTABILITY FALLS APART HOW YOU CAN BUILD ACCOUNTABILITY Awareness Not acknowledging what is truly happening within yourself or with others. Accepting what IS really happening with yourself or with others. Making false or unrealistic promises. Being clear about what you want in a situation. Misplacing blame. Blaming others for negative results. Blaming systems and processes. Taking responsibility for the results you get. Reacting defensively in a situation. Being a perfectionist. Humbly recovering and moving on when you get off track. Knowing what is happening inside you and around you. Agreements Making clear and realistic commitments. Actions Walking your talk and knowing the consequences of your actions. Attitude Staying open to learning. Staying open to what others have to say. 6 Small Group Discussion: 1. Think about the last time you disappointed someone. Where did the accountability breakdown? _________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 2. For each breakdown of accountability in the above example, what can you do to address the obstacles/challenges? _________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 7 Accountable Agreements Accountability Begins With You To encourage accountable behaviors from the employees you supervise, you have to model what you expect from them. For example, if you reprimand or discipline an employee for a performance issue and then you are always late to work, how can you hold that employee accountable for expectations? Accountability is a matter of integrity. Peter Block (author of The Empowered Manager and co-founder of the New School for Managing) defines integrity as: “Creating a social contract based on partnership and empowerment is the difficult emotional work of stewardship. This means saying no to others’ wishes for protection and relinquishing our need for control.” - Peter Block Telling the truth about what we see Making only promises we will deliver on Admitting to and learning from our mistakes Finding mutually beneficial intersections between personal, team, and organizational interests. We are not acting with integrity when we try to control something or someone in inappropriate ways. We are not acting with integrity when we don’t use our influence when it is needed. Leaders wrestle with these issues every day. Managers and supervisors have to find a balance between decreasing their desire to control others, while increasing their ability to influence others to get things done (all amid pressures to improve results). Successful leaders focus their limited time and energy where it can make the most impact and promote a culture of accountability that fosters ongoing learning. People are more willing to join and follow leaders who exude influence than those who grasp at control. Leaders who understand where to invest themselves are more able to accomplish their goals than those who do not and thus squander their investments. Each day is chance to empower yourself rather than hold power over others. 8 Making Accountable Requests One way to influence and motivate others to meet expectations is to ask for things, or make requests, in a way that holds them accountable to you. As leaders, you need your staff to see themselves as key players in meeting your department’s work objectives. Asking for the right things in the right way can be a powerful tool for influencing others to get things done together. When making requests of others in your agency, you need to ask yourself: What does making an accountable request mean in our context? When I’m developing objectives and defining an employee’s assignment, am I making an accountable request? How do I exercise management and leadership in a situational way depending on what our environment looks like and the work the employee is doing? Steps to Making Accountable Requests Step Action Approach 1 Assess the person and the situation. Is this the right person, time, place? 2 Define the result you want to achieve. Do I know what I really want? Am I clear about my intentions and outcomes? The benefits and costs? Am I ready to make my request in a clear and honest way? 3 Ask for what you want. Have I defined expectations and measurable outcomes? Have I helped create conditions and expectations for success? Are we prepared for nonperformance? 4 Invite a commitment. Do we have clear agreements? Has my staff engaged me in the agreements? It is very difficult to find closure and resolution to a situation if there isn’t a clear agreement. Good agreements provide direction when there is a dispute about something. Good agreements also help to build trust. Making agreements with ourselves and with others are the basis for accountability because they make the connection between our intentions and our actions. Pair s Exer cise: 9 M ak ing Ac cou nta ble Re que st s Instructions: 1. Decide on a request that you need to make of one of your staff members. 2. Together, use the steps for making accountable requests and practice making the request. 3. Keep working through the process until you are sure you have arrived at a clear accountable request. 4. Be prepared to debrief your discussion with the full group. _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 10 Dealing With People Who Aren’t Being Accountable You can make requests, remind people of agreements, and create consequences, but accountability is ultimately a personal choice we each make for ourselves every moment of every day. A leader sets the tone for accountability by modeling it…by demonstrating the behaviors that you want from others. Here are initial steps you can take to set the tone of accountability: Be accountable for yourself first. Look carefully at where the accountability cycle broke down. What could you do differently? Take charge with empathy. Create a sense of safety so you can understand the person and situation and confront the issue. Focus on the agreements. Be willing to be flexible with your results. Keep bringing the person back to the unfulfilled agreements and the unmet needs. Seek a motivating factor that is meaningful to the person. Then work with the person to remove any obstacles to the motivation. Invite the person either to renegotiate the agreement or to identify what support is needed to fulfill the agreements. Move the person toward the results and bring closure to the conversation. Being Accountable Without Being Defensive When something we’ve worked on has not turned out as we had expected, it can be tempting to blame others—people, circumstances, etc. A key characteristic of accountable leaders is their ability to take responsibility for results. Feedback, whether direct or indirect, provides an excellent opportunity to learn about our strategies, assumptions, habits, etc. and to create new options for how we think and act. If we shirk our accountability, we miss that opportunity. It takes courage to stay out of the blame/shame trap, to own up to our actions without being defensive, and to learn from our experiences and mistakes. 11 SECTION TWO Stewardship “A steward is a person who is morally responsible for the careful use of money, time, talents, or other resources, especially with respect to the principles or needs of a community or group.” Webster’s New World Dictionary 12 What is Stewardship? Stewardship is the basis for trust and accountability, because it earns you a reputation that makes people want to believe in you and what you have agreed to do. When we lead from a focus of “service” versus “self-interest” our organization performs better. To excel as a manager or supervisor here requires a high level of stewardship. Your willingness to be accountable for the agency’s people and resources is a key contributor to your credibility and influence. For example, think of the significant public resources you are responsible for managing: How much money do you issue from your office just in SNAP benefits? What budgetary resources are you responsible for? In salaries? Facilities? Property? How many people depend on your for the health, safety, and prosperity of their family? Leaders as Stewards of the Organization ““Stewardship is the willingness to be accountable for the well being of the larger organization by operating in service rather than in control of those around us.” - Peter Block Stewardship is built on the belief that one individual is holding something in trust for another. Said differently, we are stewards of the people’s lives that work in our organizations, businesses and corporations. Once embraced, these values become an accountability platform for the behavior of leaders who then teach by example, daily. There are four critical steps for leaders to be “stewards” of the organization. 1) Take Responsibility: Leaders must take responsibility for identifying stakeholders, their needs, and the cultural elements that are required so employees can deliver on expectations. As stewards, leaders set the tone for various teams and people to work together. It must be clear to them what cultural norms will ensure success. 2) Establish Discipline: Leaders need to define the set of regular disciplines around leadership values that demonstrate to the organization commitment to those values. Leaders must together define the rhythms and routines that solidify their commitment. 3) Build Accountability: Leaders must hold each other accountable to the appropriate behaviors. Values are demonstrated in the conduct of daily business. This reinforces the culture and builds “esprit de corps” - solidarity, pride, devotion and respect - within the entire organization. 4) Manage Your Time: Your time is a resource over which you have responsibility. Using time efficiently and prioritizing effectively are key skills for every leader to master. 13 How Do Ethics Support Stewardship? As a leader in North Carolina state government, you are expected to accept the responsibility that comes with being a public servant. You are charged with maintaining the public trust and assuring that business is being conducted honestly. In your agency, you are responsible for determining eligibility for public benefits – no one is watching over your shoulder and scrutinizing your work minute by minute. Regardless of your skills as a leader and manager, when you accept a supervisory position you assume liability if you fail to follow agency personnel and employment opportunity policies and guidelines. Your actions can result in legal or financial liability for the agency as a whole. “Practiced consistently, self-responsibility implies one’s willingness to be accountable for the values and ideals by which one conducts one’s life.” Ethics involves thinking about morals and conduct, Nathaniel Branden and making judgments about what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong. In public service, ethics goes beyond thought and talk and evolves into action and performance. Ethics implies the willingness of supervisors and managers to accept the consequences of their own actions. Ethical managers bring to the workplace their own ethics and put them into action through informed, systematic reasoning, and ethics-based action. You have a special role to play in ethical conduct as a leader in your agency. The information you deal with is sensitive and confidential. Customers are often stressed and on the edge. The lives and wellbeing of the clients you serve depend upon your ability to model and enforce standards of ethical conduct. Stewardship of a Most Valuable Resource: Your Time Who ever has enough time? So much to do, so little time in which to do it. Heavy workloads to manage in your agency’s local offices. Finite resources and infinite needs. “I’m late for a very important meeting.” “I have too many priorities!” Sound familiar? All of us have more to do than we can get to. And, the higher up you go in the organization, the more you have to do and the less time you have to do it. To make sure your agency can meet its goals and to be effective in your role as a leader, you have to be able to set priorities and manage your time well. Methods for Effective Stewardship of Your Time 14 Effective stewardship of your time is about making changes to the way you spend your time so you can improve your productivity and effectiveness. Look at a specific day in your Outlook Calendar or SmartPhone, which is packed with activities from 7am to 9pm and you don’t know what to do with it. To remedy the packed schedule you eliminate a few events and prioritize others. In this case, you haven’t really managed anything – “Set priorities. A major you’ve just rearranged it. All the problems and frustrations of the day’s activities are part of successful living is still there, and at the end of the day you’re in the ability to put first still frazzled and frustrated. So how do things first. Indeed, the you actually manage your time? Step 1: Analyze Where You Spend Your Time reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things.” Use the method below to record your daily —Steven Covey activities and how much time you spend on them for seven days. Assign one of Covey’s quadrants (see step 2) to each task. It you have a detailed calendar, use it to look at your time for any recent seven-day period. (A full worksheet is provided on page 22 in Appendix A.) Day Activity/Task Priority Time Spent in Hours/Minutes Quadrant 1 2 Now you have the data you need to make changes to the way you spend your time at work. Review the list. Are there any surprises? Are you spending too much time on some things and not enough on others? For example, are you spending too much time putting out fires? Then make changes to prevent or defer these constant crises. Clean up or reorganize your desk so you can find the files you need easily, and establish a routine of putting the files you need for the next day out on your desk before you leave for the day. 15 What changes do you need to make? To determine what changes might be needed, consider the following questions and then write down a list of actions you will take. (See Tips for Effective Time Management on page 23 in Appendix A for more ideas.) Are there personal habits or behaviors that are contributing to poor time management? Are you spending time on distractions and interruptions? Are you unable to get to your priorities? Are there tasks you can do more efficiently? Are there any tasks you can eliminate? Is there anything you can delegate? Are there things that can be accomplished better through shared responsibility? Step 2: Define Your Priorities All time management begins with planning. To plan, we have to set aside the myth that we can do it all and recognize that everything is not equally important. Covey’s Quadrants Importance Urgency Quadrant 1: Quadrant 2: Urgent and Important Important but not urgent Fire Fighting Production Quadrant 3: Quadrant 4: Urgent but not Important Not urgent, not important Distraction Time Wasting 16 Stephen Covey’s “Four Quadrants,” is an effective tool for prioritizing your tasks. If you really study the quadrants and think about what might go in each one, it becomes clear that Quadrant 2 is where you will spend the greatest amount of your time. Here are some examples of the kinds of things you could place in the quadrants: Quadrant 1: Crises, pressing problems and deadline-driven projects, meetings and preparations. Quadrant 2: Planning, values clarification, relationship building, empowerment, coaching. Quadrant 3: Interruptions, some phone calls and emails, some reports, some meetings. Quadrant 4: Trivia, busywork, junk mail, some phone calls. Individual Exercise: Take a few moments and think about your priorities as a supervisor or manager. Use the table below to organize your priorities. (Note: Teambased approach and exercise can be found on pages 25-26 in Appendix A) Urgency Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important Quadrant 2: Important but not urgent Quadrant 3: Urgent but not Important Quadrant 4: Not urgent, not important Importance Fire Fighting Distraction Production Time Wasting 17 Group Discussion: What did you discover about your priorities? Did anything surprise you? ________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Step 3: Plan Each Day Making lists is still one of the best ways to manage your time. At the end of each day, write a “to do” list for the following day. Put the most important things at the top. When you come in the next day, review the list and make sure things are in the correct order of priority. Do the same thing at the beginning of each week and each month. Re-order things on your list as priorities change. Always keep a schedule or calendar of your daily activities to minimize conflicts and last-minute rushes. Step 4: Learn to Say “Yes” and “No” Consider your goals, schedule and highest priorities before agreeing to take on additional work. Many times the problem is not that we have too much to do, but that other people have too much they think we should do. There may be times when you need to say “no” to additional projects that are “Time is the coin of your beyond the responsibilities and tasks you must complete as part of your defined job function. life. It is the only coin you Often, peers or direct reports may be coming to you for help in completing casework or other tasks that are assigned to them. Try to coach them instead of taking on the work. Give them confidence they can complete the assignment and help link them up with helpful resources to get it done on their own. Teach them to search the policy manual rather have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” — Carl Sandberg 18 than just answering their question. It may take a few more minutes this time, but it will reduce the number of times they need to come to you in the future. Sometimes we say “maybe” or “I might be able to do that,” when we should really say “no.” Then when we don’t do the thing we said “maybe” to, the person who asked us is hurt, disappointed or annoyed. This can create pressure and guilty feelings internally, which distracts our concentration and prevents us from being focused. That eats time! Make it a rule not to say “maybe” when you’re asked to commit to something. Learn to make quick decisions and say a firm “yes” or “no” instead. Step 5: Delegate Are you doing things that direct reports should actually be doing? If the answer is “yes,” you need to ask yourself why. Review the material on delegation in Module 3: Building Effective Relationships to help you delegate more. Are there advanced or tenured members of your team that are looking for growth and development? Search your list of tasks and responsibilities for something you “Time is really the only can delegate that will fit with the person’s capital that any human being level of authority and allows them the has, and the only thing he opportunity to learn and stretch. Not only can’t afford to lose.” does this lighten your load, you are helping your staff to be accountable for the work that — Thomas Edison is theirs and to develop new competencies that will support their growth and mobility within the organization. Step 6: “Unplug” One of the modern myths of today’s working world is that you have to be “reachable” and “connected” at all times. We don’t, and in fact there are times when it’s important or useful to be unreachable to everyone or everything except the person or task immediately in front of us. Tasks that require focused, critical thinking or emotional involvement will take far longer to complete if we allow interruptions. Make yourself the manager of your technology rather than being managed by it. Don’t read every piece of email as it comes in. Instead, set aside several short bursts of time throughout the day to focus on email and protect the remaining larger chunks of time for other tasks, such as planning for quarterly staff conferences and unit meetings. Keep in mind that too much constant activity and stress can derail your best attempts to get organized. When you take a break, don’t think about, talk about, or do any work. Get up and out of your workspace. Take a walk. Stretch. 19 Group Discussion: What do we most need to do to become better stewards of our time? Reflect on what you can do to better use your time. What is one action you can take back with you to the office to improve? Write it down. 20 Appendix A Post Workshop Lessons and Peer Learning Opportunities 21 Analyze Where You Spend Your Time Day Activity/Task Priority Time Spent in Hours/Minutes Covey’s Quadrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 22 Tips for Effective Time Management Avoid perfectionism – Don’t aim to do something perfectly if it ties up too much time and paralyzes you from progress. Do things with excellence and avoid the extreme of perfectionism. Question everything – Don’t allow any “sacred cows” to keep you from eliminating items from your calendar and “to do" lists. If it doesn’t work, either get rid of it, or find a less time consuming and more efficient method or approach to accomplishing it. Don’t rush – Take the time to do a quality job. Working right the first time may take more time up front, but errors usually result in time spent making corrections, which takes more time overall. Welcome tension – Stressing out about something doesn’t get you any closer to completing your goal. Have the understanding that tension is part of life. Tension, if not reduced to worrying, can actually improve your focus and enable you to complete the job more effectively. Avoid clutter – Clutter will just get in the way of what you are doing. Try not to waste time in searching for things. Have a place for everything and everything in its place. “We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.” —John F. Kennedy Avoid procrastination – Don’t just do what is fun first. Get what needs to be done first, done first! Control interruptions and distractions – Minimize the amount of time that people take you away from your main objective. Learn to read faster and more selectively – Reading quickly as well as understanding what to read will give you more time to accomplish your priorities. Break large, time-consuming tasks into smaller tasks – Work on them a few minutes at a time until you get them done. Practice the 10-minute rule – Work on a dreaded task for 10 minutes each day. Once you get started, you may find you can finish it. Get plenty of sleep, have a healthy diet, and exercise regularly – A healthy lifestyle can improve your focus and concentration, which will help improve your efficiency so you can complete more work in less time. 23 Tips for Setting Priorities Be clear about your goals and objectives. What exactly do you need to accomplish? Use your unit meetings to clarify the mission-critical things that must happen and gain consensus on how priorities will be accomplished. Get input from others. When faced with multiple priorities, pass them by a few others around you for their opinion. You don’t have to do what they say but having other perspectives is always better than having only your opinion. Remember that setting and operating on priorities isn’t always reflective. You may not always have time for ruminating. Many of life’s choices have to be made on the spot, without all of the data. “We realize our dilemma Nobody is ever right all of the time under goes deeper than shortage that kind of pressure. Wait as long as you of time. It is basically a can and gather all the information you can problem of priorities. We during that period, then shoot your best shot. confess we have left Be careful not to be guided by just what you like and what you don’t like. That way of selecting priorities will probably not be successful over time. Use data, intuition, and even feelings, but not feelings alone. When you are stuck, write down the pros and cons of each option. Check what affect each alternative course of action would have both in the short and long term. Is one resource more efficient than the other? Is one more apt to be more successful than the other? Think about the interaction of both short and long-term priorities. Sometimes what you do today will hurt you or the organization downstream. When making either a short-term or long-term choice, stop for second and ask what effect this might have. Be time sensitive. Taking time to plan and set priorities actually frees up more time later than just diving into things hoping that you can get it done on time. Be careful of “decision avoidance.” Avoiding making choices actually makes life more difficult. You also miss opportunities. Don’t avoid or procrastinate making hard choices about priorities. You can pay the price now or pay a bigger price tomorrow. undone those things that we ought to have done and we do those things we ought not to have done.” — Charles E. Hummel 24 Setting Team Priorities Setting team priorities is a little different than setting personal priorities. One premise is the same: you must prioritize the team’s projects to make sure you’re working on what’s truly important, instead of getting caught up in minor things. Let’s look at a different “Four Quadrants” model as a method for group prioritization. Things in the top left are "No-Brainers." These projects/activities are clear priorities. Things in the bottom right are potentially for the recycle bin, because they are of the least value. Things in the bottom left are quite straightforward to deliver but not the most important. Consider ways to make them more valuable, i.e. push them up on the grid. Of course you shouldn't do this artificially, or it's counter-productive. Typically things in the top right quadrant are more strategic developments. Although they're over to the right, if you never start them you'll certainly never deliver them. 25 Team Prioritization Exercise Low Importance Instructions: Have your team write their projects in bold print on a post-it note, and paste them in the proper quadrant on a large wall chart. Now that we can see all of our projects, which ones are most supportive of the agency’s mission and objectives? Which, if any, are out of alignment with where we’re going? What can we do about the misalignment? What will we do if there are conflicts between priorities? Difficulty High 26 Appendix B Post Workshop Evaluation 27 Leadership Module 2: Accountability and Stewardship Please read the following statements and rate how strongly you agree or disagree by circling the appropriate word or phrase on the scale. 1. I understand accountability and what it means to be accountable as a leader in your agency. Strongly Disagree Comments: Disagree Agree Strongly Agree 2. I can increase my accountability for all that I am responsible for. Strongly Disagree Comments: Disagree Agree Strongly Agree 3. I can apply methods for holding myself and others accountable for job expectations, agreements and outcomes. Strongly Disagree Comments: Disagree Agree Strongly Agree 4. I know how to be a more effective steward of time and energy and the public trust, money, and property. Strongly Disagree Comments: Disagree Agree Strongly Agree 5. I can apply methods for setting priorities and more effectively managing my time. Strongly Disagree Comments: Disagree Agree Strongly Agree 28