Practice Accountability, Part 2.

Covey's second dimension of practicing accountability is to hold others accountable. (p. 200) If someone says they're going to do something by a certain date, hold them to it. Here's what he says:

They want to be held accountable. They feel trust grow with bosses, leaders, team members, peers, and other stakeholders as they are given the opportunity to account for performing well. They also feel the increase of their own self-trust and self-confidence as they repeatedly make and keep performance commitments.

My own take on this is, if you want to be accountable, write down what you're going to do. Then stick to it.

My goal here is to help entrepreneurs climb all the way to the top. How am I doing?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Sherpa Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my Sherpa Literary. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #10: Practice Accountability Part 1

Covey (The Speed of Trust, 2006, p. 200) says There are two dimensions to this....The first is to hold yourself accountable."He goes further:

This behavior is built on the principles of accountability, responsibility, stewardship, and ownership. The opposite of this behavior is not take responsibility, not to own up, but rather to say 'It's not my fault.' It's counterfeit is to point fingers and blame others, to say, 'It's their fault.' (p. 201)

Hold yourself accountable, and people are more likely to do the same (p. 203).

My goal here is to help entrepreneurs climb all the way to the top. How am I doing?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Sherpa Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my Sherpa Literary. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.Dey

Quality, Speed, Cost

Covey (2006, p. 197) also says, "In most circumstances, it's wise to look at three-variables--quality, speed, and cost--and realize that you can usually pick any two, but not all three." What he is saying is:

First, quality and cost are positively related. Increase one and the other goes up too. Decrease cost and quality goes down. With the understanding that if you increase cost, quality doesn't necessarily go up.

Second, quality and speed are negatively related: increase on and the other decreases. Higher quality usually takes longer; lower quality can be had faster.

Third, speed and cost are negatively related: one goes up the other down, one goes down the other up. Lower cost can be had faster; higher speed means lower cost usually.

This is not always true in every situation, but Covey gives us a language in which we can talk about these three key variables.

My goal here is to help entrepreneurs climb all the way to the top. How am I doing?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Sherpa Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my Sherpa Literary. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.Dey

Quantify Everything

Covey (2006, p. 197) says, "Quantify everything: What Result? By whom? By when? At what cost? How will we measure it? How will we know when we have accomplished it? And when and to whom is the accountability--both in terms of benchmarks and end results?"

On this point, we have agreement with Michael Gerber says in The E-myth Revisited; Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. (New York: Harper Business, 1995). Quantification is one of "three distinct activities" that help you build your business. He says, "On it's own, Innovation leads nowhere. To be at all effective, all Innovations need to be quantified. Without Quantification, how would you know whether the Innovation worked? By Quantification, I'm talking about the numbers related to the impact an Innovation makes." (p. 122).

The point is you don't know what to expect if you can't measure your world. Not that you have to stick to numbers. But they can tell you a lot. You can use them to learn what is reasonable to expect and what you have to do to achieve your goals.

My goal here is to help entrepreneurs climb all the way to the top. How am I doing?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #9: Clarify Expectations

Covey (2006, p.199) says, "Disclose and reveal expectations. Discuss them. Validate them. Renegotiate them if needed and possible. Don't assume that expectations are clear or far behind."

Covey bases his rule on the principles of "clarity, responsibility, and accountability. The alternative (p. 193) is to leave expectations undefined. The "counterfeit" of this is "to create 'smoke and mirrors'--to give lip service to clarifying expectations, but fail to pin down the specifics...that facilitate meaningful accountability."

The point is not to do these things in order to give the appearance of being trustworthy. The point is to acting this way encourages others to trust you. They don't see you sneaking around behind their backs.

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Behavior that Builds or Maintains Trust #8: Confronting Reality

Covey (2006, p.191) says "Address the tough stuff directly. Acknowledge the unsaid. Lead out courageously in conversation. Remove the 'sword from their hands.' Don't skirt the real issues. Don't bury your head in the sand."

Confronting reality means meeting difficult issues head on. "The opposite of Confront Reality" Covey says on p. 187, "is to ignore it, to act as though it doesn't exist...The counterfeit is to act as though you're confronting reality when you're actually evading it."

Pretty clear here and needs little explanation. How much to you waffle around when there is a truth to be faced.

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Two Things to Do to Get Better

Covey (2006) says to continually get better. Do continuous improvement on yourself. He suggests on page 181-183 two things to do: seek feedback and learn from your mistakes.

Asking for feedback merely means taking the temperature of those around you, at home, at work. And listen to the answers without being defensive. Ask kind of "how am I doing" kinds of questions.

Learning from mistakes means you have to do things. You'll make mistakes. When you do analyze what went wrong so you'll be better. I try to make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice.

Do you ask for feedback? Do you listen to others?

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing? What do you think of this? Any comments?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate, my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.