Accountability

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Leaders are given trust by the organisation and the people who follow them, and this trust is created through the leaders’ accountability. This accountability is both external and internal to the organisation.

External accountability is shown by leaders through the way they communicate with shareholders, constituents, contractors etc. The conscious leader knows that others take comfort when they know what the organisation had planned to do, and what it actually did, rather than how busy the organisation has been. This simple precept should be reflected in annual reports, where the organisation reports against what it said it would do (often the strategic or operational plan), and reports against achieving the vision of the organisation.

Internal accountability is created through evaluation processes for leaders and staff (simply put, this is what we agreed we should be doing, did we do it and how well did we and others view this). These evaluations should be crafted around how expansive the person is for other people and the organisation generally. Conscious leaders can develop evaluation systems that actually increase the awareness and consciousness of their people, and help them break out of any fixed points of view and judgments.

One form of accountability that is mostly misidentified and misapplied is the use of financial information as a measure. Money is only a measure of what you have planned to do versus what you actually did. Reading and analysing financial reports needs to be conscious and get away from the implant of money as the focus: the focus is on what is driving the organisation, which is measured, in some cases, by the use of dollars. The key to consciously using financial reports is to identify the underlying reasons why things are happening. For example, when using the Profit and Loss statement, look for the reason for variance, rather than focus on the figures. With the Balance sheet, look for the key ratios that tell you what the various relationships are. With the cashflow statement, look at the 3 month rolling cashflow so that if something is likely to happen, you know about it 2-3 months in advance, not after the event. Trust your intuition; if something doesn’t feel right, or it feels “heavy”, ask for clarification and reasons, and be aware of any unconscious filtering by you or by the authors of the information.

'Conscious Leadership and Organization Effectiveness' continue...

Part 1: Organization Effectiveness
Part 2: Vision and Strategy
Part 3: Accountability
Part 4: Change Management
Part 5: Risk