Accountability: A Core Leadership Value

1. Accountability: A Core Leadership Value Association of Government Accountants Richmond - Shenandoah Valley - Virginia - Peninsula - Roanoke Facilitated by Patrick Patrong, BSE, MCRP Patrong Enterprises, Inc.

2. Objectives • Accountability Culture • Clearly Defined Results • Organizational Alignment • Eliminating the Blame Game • Sustaining Change After this session participants will understand the culture of accountability in the following areas:

3. Activity Connect like symbols, with a single continuous line. Lines must not cross each other, go through the small boxes, or outside the large box Lines must only touch the box that they are connecting.

4. Connecting the Boxes

5. The Culture of Accountability The challenge is knowing how to create and sustain a culture of accountability Most organizations link results with the level of accountability

6. High Accountability • Clearly define results • Create alignment around results • Instill accountability to deliver results • Sustain positive changes Organizations operating with a high level of accountability have been able to:

7. Joint Accountability To be effective today, supervisors must create higher levels of ownership and joint accountability to achieve results How do successful organizations enable their people to take ownership for delivering on their intended results?

8. Key Shifts

9. The Old View Many think accountability arises when something goes wrong or when someone wants to isolate the cause - to blame or point fingers Most people view accountability as something demeaning that happens when performance declines, when problems develop, or in failure

10. The Alternative View “A personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results.” Consider the following alternative definition of accountability:

11. Clearly Defined Results

12. The Job vs. The Result The first step towards Creating a Culture of Accountability is to define clear results There is a doing difference between - Doing the Job and Achieving the Result

13. Creating Alignment Each team member must share accountability for achieving the result The targeted result must be clear to everyone on the team and then the results must be shared

14. Eliminating Blame This is a crucial step in creating higher levels of accountability Creating clarity around results and alignment around delivery reduces time spent playing the Blame Game

15. Promoting Decisions • Advocating a decision translates to more vigorous and proactive support • Sponsoring a decision vocally and linking your success to it success • Championing a decision by actively leading people in efforts to make it a success - keeping it on the daily agenda Supervisors can promote a particular decision in three important ways:

16. The Line Above The Line is where attention focuses on things that can be controlled by taking the initiative to identify and implement solutions Below The Line is where one sees the Blame Game, where the focus is on why results are unachievable

18. The Journey What are some things that you will do differently or be more aware of, based on our discussion The transition to accountability is not an event, but a process

19. The Beginning Thought Comments questions