COVER STORY
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How should you truly hold yourself accountable for your efforts?
I love the concept of active questions that begin with the phrase, “Did I do my best to…” My favourite six are: Did I do my best to? : • Set clear goals? • Make progress toward goal achievement? • Find meaning? • Be happy? • Build positive relationships? • Be fully engaged? The good thing about beginning these questions with “Did I do my best to…” is that it is almost impossible to blame someone else for my failure. No one can be responsible for “Did I do my best to…” but me. Our research is very clear. Testing yourself on these six questions every day increases accountability and leads to a better life and an improvement of work.
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How does behaviour tie back to your productivity efforts?
In my coaching, I only get paid if my clients achieve positive, and lasting change in behaviour; not as judged by themselves, but as judged by the people around them. I do not make the “business” or “productivity” case for my clients – they make it for me! They are the ones that make the clear connection between behaviour and productivity (which will be different in different organisations) – then I help them focus on their behaviour.
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What role can HR play in fostering a culture of accountability at the workplace? HR can play a key role. One of our challenges in the past (I say “our” because I see myself as an HR person) has been a focus on developing great programmes and processes, but not 28 ISSUE 15.12
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holding line executives responsible for actually implementing those processes. My research on feedback and followup involves over 86,000 respondents and the results are very clear. If the leaders actually implement what they are taught in the leadership programmes, they get better. If the leaders don’t execute these lessons, the programme is a waste of time. We shouldn’t just be evaluating HR programmes; we should be evaluating how well leaders implement these programmes and sustain them. Another example is employee engagement. Almost all companies have focused on the aspect of “what can the corporation do to engage the employees?” There has been very little focus on the question of “how can the
employees be accountable for their own engagement?” This is something that more organisations are starting to look into and which I believe will also be addressed at the HR Summit.
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What are you looking forward to in your presentation at the HR Summit in Singapore next year? I am looking forward to sharing ideas that can be immediately implemented and measured. I love working with HR professionals! Why is that so? If I can help the HR leaders, they can impact hundreds or thousands of other employees within their organisations. I feel that working with HR leaders is one of the best ways to leverage what I do!
BIO BRIEF Dr Marshall Goldsmith has been recognised again as one of the top ten Most-Influential Business Thinkers in the World at the 2015 biennial Thinkers50 ceremony in London. His new book Triggers: Creating Behavior that Lasts – Becoming the Person You Want to Be was recently published. Dr Goldsmith is the author or editor of 35 books, which have sold over two million copies, been translated into 30 languages and have become bestsellers in 12 countries. He has written two New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year. Dr Goldsmith’s global professional acknowledgments include: Harvard Business Review – World’s #1 Leadership Thinker, Institute for Management Studies – Lifetime Achievement Award (one of only two ever awarded), American Management Association - 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years, BusinessWeek – 50 great leaders in America, Wall Street Journal – top ten executive educators, Forbes – five most-respected executive coaches, Leadership Excellence – top ten thinkers on leadership, Economic Times (India) – top CEO coaches, Harvard Business Review (Poland) – Leadership Thinker of the Decade, CEO Global (Canada) – World’s #1 Leadership Speaker, Economist (UK) – most credible executive advisors in the new era of business, National Academy of Human Resources – Fellow of the Academy (America’s top HR award), World HRD Congress – global leader in HR thinking, Tata Award (India) for Global HR Excellence, Fast Company – America’s preeminent executive coach and Leader to Leader Institute – Leader of the Future Award. His work has been recognised by nearly every professional organisation in his field. Dr Goldsmith’s Ph.D. is from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management where he was recognised as the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. He teaches executive education at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. He is one of a select few executive advisors who have been asked to work with over 150 major CEOs and their management teams. He served on the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years. He has been a volunteer teacher for US Army Generals, Navy Admirals, Girl Scout executives, International and American Red Cross leaders – where he was a National Volunteer of the Year.