Have you heard of the term ‘above and below the point’? It relates to attitudes and mindsets and applies to every single member of your team, including yourself.
Below is a picture with the words ‘Ownership, Accountable, Responsible’ above a point and the words ‘Blame, Excuses, Denial’ below it. Where does each member of your team sit: above or below? Wherever you choose to operate, and it is a choice, can have a huge impact on the company culture.
Blame, excuses and denial
Do you have a team which constantly comes up with reasons for underachieving or failing to thrive? Do they blame each other? Do they blame others such as colleagues? Or even external factors such as competitors.
They find excuses for their behaviour or even deny it – they’re failing to take control. They may not understand the impact they’re having on the business, but they’re definitely acting below the point.
Taking ownership and being responsible
If you recognise the above culture of blame, excuses or denial within your business, it’s time to assess your management techniques. You’ll never move forward unless you do.
Taking ownership means putting processes in place to stop faults occurring, and more importantly, ensuring they don’t happen again. It’s about changing from being in the position of a victim to one of the victor, but everyone in the team needs to be on board with these changes.
Implementing change
Firstly, you need to analyse the behaviour of your team to find out whether they all know what they’re responsible for.
If they’re unaware, they’ve no alternative but to fail. They need to be given true responsibility around their role in order to thrive and flourish, and in turn raise the impact of the business.
In terms of accountability, how often have you actually held your team accountable for everything expected of them? Do you check back with them regularly to ensure they’re on the correct path? How much support are you giving them, and could you increase this to help them become the people you wish them to be?
Businesses which move forward and grow at a fast pace do so because the company culture is consistently at the top of the graph. Management have broken the chain of blame, excuses and denial and raised the bar, replacing it with a system in which everyone knows what is expected of them. They’ve recognised what it takes to make the difference and get the business back to where it should be.
Changing behaviours and mindsets within a business can be an overwhelming task. It’s certainly doesn’t happen automatically and it does need a level of soul searching, time and patience. If you recognise that you need to transform your company culture to one of accountability and ownership and are struggling with implementing it, we’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to get in touch.
