HOW LEADERS CAN BUILD A CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY FOR
With 11,766 stores and 2.2 million employees, Walmart is the largest and most powerful company in the world. When they began selling my books in their stores, I had the opportunity to be the keynote speakers at their famous management meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas attended by their executive and management teams.
The heads of the departments were assembled in a group next to a PowerPoint projector and one by one the managers stood up and made a presentation to the executives based on the past week’s performance of their respective departments and their plans to meet goals the next week.
A CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
The CEO would comment on the report when necessary and approve or refine their plans. The most impressive parts to me were that the department heads knew their numbers and the level of responsibility they shouldered each week in managing their respective goals.
This is called a “Culture of accountability” – the team members and not the owners, executives, or managers are responsible for setting goals, executing the plans to achieve them, and making adjustments to those plans each week in order to make up for shortfalls and/or continue to perform.
4 STEPS TO BUILD AN ACCOUNTABLE COMPANY
1. Strong leadership and good reporting from managers.
Here is what each department head report contained:
- POINT 1: Celebrate successes and publicly acknowledge and reward key employees who had exhibited remarkable performance or reached a company milestone.
- POINT 2: What was the goal?
- POINT 3: What were the actual numbers?
- POINT 4: What was the plan?
- POINT 5: Based on whether or not the plan worked; what is the new plan?
If on goal: The plan moved forward for continued success.
If off goal: If there was a delta between the actual numbers for the week and the goal, they had to tell the CEO why they believed they fell short and their plan for a solution.
After the meeting, I was permitted to ask the CEO one question. I asked, “Why do you have a goal every week?” He responded, “Because by the end of the month we are dead.” I was impressed by the responsibility passed on to the team members. Most entrepreneurs delegate tasks, but not responsibilities. The Walmart managers owned their numbers and were fully responsible for setting the goals, creating the plans to hit them, and for modifications if they were unable to reach the numbers to which they committed. This allowed the administrator to lead, rather than be chief cook, and bottle-washer—a jack of all trades and master of none!
2. Requirements for Walmart-Level Delegation
In order to delegate duties in this manner, there are a number of steps to follow. You have to hire quality people who possess the skills and personality to take on the specific job description. There has to be a thorough on-boarding process, training, and ongoing support.
3. Authoritarian vs. Transformational Meetings
Like Walmart or any team of any kind, the precision of the meeting is the quintessential practice. Good reporting, a specific set of goals, following and updating the plan, assessing constraints, and clear next steps moving forward are elements of an effective weekly meeting.
Avoid the type of useless meetings given by authoritarian leaders that consist of long lecture sessions. As I observed at Walmart, the executive team said very little outside of approving or refining the plans moving forward related to managers who needed their support. Helping to refine and support plans of the people given responsibility is part of transformational leadership. People are being transformed into the type of leader they have the potential to become.
A key component of transformational leading is not only allowing errors but also encouraging them. If people are afraid of failure, or they’re working in a punitive culture always looking to place blame, they will not step up as leaders. If you want Mini-Me’s out espousing the virtues of the mission and spreading positive energy throughout the building, they cannot be in fear of a leader’s wrath. Failing is good as long as we fail and learn going forward.
4. Key Performance Measures
I do not want to sound too touchy-feely or have you miss the point in advocating the benefits of supportive leadership. Going back to the Walmart meeting, managers started their presentation with celebrating successes and employee recognition. But for those who had been off goal for the last several weeks, it was clear that they were in danger of losing their job.
A mean boss who is all authoritarian and transactional and from whom you get a smile only if you hit a home run will create a cold, bitter, anti-mission culture. On the other hand, laissez-faire leadership is lame.
A leader can be kind, supportive, and allow for growth and error, but teams, individuals, and the company as a whole must make progress and hit goals. If someone has gotten all of the training and support needed to transform and perform and is still unable to hit their numbers, then it should make sense to all that this is not the job for them. In fact, keeping an employee who struggles long-term not only hurts your organization, but also hurts their self-esteem, brings them down, and keeps them from achieving their objectives.
Have fun saving the world!
Dr. Ben
