The ability of a particular person, as well as a group of people or an organization, to answer for its obligations.

Responsibility means doing everything in your power in any situation, even the most difficult, without placing your problems on others. At the same time, hold yourself accountable for your actions or inactions, for bringing what you started to the end, as well as for the results obtained.

What is responsibility? This is the willingness to do whatever is necessary, taking the initiative into your own hands. Usually this can be done by an efficient, careful and reliable person.

Responsibility is an objective circumstance. It has various types, directions and forms. There is parent tax, business tax, etc.

In everyday life, subjective responsibility, which is called upon to be responsible for actions, deeds and their consequences, finds various manifestations. It is expressed through:

Parents' responsibility for their children;

Labor activity (the manager is always responsible for the actions of his subordinates);

Resolution when decisions are made independently and the situation is taken under control;

Military service (with the commander constantly responsible for the actions and lives of his subordinates);

When they try to complete any task they undertake in the best possible way and on time.

What is responsibility? This is, first of all, a personal volitional quality. Its manifestation is control over human actions. At the same time, a distinction is made between external and internal forms of this subjective obligation. The first category involves the assignment of responsibility, which is expressed in punishability and accountability. The internal form has the character of self-regulation, expressed through a sense of duty.

What is responsibility? This:

The ability to independently realize the fact that the dependence of the level of success, quality of living conditions, as well as self-realization of a person is only in his hands;

Willingness to fulfill assumed responsibilities and given promises in the best possible way;

The ability to understand the possible consequences that will result from making decisions or performing various actions of the individual himself.

Responsibility provides certain benefits, which include:

In self-confidence and self-confidence;

In the formation of self-esteem and respect of others;

In exercising control over any situation, as well as self-control;

In a rational assessment of the behavior of people around, when instead of condemnation there is an awareness of the impossibility of relying on anyone in this particular situation.

In order to develop such a feeling as responsibility, you need to:

Work on yourself, exercising constant self-control;

Give written tasks for your own completion and track the deadlines for their implementation;

Carry out organizational work with people to coordinate various types of their actions;

Communicate with your children, bearing full responsibility for them.

Responsibility– a strong-willed personal quality, manifested in the exercise of control over human activities. There are external forms that ensure the assignment of responsibility (accountability, punishability, etc.) and internal forms of self-regulation (a sense of responsibility, a sense of duty).

Responsibility is an understanding of the consequences that a person’s decisions or actions may entail.
Responsibility is the ability to realize that the quality of life, the level of success and self-realization of a person depend only on himself.
Responsibility is the willingness to keep all your promises and perform all your responsibilities to the best of your ability.
Responsibility is the ability to make decisions in difficult situations not only for yourself, but also for those who depend on you.

What does responsibility give us?

Responsibility gives you confidence in yourself and your abilities.
Responsibility gives respect - both self-respect and respect from others.
Responsibility provides opportunities for self-control and control over the external situation.
Responsibility gives freedom - from misanthropy; a responsible person does not condemn mistakes and does not become depressed at the sight of someone’s inappropriate behavior; he simply states that it is not rational to rely on a given person in a given situation.

How responsibility manifests itself in everyday life

Parenthood. Parents are always responsible for their children.
Labor activity. The head of the company always assumes responsibility for the activities of his subordinates; The more responsible person he is, the more efficient and friendly team he can create.
Conflict situations. When conflict situations arise, a responsible person is able to independently (responsibly) make a decision for all participants in the situation and, thereby, put the situation under control.
Military service. The commander of a military unit is always responsible for the life and actions of his subordinates.
Execution of obligations. A responsible person tries to complete any task on time and in the best possible way.

How to develop responsibility

Self-control and self-improvement. Attentive attitude towards oneself, one’s words, promises and actions help a person become more responsible. The main thing is not to retreat, seeing that not everything works out right away, since working on yourself is a long-term process.
Written instructions to yourself. One of the options that psychologically helps you bear responsibility for your promises and always fulfill them is to write down on a piece of paper the task that a person sets for himself and the deadline for its completion.
Organizational work. Working with people, organizing their coordinated actions is a great help in developing one’s own responsibility.
Relationships with children. When communicating with his children, a person finds himself in a situation where he cannot help but bear responsibility for them. In the absence of choice, a person mobilizes and becomes more responsible in the future.

Aphorisms about responsibility

“Freedom means responsibility. That's why people are so afraid of her." Bernard Show

No matter what happens in the world, no one can be sure that he will not one day be held accountable for it. (V. Shwebel)

Take responsibility for your life and start solving the problems facing you. They are there to help you grow, not to tear you down. Steve Pavlina

The life of one who has relieved himself of responsibility becomes simpler, the mind is dulled, and the feelings are liberated. And the result is a new relationship with new responsibility.

Every person is responsible to all people for all people and for everything. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
The leaf also trembles. What can he be held accountable for? (S. Lec)

If you can't keep your promise, then don't make it. Pierre Buast

The battle was won not by the one who gave good advice, but by the one who took responsibility for its implementation and ordered it to be carried out. Napoleon Bonaparte

The surest way to keep your word is not to give it. Napoleon Bonaparte

Usually the one who is not even responsible for himself is immediately responsible for everything. (Leonid S. Sukhorukov)

Call a fool to account, and then you will answer for everything yourself. (Leonid S. Sukhorukov)

Every generation has a responsibility, every generation is challenged to empower the generation that comes next. Alan Khazei

Irresponsibility kills love

God, unlike any person, knows how to solve His own and other people’s problems himself... That’s why, perhaps, people invented so many gods for themselves so that they would solve everything for them.. Vladimir Borisov

In pinky cases, the defendant is the head. Ravil Aleev

Greatness requires great responsibility. Silovan Ramishvili

Above the irresponsible is the one who is responsible for himself, and even higher is the one who is responsible for others. So the stupid, irresponsible people imagine themselves to be responsible for others. Elena Ermolova

It is not difficult to be cheerful while in the service of vice. Joseph Addison

Exupery complex: we are responsible for those who were not sent on time.

It's easy not to be afraid of responsibility when you don't feel it.

Personality is created by responsibility. Evgeniy Bagashov

People know how to shift their responsibility (when it is not necessary) to anyone, even to God. Say: God is to blame! Vladimir Borisov

The pronoun “we” is usually pronounced when one wants to get rid of personal responsibility.

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. But knowledge often liberates. S. Lec:

Real responsibility can only be personal. The man blushes alone. Fazil Iskander

It doesn’t matter “who is responsible”, what matters is “how”. Boris Shapiro

Responsibility is like clothing - you can completely take it off, but somehow it’s not comfortable in front of people.

Responsibility loves convenience, it willingly rests on the shoulders of the untouchables. (S. Lec)

The dropped burden of responsibility never falls to the ground, it gently falls on the shoulders of others.

The strong take responsibility, the weak blame others. So power naturally goes to the worthy. Elena Ermolova

Too few people own too much, and too many people own too little. We live in a sick world. We must learn responsibility. Mary Jo Copeland

The needle of a damaged compass does not tremble. She is free from responsibility. Stanislav Jerzy Lec

Man must rediscover in his soul the deepest meaning of responsibility to the world, which means responsibility to something higher than man himself. Vaclav Havel

Whoever sharply expresses his opinions about the actions of others obliges himself to act better than others.
V. G. Belinsky

It is impossible to take a single step on this earth without coming into contact with responsibility and duty that must be fulfilled. (T. Carlyle)

When writing this article, materials were used from the site: Character.net

Before the appearance of Iissiidiology in our realities, I did not understand the full depth of the meaning of the word “responsibility”. I wrote this essay using my understanding that came to me in the process of studying books on Iissiidiology in order to understand the meaning of this quality myself and, perhaps, help others with this. So that each of us who is ready and strives for new knowledge of ourselves and our connection with the world around us, by steadily increasing the degree of individual responsibility, can change our lives, and in the future, I hope, the life of humanity as a whole.

The concept of responsibility in various dictionaries

In sociology, psychology and philosophy, the concept and definition of responsibility differs significantly from the issiidiological one. Basically, in books on these disciplines, responsibility is described as a response to an assigned duty, as the need to give an account to someone, as “a strong-willed personal quality manifested in the exercise of control over human activities”. Although in modern esoteric literature, in articles on sociology, a very close to iissiidiological definition of this quality is given, I have never seen a deep explanation, as well as mechanisms and methods for developing and increasing the degree of responsibility.

I will give examples of the definition of the word “responsibility” in various dictionaries, and under each I will express my opinion:

“Responsibility is a personal characteristic of a person that describes his ability to thoroughly analyze a situation, predict in advance the consequences (the whole range of consequences) of his actions or inactions in a given situation, and make a choice of the form of his actions with a willingness to accept the consequences of the choice as inevitable accomplished facts.” Free encyclopedia

This definition is the closest to the issiidiological one. Currently, a powerful information flow helps us expand our understanding of ourselves, the consequences of our reactions and actions; many have learned to analyze and track the results of all their thoughts, words and actions, which helps them become more responsible. I would say that the next stage in increasing the degree of responsibility will be the ability not to analyze, but to recognize and intuitively understand the situation.

“Responsibility is a necessity, an obligation to give someone an account of one’s actions.” Ozhegov's dictionary

I think that in the near future, responsibility will be more of a potentially realized need, and then there will be no need to report to anyone, the best controller will be the responsible person himself.

“Responsibility is an ethical and legal category that records the dependence of an individual on the social environment, society, state and denotes the degree of compliance of individual behavior with existing normative patterns” philosophical dictionary.

And in order not to be dependent on social and public opinion, we need knowledge that will help us understand our true essence, tasks and opportunities.

“Responsibility is a consequence of violation of duty” sociological dictionary.

The word “responsibility” was introduced into scientific use by A. Behn in the book ‘Emotions and Will’ (1865). Liability was considered together with the issue of punishability, because any question that arose when discussing this term was a question of accusation, condemnation, punishment. In modern society there are several types of responsibility: legal, criminal, administrative, disciplinary, civil, material. Unfortunately, people still need such coercive measures. But in the process of human development, along with the changes occurring in the collective consciousness, many postulates, terms and ideas change. Now the willingness, for now of a small percentage of people, to accept responsibility as the status of all cause-and-effect patterns of life is a step into the next stage of development of our society, where the quality of responsibility will contribute to foreseeing the results of our actions.

How I came to understand responsibility

While writing this essay, I thought about my life, and sad as it is to admit it, I lived most of it irresponsibly. At that time, due to the lack of better information, I did not understand that I was creating my own realities with all the problems, troubles or joyful situations. Even after I started reading various esoteric literature, where it was written that only we are responsible for our lives, I, taking this on faith, could not understand why this was so.

I thought that living without violating social laws, observing work hours, and caring for children and parents means being responsible. It’s just that then I replaced the concept of responsibility with other characteristics, such as duty, diligence, duty. But these are different states. An executive employee can do his job well only because of the fear of losing his place, and not from a sense of responsibility. Responsibility is a deeper concept; it includes qualities such as rationality, intelligence, awareness, attentiveness, forethought, conscientiousness, patience and many others.

Sometimes, wanting to help our loved ones, we take responsibility for all their problems and responsibilities and thereby complicate the processes of their spiritual growth, prevent us from making choices ourselves, and deprive us of the opportunity to go through difficult situations and gain individual Experience. By making their lives easier, as it seems to us, we help them remain in selfishness with all the ensuing illnesses, depression, and unfavorable life situations. We must not forget that when we decide to help someone, we take responsibility for it, that is, we are responsible for the consequences not only of our life, but also of the other person whom we decided to help. But there is no need to go to extremes, mercy and mutual assistance are wonderful traits of true people. We just need to clearly understand where a person needs our help, and where he himself must get out of dead-end situations.

In my understanding, responsibility is when a person realizes that everything that happens in his life, in his conditions, events at work and in his personal life, is a consequence of his actions, his ability to perceive and intelligently relate to the world around him. Our present moment is always the result of our own decisions, to which our thoughts, words and actions led. It’s one thing when we understand that we ourselves are the cause of this result. It’s another matter when we blame our parents, our genes, our upbringing, or anyone but ourselves - this is an irresponsible life position, for which we pay with illnesses, losses, “black” streaks and suffering. If we stop blaming the world around us, friends and relatives for our failures, and take full responsibility upon ourselves, then over time we will be able to change our lives in a more prosperous direction.

Why are we responsible for our lives?

Let's try to figure out why it is we who are responsible for our life, for its quality, for all successes and failures, and not someone else. I will present my point of view, based on the knowledge I received while studying books on Iissiidiology. Let me start with the fact that everything we can think about in our wildest dreams and imagine in our wildest fantasies already exists in the Universe. The Universe is structured according to the principle of many worlds, (1, paragraph 10.10258) that is, it is structured by countless different worlds. And we only, depending on our desires and interests, every second “choose” for ourselves those worlds where our Focus of attention (our interest) is directed at the moment. Each of the huge number of simultaneously existing worlds has its own qualitative characteristics that are different from others. We are “attracted” only to those of them whose parameters completely coincide with the parameters of our aspirations and desires. (1, paragraph 11.12545) By changing thoughts, emotions, feelings, actions - we change our configuration, and immediately - instantly - we find ourselves in another world, which corresponds to our new internal state.

Our goals, words, thoughts, actions are like magnets that vibrationally attract us into the appropriate scenarios. In one scenario, failure and deep depression await us, in another, this failure will be minimal, and we will not fall into depression, and there are also those where we will successfully bypass all the “sharp corners” and develop in intellectual and altruistic creativity.(1 , paragraph 12.13276) Consequently, what goals we set for ourselves and what qualities (destructive or positive) we operate in our lives, we actually end up in such worlds.

Every second, shifting from one reality to another, we do not notice these shifts at all, since the average range of quantum-holographic shifts of the focus of self-consciousness across various groups of worlds is within 250-400 shifts per conventional unit of time (second). (2, paragraph 1.0406) Due to the limitations of our perception in this implementation form, we cannot track the change of our realities (just as we are not able to see the change of even 24 frames flashing on TV), we cannot observe others ( parallel) development scenarios, and it seems to us that we live in the same world. All events that happen to us are a reflection of the qualitative state of our configuration of self-awareness. All implementation scenarios in which we are manifested as a “personality” exist only in our self-consciousness and nowhere else. So it turns out that only we are responsible for everything that happens to us and around us, since we created it ourselves. Others, even if they are very close and dear to us, have completely different subjective realities and different life situations, unlike ours.

Let me give you an example of how our desires and goals can help us achieve what we are focused on. I recently read a very instructive story on the Internet. It told about one guy whom journalists interviewed. He was in prison for the murders he committed. The man said that he lived in an unfavorable family, that his father often beat his mother, and in order to feed the family, his father stole. He ended his story with the words: “How could I become different in such an environment?” During the conversation, journalists learned that he has a twin brother. When they found him, they were very surprised, since he was the complete opposite of his brother. He worked as a lawyer, had a good reputation, was elected to the municipality and to the church council. When reporters asked him how he achieved such success, he told the same story about his childhood as his brother, but ended with completely different words: “After seeing for many years what such a life leads to, I could not become different." The same genes, the same parents, the same upbringing and the same environment, but completely opposite life (different development scenarios). This leads to the conclusion that how we perceive the situation, how we react to it, what goals we set and what motivations we use - this is the life we ​​get!

Our destructive qualities are the main obstacle in our development

We often blame the government for our financial difficulties. I am sure that it is not the government’s fault that we are forced to receive pittance pensions and salaries, that it is not the boss’s fault for our difficulties at work, not anyone or anything at all. But only each of us, using in our creativity such negative qualities as anger, aggression, envy, jealousy, resentment, greed, indifference, frivolity, irritability, criticism, inattention, unawareness, painful ambition, narcissism, condemnation, hypocrisy, duplicity, mistrust and many others. By giving preference to them in our daily life, we consistently shift according to the principle of resonance (similarity) in reality with all our troubles and problems. It is important to discern and recognize all our selfish qualities in ourselves, since they are the main reason we are in any uncomfortable situation. And having realized what set of negative emotions and qualities we operate in our lives, we should try to replace them with more positive ones - love, altruism, intelligence, responsibility, mercy, tolerance, empathy, kindness, mutual assistance, compassion and many others. Although this will take some time, with strong desire, aspiration and perseverance we will definitely achieve more harmonious and prosperous worlds.

As a result of our ignorance (ignorance), we often manipulate other people to achieve our goals, without thinking about the desires and interests of these people. And as a result of these selfish actions, we live in worlds where others also manipulate us to achieve their personal goals. Our low degree of responsibility contributes to the fact that we are now manifested in near-human worlds and cannot consider ourselves human (at the moment, we are not human in essence, but only in the form of manifestation), since we live in those realities where murder flourishes , hatred, theft, envy, betrayal, violence and other qualities that cannot be called human. Although there are realities where everyone lives in harmony and abundance, in love and joy, where there are no such concepts as “war”, “hunger”, “disease”, where we have completely different abilities and capabilities.

If our goal is to live in more prosperous, harmonious realities, then it makes sense to take personal responsibility for our lives and clearly realize that only our aspirations, conscious choice of our goal, a great desire to qualitatively improve our inner world and constant work with destructive states can shift us into the beautiful worlds of our future, which simultaneously exist with the worlds in which we are now.

Reliable Knowledge helps change our lives

The higher the levels of self-awareness we realize in our every-second life creativity, the better scenarios in terms of quality and life expectancy we are able to refocus (shift). But without deep knowledge of ourselves as an integral part of All That Is, without understanding the structure of the Universe, its laws, principles and mechanisms, it is impossible to activate higher levels of our self-awareness. Many people intuitively seek high-frequency, reliable information because their configurations of self-awareness are ready to begin to perceive new concepts and ideas about the world and their role in it. It is for them that such cosmological Knowledge as Iissiidiology was brought into our reality, the study of which helps to quickly achieve the desired changes in our lives. Based on the operating principles of the Universal Laws and mechanisms, we learn to consciously accept responsibility for everything that happens in our lives.

In Iissiidiology, responsibility is considered multifaceted: at this stage of our development, it is responsibility for the quality of one’s own life, for conscious development in a human direction. With the activation of higher levels of our self-awareness, the degree of responsibility will increase to a state when we are ready “... for any acts of self-sacrifice for the speedy achievement of the common good for all people, for the sake of selfless Service to the highest humanitarian Idea...”. (3, paragraph 3.0358) This state in Iissiidiology is called immune responsibility. The word immune is a state free from signs of violence and coercion. In order to quickly achieve such a high level of development of our Self-Awareness, where immune responsibility will become a natural need of every person, we must learn to approach the solution of any issue with a high degree of personal responsibility for their consequences, always remembering the important principle - “DO NO HARM!”

Through my own experience, I have come to the firm conviction that only we created these realities and only we can change them. My parents were very dependent on public opinion, I think, like most people of the generation of the 60s, and tried to raise me to be the same as everyone else. But this caused me to protest, which did not lead to anything good except swearing and arguing. And I, in order not to provoke these scandalous family situations, began to deceive them. It would seem in small things, if they didn’t like my friend, with whom I was friends, then I said that I was not dating her, although this was a deception; unnoticed lying has become a habit... But I began to notice that on my way I began to meet people who constantly deceived me! Luckily for me, I came across a corresponding book, where the author explained that life is a boomerang, and we receive everything that we send to others. For me, this was enough to reconsider my attitude towards others, and from that moment I began to track and work with lies; not immediately, but gradually and persistently, I eliminated deception from my life.

When a person begins to increase the degree of his responsibility, he is able to completely change his destiny. By approaching the issue of changing our lives with all responsibility, sacrificing our habits, we not only create better living conditions for ourselves, but also qualitatively improve the situation of the people around us. Having complete Knowledge about the world order, about the mechanisms and methods of refocusing (shifting) to other scenarios, you can, by activating your will and desire, purposefully get into those scenarios where a former drunkard leads a sober, healthy lifestyle, and a former thief has become a law-abiding member of society. There are many different examples of people completely changing their habits and lifestyle. Of course, this is not at all easy, but it is possible, and Iissiidiology describes the mechanism of how this is done. Thanks to this, a person gains incredible strength of confidence in his spiritual powers, activates new creative abilities and consciously models his further evolutionary path of development.

Conclusion

From childhood, we are taught to depend on the social environment, to conform to accepted social norms - to be the same as everyone else. Fear that we may not fit into the social “framework” forces us to look for reasons in external circumstances and shift responsibility to others. For example, we were late for work - it was not our fault, but there was an unexpected traffic jam; we had an accident - it was not our fault, there was severe ice; we had a fight with a friend - so it’s not our fault..... And while we are primarily inclined to blame circumstances for our failures, we do not strive to improve ourselves. It is important to learn to take responsibility for our actions upon ourselves, instead of shifting it to others, then we will strive to foresee the entire sequential chain of upcoming events and their consequences, and this will lead to conscious “steps” in our life choices, and as a result we we will be able to avoid various “unforeseen” circumstances. In the process of studying Iissiidiology, I realized that his living conditions depend on the quality of a person’s decisions and the degree of his responsibility.

Responsibility is one of the main qualities of human development. By constantly increasing the level of its quality, cultivating in ourselves highly intellectual altruism and highly sensitive intelligence, we will quickly bring closer to ourselves the Worlds of true people, in which destructive qualities (fear, hatred, anger, jealousy, greed, envy, aggression, vindictiveness and many others) cannot manifest through our human Self-Awareness. Fortunately, the information presented in Iissiidiology is already available in the realities of our manifestation; by mastering it, and most importantly, by applying it in our every second choices, we change our lives and the lives of our loved ones, consciously choosing our future Worlds in accordance with our goals and objectives. And let our goals be highly spiritual, and let our main task be our evolutionary development in the human Worlds!

A frequent case from the practice of recruiters: the “Personal Qualities” column in the resumes of various applicants looks as if it was written as a carbon copy. Candidates present the same set of characteristics: responsible, communicable, stress-resistant. But not all qualities are required equally by representatives of different professions. Except, perhaps, for one thing...

An indispensable condition e

According to a study conducted by the St. Petersburg office of HeadHunter, responsibility is the most common personal quality indicated by applicants in their resumes and by employers in vacancies. Based on the research data, namely the frequency with which certain qualities are found in resumes, as well as the uniformity of their combinations, experts from the St. Petersburg representative office of HeadHunter are inclined to think that the “Personal Qualities” column in candidates’ resumes does not reflect the real requirements of employers and the inherent qualities of applicants, but rather, it represents a certain template that job applicants are accustomed to following.

Habitual requirement

It is difficult to argue with the statement that responsible people are needed everywhere, and irresponsible people are not welcome anywhere. In any profession and occupation, no matter how minor the duties performed by the employee, concentration on these responsibilities and a serious approach are important. Because otherwise, any, even the most insignificant, but poorly done task can become the beginning of a big problem. And although this unconditional, as an axiom, conclusion is obvious to any sane person, the result of the stereotype’s work is template lines in resumes and job requirements. Judge for yourself: in almost every first piece of advice given by experts in our project “ Career consultant” regarding personal qualities, the word “responsibility” appeared in the resume. This quality was advised to include in the CV of lawyers, accountants, sales managers, pharmacists and other specialists.

And only a few comments from HR managers, who believed that some qualities should be present a priori, but were simply unnecessary in a resume, did not sound in tune with the general mood. " Personal qualities must correspond to the position for which the specialist is applying. For example, “responsible, executive, punctual” - this will be an excellent characteristic for a secretary and office manager, but for a department head these are insignificant characteristics that do not meet his level", - believes Nadezhda Lyakhovskaya, head of public relations department AVANTA Personnel(included in Adecco Group Russia).

And in fact, would you put on your resume “I can read and write in my native language”?

Mandatory quality

And, nevertheless, candidates wrote, write and will write in their resumes about their responsibility. How could it be otherwise, because the recruiters themselves give them direct instructions! So it turns out that a stereotype leads to a template, which is what the experts from the St. Petersburg representative office of HeadHunter said. And the result of all this is the fact that HR managers have long stopped responding to the “Personal Qualities” item, preferring clear examples. " If you indicate certain of your qualities, skills, competencies, then it is important not only that they correspond to the skills and competencies that the position implies, but also an objective assessment, - career consultant picks up Nadezhda Lyakhovskaya’s thought Zilfugar Hasanov. - A specialist in the field of personnel selection has certain tools that allow you to identify and evaluate certain skills and competencies (for example, you need to be ready to give clear, specific examples from your professional experience)". Therefore, the best thing a candidate can do is not just write the word “responsibility” on his resume, but be able to demonstrate this quality (first in an interview, and then in work)!

See it once...

How can you show yourself as a responsible person? No secrets.

• Firstly, you will be characterized by arriving at your appointment on time (being late is a mistake many candidates make). If you are delayed, you should definitely call the company and, apologizing, ask to reschedule the interview for a later time or another day. The work schedule of HR specialists is usually quite busy, and they do not have the opportunity to adapt to each candidate by varying the meeting time. The interview usually has a strictly defined time allotted, so if you are delayed by more than 15 minutes, it is better to reschedule the meeting for another day. A responsible candidate should understand this and show respect to his counterpart.

• Secondly, you will be helped by examples from your work history when it was this quality of yours that became decisive in the process of solving a particular problem. For example, a heightened sense of responsibility led you to sit late into the night to help a colleague complete a task on time. But when talking about this fact, you need to maintain a balance between outright self-promotion and a simple example from your work history. You can tell the employer that you tend to worry about the common cause and the result of teamwork, which is why you stayed in the evening to put everything in order. Then you will look not like a person trying to curry favor with your superiors or give yourself points for overwork, but as an employee who approaches the work process with all seriousness.

• Thirdly, responsibility can be demonstrated in solving cases proposed by the recruitment manager. Let’s say a candidate is given the following problem to solve: you made a promise to management to go to work on a day off, but your wife insists that you stay at home with your small child. Question: what will you do? As you know, there are no right and wrong decisions in the case method, but based on your answer, the recruiting manager will be able to draw conclusions about your degree of responsibility. As an option, you can try to negotiate with your boss to work from home, or hire a nanny for your child for the day. Whatever answer you give, you understand that the employer wants to hear from you that you will still fulfill your promise to management.

• Fourthly, compliance with the agreed deadlines will be in your favor. Let's say that a recruiter asked you for references and you promised to provide them within a day. Be sure to do this and don’t put it off until the next/next and all other days. The same applies to the timing of the test assignment: put aside all your other work (and perhaps other interviews), but do it within the time frame allotted for it. This is a very important point. Imagine that the recruiter liked you so much that he has already recommended you to the line manager, promising to submit your resume along with the completed test task on time. You'll let down the recruiter if you don't take the test on time, and you'll ruin your relationship with your manager without even meeting him. The attitude “a test is not a job” is unacceptable. What HR manager would want to skip past an applicant who is unable to complete even his first assignment on time?

• Fifthly, if you as an individual are inherently responsible, this can manifest itself in any interaction with a HR specialist - at the stage before, during and after the interview. For example, an employee of the recruitment department invites you to come for an interview, emphasizing that you are very welcome in the company today. At the same time, he promises to send directions within an hour. But you don't get the diagrams. Obviously, you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to receive a call from the HR manager half an hour before the meeting." Oh, I forgot to send the diagram, but the manager is waiting for you today» - « But you didn’t send me the address?!" It’s better to take care of the meeting yourself in advance: call the HR department back and remind yourself. After all, you have already promised to come, which means you are also responsible for ensuring that the meeting takes place. In the end, it may not be the HR manager's fault that you didn't receive the diagram: the mail service was just having problems that day.

Being responsible is...

In conclusion, I would like to give an interesting example designed to highlight what kind of behavior is not expected from responsible applicants. About it " a rare example of truly effective management", designed to instill such a quality as responsibility, our reader said Nikolay Pavlov in your business journal in the project HeadHunter Live. We are talking about an innovative solution, implemented by order by the leadership of one of the Russian military units. The following expressions were prohibited in the unit:

• The first time I've heard.
• I called, but didn't get through.
• I came in, but you weren't there.
• I searched but couldn't find it.
• And I thought...
• This was before my time.
• And I reported.
• The team probably didn't make it through.
• And no one told me
• Why me?
• I didn't hear it.
• Don't know.
• They didn't transmit it.
• I wanted the best.
• I wanted to, but it didn't work out.
• I wanted to report, but you were not there.
• I told him, but he didn't do it.
• I wasn’t there at the time, I think I was sick (I was on vacation)

And although this example is partly anecdotal in nature, it would be a good idea for candidates who want to be truly responsible people to take this list into service. That is, stop shifting responsibility for the decision made onto the shoulders of others, look for an excuse for yourself, and do not strive to replace the concepts of “process” and “result”. All this will be assessed not only by recruiters during an interview, but also by your colleagues and management during the work process.

Accountability is a tool that allows managers to achieve results. As a manager, you take responsibility for the level of commitment of employees to the interests of the company and for the achievement of their goals. At the beginning of each year, quarter, month or even week, you commit to moving towards your goals, and you are accountable for it.

A good manager does everything possible (within acceptable limits) to demonstrate his commitment to the common cause.

If you are not achieving results, it means you have not fulfilled your commitment to your organization. In situations like these, good managers blame no one but themselves. Nevertheless, over the years of work, I have repeatedly been convinced that managers who chronically do not achieve the desired results are not inclined to blame themselves for their failures. It’s so easy to say that someone (or something) did not allow you to show a high level!

Good managers take responsibility for their subordinates' lack of commitment and do everything possible to correct the situation as quickly as possible. When a manager cannot be held accountable, the level of commitment suffers.

Decisions are not made, responsibilities are not met, and - worst of all - the company does not achieve its results.

Why is responsibility so important? To put it simply, there is little that can be done until someone takes responsibility. I know this sounds a little cliché, but it is the presence of responsibility that determines the outcome. The best managers I've ever worked with not only took responsibility themselves, but also understood how to delegate it to the people who worked for them. And remember: taking responsibility for the result does not mean that you have to do everything yourself.

Take it - do it

Before we move on to examples of responsible behavior, I would like to say a few words about a concept I call “Get It, Do It.” You may recall that in Chapter 1 we said that one of the main things that causes problems for managers is that they try to deal with consequences rather than causes. This is often because the source of the problem lies outside their area of ​​direct control. What should responsible managers do when something out of reach interferes with achieving results? Here's a real life example.

A woman manager of one customer service department, in the process of assessing the results of the previous day, discovered that quite a lot of callers hung up on their phones without waiting to be connected to a company representative.

If she were not a responsible manager, she would have left things to chance. In the end, if her subordinates received fewer calls, it meant that it was easier for each of them and he could devote much more time to communicating with the client and trying to sell him additional services. However, instead of taking the path of least resistance, the manager decided to understand the reasons for what was happening. First, she called the toll-free customer support number and tried to understand why people were hanging up.

She discovered that standard instructions (for example, “Press “1” if you want to order a new service, “2” if you are planning to move ...) someone had replaced them with others that were longer. It was clear that customers weren't willing to listen to all their options and were getting irritated and not waiting to talk to a company representative. In an attempt to rectify the situation, this employee called one of the customer service managers. He told her that the IT department insisted on changes in the text of the message to clients. She called her colleague from the IT department, and he said that people from the third division were responsible for this decision. I think you get the essence of the problem: our heroine began to walk in circles.

Ultimately, after hours of finger-pointing, she arranged a conference call with all parties involved. She clearly explained the cause of the problem and how it was affecting clients. In addition, she insisted on resolving this issue as quickly as possible. By the next morning, the previous version of the message to clients was back in place. In other words, this employee “forced” the problem to be solved.

All the other managers in the situation described understood that, although the responsibility for correcting the situation did not lie with their colleague, the problem had a significant impact on customers and on the work of the call center. The question concerned this woman’s area of ​​responsibility, so she took the blow on herself and did everything to solve the problem.

Irresponsible managers would most likely choose to ignore the difficulties that arise. When something goes wrong and it has to do with the work of these types of people, their first reaction will be to distance themselves from the problem and find someone to blame. However, such behavior will in no way help improve the situation.

Responsible and irresponsible managers

Responsible managers always find themselves head and shoulders above their colleagues who prefer to shirk their responsibilities. And here's an example.

Shortly after being hired as President and CEO of Verizon Communications, I decided to visit several of the company's offices across the country (typically, employees in regional offices handle incoming calls from customers, including complaints about billing errors, requests for new services, changes as part of available services and other issues related to our products or services). I wanted to see what people were doing in offices and understand how to improve results.

After several visits, I have the impression that we can do quite a lot to improve productivity. It really bothered me that most of the offices were dark and unsightly. The rooms were dimly lit, the walls needed painting, and folders of old papers not only filled the cabinets, but were stacked on the floor. Overall, most of the offices looked rather unpleasant. The people who worked in them seemed to be in a lethargic sleep - it was impossible to notice in them a single glimmer of the energy that usually fills the workspace of any large organization. When I discussed what I saw with several managers and executives, many of them said that the lights in the office were dimmed so as not to strain the employees' eyes. They also complained about the lack of funds for painting walls, cleaning and putting the premises in order. It was quite obvious that all these things were not on the priority list.

Then I went to the office in Garden City, located on Long Island. As soon as I opened the door, I immediately felt positive energy. There were bright lights in the rooms, the walls were freshly painted, and the entire office was positively sparkling with activity. I immediately found the manager with my eyes - she waved her hand at me invitingly, without being distracted from her telephone conversation with the client. After completing the conversation, she asked me in a friendly tone if I would like to see the results of the office’s work over the past month. The performance in terms of productivity and sales volumes seemed excellent to me. Afterwards, I asked her how she managed to make the office so bright and clean and how her employees got so much energy.

She replied that she was simply not used to working in dark rooms. To this I said that, according to some of her colleagues, the rooms should be dark so that the light does not tire the employees. She said she had also heard this hypothesis, but found it unconvincing. She did her own research and found that bright lights in the workplace had no effect on fatigue. The staff supported her decision to keep the office bright. I decided to talk about painting the walls in the office and asked where this woman was able to find funds, while all her colleagues were complaining about the lack of money. She replied that if you really want something, you will always find a way to do it.

So, I managed to find a manager who is one hundred percent responsible! How did I understand this?

1. She treated her office like a boss.
2. She took responsibility.
3. She made the decisions.
4. She acted out of a sense of urgency.
5. She took several additional steps to solve the problems she encountered.
6. She made her commitment clear.
7. She achieved excellent results.
8. And finally, she didn't complain about the problems.

Without a doubt, she served as a model of responsibility for her subordinates, and it was her example that allowed the entire team to achieve excellent results.

A real-life example of an irresponsible manager

Now that we've seen what a responsible manager looks like, let's look at an example of a manager - also from my experience - who lacks responsibility.

After studying the work of the department involved in the installation and ongoing maintenance of equipment, I decided to visit one of the worst offices to try to determine the reasons for its significant lag behind the others. It happened to be very close to where I worked, so I got in the car and decided to pay an unannounced visit (I've found that this is one of the best ways to understand what's really going on).

The facility was located in a residential area and consisted of a garage-type building and an open-air warehouse surrounded by barbed wire. Even without getting close, you could tell that he looked like a real eyesore. The grass on the lawn hasn't been cut in a while, and there's debris stuck in the chain-link fence. Walking into the warehouse, I saw several broken down rusting trucks, empty cable reels, overflowing trash cans, and a lot of cigarette butts and other trash on the ground. Two employees stood nearby, apparently idle. Approaching them, I introduced myself, and then asked the name of their leader and where he could be found. One of them told me that the manager was apparently sitting in his office and waved his hand in the direction I needed. Before saying goodbye to them, I asked what their task for the day was. They became thoughtful, and I realized that they had no tasks. I was not surprised to see about the same thing inside the building as on the street. Cigarette butts, chocolate wrappers and plastic coffee cups were scattered everywhere on the floor. Several lockers where employees usually keep personal items were littered with trash. I found the manager in his office reading a newspaper. I introduced myself and asked: “Are you the one in charge of the facility?” He joked, saying that yes, but only partly, and then according to the mood. By this point, it was already completely clear to me why this office was among the laggards.

No one was responsible for what was happening. However, I asked the site manager a few simple questions as to why his results were so far from normal. He complained that he lacked support from other departments, that several of his trucks had broken down, that he had difficulty controlling the behavior of some of his subordinates, and that he was generally planning to retire soon. I suggested that he return to reading the newspaper and assured him that now I would take care of solving his problems myself. As I was leaving, I noticed that a jacket and tie were hanging on the inside of the door. In response to my question, the owner of the office said that he was keeping them in case some “big shot” arrived.

On the way to my office, I called the group's executive director, informed him of what I had learned, and asked him to present me with a plan by the end of the day to restore order to the site or close it completely.

The facility was liquidated after two weeks, its manager retired, and people and equipment were distributed to several other sites in different parts of the state.

Let's try to figure out what conclusions I made after this visit. Why did I think that the site manager lacked responsibility?

1. He blamed others.
2. He found external reasons to explain his poor results.
3. He complained.
4. He didn't want to solve problems.
5. He let the situation take its course.

When a company becomes infected with this type of behavior, it becomes almost impossible to organize normal activities in it. Instead of productive work, you see a widespread lack of motivation and pride in your work, dissatisfaction and mediocre results.

It is worth noting that this situation showed all company managers how important it is to get out of their offices and go “to the fields.” And every vice president started doing this!

If there is one key point for the long-term success of an organization, it is related to the responsible behavior of managers and employees. The company’s income, the quality of its work, the level of service, and readiness for continuous improvements depend on this behavior.

Self-assessment of the degree of responsibility

Answer the self-assessment questions below and complete the responsibility profile. Although this assessment is used primarily to determine the personality type of novice managers, it can also be used by experienced managers who want to better understand the degree of development of certain skills.

Self-test questions

For the situations described below, give 1 to 5 points to each of the two alternatives (labeled “a” and “b”). Ratings should reflect your actual behavior - do not try to guess the correct answer or think for a long time.

Value of ratings: 5 - to a very large extent; 4 - to a significant extent; 3 - partly; 2 - to a small extent; 1 - insignificant. 1-a._I tend to rise above circumstances.

1-b._I am inclined to obey circumstances.
2-a._I quite often have to apologize for my lack of commitment to a common cause.
2-b._I often demonstrate commitment to the interests of colleagues in the organization.
3-a._I tend to put off solving problems and issues that come to my attention.
3-b._I am inclined to immediately solve problems and issues that come into my field of vision.
4-a._I tend to avoid situations and people that create discomfort for me.
4-b._I tend to take the initiative in unpleasant situations or when communicating with people who make me uncomfortable.
5-a._I do not maintain emotional stability in stressful situations.
5-b._I am able to manage my emotions, which allows me to react better in difficult situations.
6-a._I prefer to take a certain number of extra steps in solving work issues.
6-b._I often encounter problems due to the fact that I have not taken some additional steps in resolving work issues.
7-a._I am inclined to openly admit mistakes, accept responsibility and take accusations calmly.
7-b._I tend to look for excuses and rationalize my mistakes.
8-a._I prefer not to deal with issues related to the company’s activities that I am not able to control myself.
8-b._I am able to take the initiative in matters related to the work of the company that I can influence.
9-a._I lack consistency in working on assignments and projects.
9-b._I maintain constant control over myself while working on assignments and projects.
10-a._I tend to let events take their course and therefore often put off working on a project until later.
10-b._I tend to jump right into action and take on project-related tasks.

Responsibility Orientation Indicator

To calculate the Responsibility Orientation Score, do the following with your Responsibility Profile total scores.

High Responsibility Indicator - Low Responsibility Indicator = Responsibility Orientation

Place your Responsibility Orientation score on the scale below.

What was it equal to? If it is 30 points or higher, then we can assume that you are prone to a high degree of responsibility.

If it turns out to be below 30 points, I recommend that you do the following. Look at the results in the Low Responsibility column. Mark each question for which you scored 2 points or more. Each of these questions reflects to you a direction in which improvement is possible. For example, if you gave yourself a score of 2 or higher on a 6-b question, then it makes sense for you to start paying more attention to additional steps when completing future tasks and projects. The higher the score in the Low Responsibility column, the more attention you should pay to the related area.

Please note that the performance of effective managers is usually concentrated in the area of ​​high responsibility. On the contrary, managers who do not achieve results score more often in the area of ​​low responsibility and related behavior.

Responsibility is not just a matter for managers

Here's another real-life example. It demonstrates that not only managers, but literally everyone in the company can show a high degree of responsibility. Frank noticed this when communicating with an employee of the hotel where he once stayed.

Frank is a consultant, so he spends a lot of time on the road and often stays in hotels. He gets up early and spends the first hour checking email while having breakfast served in his room. One morning he heard a knock and realized that food had been brought to him. Frank opened the door and saw a young girl smiling broadly at him. “Looks like you're having a good day today,” he said. “Yes,” the girl answered, “but that’s not all. I’m smiling because you gave me a difficult task today.” “What did I do?” - Frank asked. “You posted a note outside the door indicating exactly what you wanted for breakfast. However, you did not say what time you were going to wake up.” “And how did you get out of the situation?” - Frank asked again. “I called you several times, but didn’t get through.” Frank thought that he must have been in the shower at the time. The girl continued her story. It turned out that she looked at the data from the previous day and found out what time Frank asked for breakfast the day before. She then checked what time Frank asked to be woken up. Finally, she put the two pieces of information together and figured out what would be the optimal time to serve breakfast.

Let's think about the situation described above again. If the girl called and Frank didn't answer, she'd have a good excuse for not bringing breakfast at all. She could have said, “I called, but no one answered.” Thus, she would avoid criticism and be able to defend herself from any accusations. However, in this case, she would not have ensured the completion of the task, that is, she would not have brought Frank breakfast! Instead, she decided to get results. She demonstrated the highest degree of responsibility through her efforts.

How to Use the Leader's Shadow to Increase Accountability

Now let's talk about how responsible managers influence the people who work for them. I would like to briefly return to a topic touched upon a little earlier. The best leaders I know know how to delegate responsibility to subordinates without abdicating it to themselves. Managers should serve as role models of responsibility, that is, by their own example, they should show others what it means to be responsible.

The best managers I know know how to delegate responsibility to subordinates without abdicating it to themselves.

One of the most effective tools of a manager in such situations is working with the “shadow” that he casts over the entire organization or division. Many years ago I attended a training program developed by Senn-Delaney Leadership Consulting Group. During the class, one of its owners, Larry Senn, told us about a concept of leadership he developed as part of his dissertation called “the shadow of the leader.” I liked the basic idea from the very first minute. I have used it frequently in many meetings and discussions over many years in my career and I can say that it has not aged one bit.

People watch their leader closely. The actions of leaders, the messages they send to subordinates, and their attitude towards work all set the tone and shape the culture of the organization. Whether you like it or not, since you are a manager, consider that you are swimming in an aquarium, and your subordinates are carefully watching you.

Now I will tell you how the “shadow of a leader” affects the degree of responsibility of the organization as a whole. Since this concept is already quite widespread, we will return to it in subsequent chapters, talking about different methods of its application.

The responsible behavior of a manager has a huge impact on the actions of his subordinates. Employees catch the slightest nuances in the manager’s actions and imitate his behavior.

Here is an example of a negative “leader’s shadow”.

At the very beginning of my career, I was offered a new position with a promotion to the HR support department. I had already worked as both a salesperson and a sales manager for five years, and it was quite interesting for me to learn something new, which also opened up prospects for me. I accepted the offer without fully understanding what my job would be, and began to look forward to the moment when I would finally try myself in an unfamiliar role.

Arriving at a new job, on the first day I could not overcome the excitement and happy excitement. Having found my workplace, I immediately went to the manager’s office to spend a couple of minutes with him and clarify what exactly I would need to do and how I should prioritize my work. I introduced myself to the secretary and asked her to carve out a few minutes for me in her boss's schedule at any time that was convenient for him.

She informed me that the manager had not yet shown up for work and would likely be out of the office for most of the day. I asked to make an appointment for the next day, and the secretary promised to convey my request. Two days later I was invited to see the manager. The meeting lasted no more than 10 minutes, but the boss managed to tell me that he did not fully understand what I should be doing, but he encouraged me to do everything in my power every day. He also told me that I should introduce myself to the head of the department, who would most likely have answers to my questions. Needless to say, at that very moment I wondered where I had ended up...

A few days later, filled with unsuccessful attempts to set up a meeting with the head of the department, I accidentally bumped into him in the elevator. I introduced myself and asked if I could make an appointment with him. He replied that he would be happy to meet with me and asked me to discuss a specific time with his assistant. I noticed that I had been trying to do exactly this for several days, and I heard the answer uttered in a dissatisfied tone: they say, what can I do - I’m very busy. About a week later, having not received any specific instructions from my immediate supervisor, I decided to hang around the office of the head of the division more often until he noticed me. My strategy worked. Eventually his assistant rewarded my persistence and allowed me to come into the office for a short meeting. Once in the office, I immediately got down to business.

I told my manager that I had only been in my new position for two weeks, had done almost nothing in the intervening time, and was still trying unsuccessfully to understand what was expected of me. In response, he said (I will never forget his words): “Our job is to find a niche for ourselves and make it perfect.” This person asked me to understand that his department was nothing more than a cost center. After a fairly short time, I realized that other employees did not fully understand what they should do. My colleagues spent almost all their time complaining and gossiping.

Luckily, after about six months I was transferred to another unit. It was quite a sad experience, but I learned an important lesson for the rest of my professional life. I realized that I don’t want to resemble that manager and now I intend to always treat people as politely as possible, provide employees with clear goals and show them the direction of movement.

To summarize, the high-ranking executive I described cast a negative shadow. He was arrogant and overly condescending, and besides, he shut himself off from people. In addition to this, he was unable or unwilling to formulate clear goals for his team. As a result, the company ended up with confused, unmotivated and irresponsible employees - essentially the same as the manager himself.

The power of turning points

I call turning points situations that require special attention from the manager. They occur during assignments or work on projects and are accompanied by severe stress. In addition, negative emotions and fear are often associated with turning points—for example, confusion or fear of failure, external criticism, permanent loss, or loss of face.

Managers quite often themselves do not notice what kind of “shadow” their actions cast - sometimes, especially in difficult situations, they are too worried to see what is happening. However, they broadcast messages about their emotions to others, and they clearly pick up on them. At such times, managers need to think especially seriously about the “shadow” that their actions cast.

Your actions at a turning point give other members of the organization the right to behave in the same way, even in normal day-to-day work!

I constantly told the managers under me: “Your actions at a critical moment give others in the organization the right to behave in the same way, even in normal day-to-day work!”

Empathetic managers always sense when a turning point is coming and begin to do the right things to create a positive “shadow”. If they fail to understand this, they risk setting a bad example for their subordinates and casting a negative “shadow.”

There was a situation in Frank's career where a department manager was unable to meet deadlines for completing work on a major project. It was obvious that she would have a difficult trial. During the discussion, she falsified some data and even changed the dates of sending several emails in an attempt to defend herself. Her subordinates found out about this.

The woman’s behavior at the turning point cast a very negative “shadow” on the team and showed the employees that they were also allowed to hide from trouble in absolutely any way (however, it should be said that as soon as the falsification was revealed, this employee was immediately fired).

Of course, not all problems that lead to poor results require the culprit to be fired. However, it is worth remembering that in any case they cast a negative “shadow” and do not set the best example. Here are just a few situations of this kind:

• the manager “frames” someone else in order to protect himself;
• the manager reacts too emotionally when deadlines cannot be met;
• the manager is prone to sarcasm in cases when someone disagrees with him or expresses a different point of view;
• the manager comes up with artificial excuses to explain late submission of reports;
• a manager takes credit for another employee's achievements in order to look good during a discussion;
• The manager deliberately lies to justify delays in work.

When the “shadow of a leader” resembles one of these examples, employees of the organization notice it almost immediately. After this, it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the manager to regain the lost status. Let me take another example and tell you about a manager who worked hard to create a positive shadow despite extremely stressful conditions and pressure to deliver high results. I am very familiar with the details of that story because the manager in question was myself.

At the time, I served as President and CEO of Verizon Wireless. It was January 2001 and we were planning goals in terms of revenue, profit and number of new clients for the coming year.

It was expected that the year would be difficult for everyone, especially for telecommunications companies. (You may remember that Europe went into recession in 2000, and by mid-2001 it had spread to the United States.) Customers began abandoning telecommunications services in droves. Nevertheless, we were ready to present the annual plan to the board of directors. The meeting was filled with a lot of discussion about how difficult the year would be, what exactly the various divisions of the corporation would have to do, and what Verizon Wireless would have to do to cope with some predictable problems.

As a result, we decided to set ourselves a fairly high bar, despite the difficulties. However, I felt that we were unlikely to be able to carry out all the plans. In addition, after the meeting, one of the directors of the company met with me and began to quite energetically persuade me to the idea of ​​mass layoffs, which would reduce costs and ensure the required level of profitability. What happened genuinely upset me. Up to that point, we were growing quite actively, and I expected that progress would continue in 2001, albeit at a slower pace. We had never dealt with mass layoffs before and were well aware of how demoralizing this could be for our employees. However, I agreed that the plans were too grandiose, and with the idea of ​​layoffs.

Remember when I said I had to work hard at developing a positive “shadow”? I wanted to tell my subordinates that the company was not able to achieve its goals. In the process of discussing the idea of ​​layoffs, I wanted to abdicate responsibility and say that the outrageous initiative did not come from me, but from some crazy department head. However, I realized that if I went down this path, we would have no chance of achieving our goals.

So instead of complaining, I took responsibility. Unattainable horizons became my goals. I included demoralizing layoffs in my plan. My management team adopted this plan and immediately began working on it and thinking through specific steps for its implementation. Managers at various levels throughout the company accepted the challenge and took it seriously. In order to achieve our goals for 2001, we did everything in our power. The layoffs went surprisingly smoothly, and many managers saw them as an opportunity to strengthen their teams and focus on the most important business priorities.

As a result, we were not able to fully achieve our goals, but we were quite close to them. In fact, despite the recession, we were able to deliver even better results than originally anticipated. We felt proud of our achievements and realized that we can be much better than we think. By reducing the number of employees, we ensured the company's consistent growth over several years.

When managers find themselves in situations like mine, they have to make important decisions and difficult choices.

The simplest thing is to try to blame another person or refer to circumstances. However, such behavior will mean that you do not accept responsibility. Moreover, this is a rather short-sighted position. If managers choose to avoid responsibility, they are less likely to get things done. If managers accept responsibility and take control into their own hands, then their likelihood of achieving success is much higher.

How symbolic actions set a positive example for employees

Symbolic action is another manager's tool to send a message to the entire organization about the high degree of responsibility of each employee, while actively using the positive "shadow of the leader."

What is symbolic action from a manager's point of view? It usually has several characteristics.

• This is a decision made by a manager or an action taken by him.
• It has real importance in terms of the future of the organization.
• This action is visible to everyone in the organization.
• It clearly declares certain things or reinforces a key message put forward by the organization - new or old.

Once Frank had the opportunity to advise the new president of a large company. The previous leader and other members of senior management professed a paternalistic approach to management, and communications within the company were carried out according to a “parent-child” model. The new president wanted to abandon this approach and develop a culture of personal responsibility. And this is how he used symbolic actions to send a clear message to employees about his intentions.

The new president, already in the first days of work, discovered that his subordinates really liked to gather in the smoking room during the working day. He also learned that there were posters on the walls of the room with texts that resembled parental admonitions, such as “Keep your feet off the table” and “Throw away wrappers in the trash.” Such statements did nothing to promote personal responsibility!

So the new leader did the following. He walked into the smoking room during one of the busiest times of the day. After that, he introduced himself and chatted a little with the resting employees, and right before leaving, he took the posters off the walls and took them with him.

Within a few minutes, the entire organization was talking about this symbolic action. What did the manager manage to do? In essence, he performed an action that was quite important, noticeable and had a clear implication. Here is another example of symbolic action, this time from my practice.

When Verizon Wireless first offered text messaging service to customers, few people needed it. Even our employees were in no hurry to use it. When this service first appeared on the market, I myself did not fully believe that people would, in principle, want to send text messages to someone through their phones. Such an assumption seemed rather pointless. A few months after the text messaging service officially launched, I began to think that Verizon had spent a lot of money developing a product that would never sell.

As I brainstormed sales promotion ideas, it dawned on me that if our own employees didn't believe in the value of text messaging, they were unlikely to be able to convince customers of its value. So I decided to try to convey to my subordinates the idea that we had a great product. I started sending text messages to each of the vice presidents.

In the first message I sent, I simply asked each VP to acknowledge receipt. No one answered me! Then I called each of them and asked why they didn’t answer me. I also made it clear that I was going to use text messages heavily and expected them to do the same.

Needless to say, after this the vice presidents began to respond surprisingly quickly to my messages. Over the next few months, I texted them at least once a day and encouraged them to do the same for their employees. If I did not receive a response, I would call the recipient or even go to his office and inquire about the reason for his silence.

I've talked about the importance of texting every chance I get. Every time I met with a group of employees, I asked for a show of hands of those who sent an SMS that day. At first, only two or three hands were raised, but after a couple of months, all the participants in the meeting began to raise their hands.

Soon word spread throughout the company about a great new product - text messaging - and customers began signing up for it.

When employees know that an issue is truly important to their manager, they quickly understand what they need to do.

This example not only shows the power of symbolic action, but also demonstrates the positive impact the “shadow of a leader” can have on an entire organization. Obviously, this approach to text messaging caused people to start using it, and therefore become aware of the convenience of the new service. When a manager starts sending SMS, it does not escape the attention of his subordinates. My approach allowed the company's employees to see the importance of the service, which was expected to make a significant contribution to the company's future revenues.

Before I end this chapter, I would like to talk about one more symbolic action that I encountered.

In 1992, shortly after we bought Metro Mobile, I asked Rick Conrad, one of my best and most trusted managers, to move to Phoenix and become president of our southwest division.

It was no surprise to Rick or me that the company's business in the region was not going well. Plans were not being followed, so Rick's goal was first and foremost to get things in order quickly.

At the first meeting, he told me that one of his largest clients, the energy company Salt River Project, had left us for one of our competitors. When I asked why this happened, it turned out that no one really understood. Rick said frankly, “Denny, the client is lost. It shouldn't have happened, but it did."

Without thinking twice, I took a piece of paper and wrote on it in large letters: “RICK CONRAD, SALT RIVER PROJECT, BRING BACK!” I then showed this piece of paper to Rick and stated that I would put it on my desk and remember the task until Rick and his team returned the client.

In all subsequent meetings with Rick, I made sure to remind him that the piece of paper was still on my desk. After about six months I said, “Rick, the lettering is starting to fade.” He replied, “I think about that piece of paper every day.”

And a week later he came to my office and proudly announced that he had managed to return the Salt River Project. After these words, he took the sheet from my table, and I saw that he was unable to hide his smile. Of course, the fact that he was able to take responsibility and successfully complete a task that had become his main priority could not but make him sincerely proud. Remember that employees understand the importance of personal responsibility and have a right to be proud whenever they achieve a positive result by demonstrating their responsibility. That's exactly what Rick Conrad did.

In the next chapter, we'll talk about some proven techniques and tools for building accountability within an organization.

Cultivating a sense of responsibility as a method of achieving results

In the previous chapter, I showed how important a sense of responsibility is to achieving results. Examples from life demonstrated what high responsibility is and what irresponsibility is. You learned how to use leader shadows, turning points, and symbolic actions to support and promote a sense of responsibility. In this chapter, we'll take it a step further and look at various techniques to help you get even more accountability from your people. These methods will allow you to encourage them to behave responsibly and achieve their goals every day.

You may already be familiar with some of the techniques listed here and will choose the ones you find most effective for you. However, the main purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of two points.

1. Keep it as simple as possible. Your first priority as a manager is to achieve results, and making your work processes more complex will only hinder you. Many work procedures turn out to be too labor-intensive. Most activities that use documentation in one way or another can be reduced to half a piece of paper. Make brevity your goal. Your actions should be clear, specific and as simple as possible. The result will begin to grow exponentially if you begin to be guided by the principle “less is more.”
2. Make your work practices just as important to your employees. The significance of each interaction between an employee and a manager depends on how important it is to the manager himself. For example, a manager may decide that an annual assessment of the productivity of a subordinate is an empty formality that should be quickly completed and forgotten, or, on the contrary, a manager may treat it as an important process demonstrating that he is interested in the professional growth of the employee.

Any interaction you have with an employee has the meaning that you yourself attach to it.

Let's take the annual procedure for evaluating the work of a subordinate. This is not just a calculation of his annual figures. It is very important whether the manager demonstrates that evaluating the employee's achievements is important to him and whether he takes it seriously. When managers take this procedure seriously and show through their behavior that they really want to help employees improve their performance, the results can be positive.

On the other hand, if managers do not take this seriously, use generalities, rush to end the conversation, make inaccurate assessments or delay making assessments, the outcome will be negative. Employees will understand that their achievements do not matter to the manager. And no matter how positive the assessment may be, if it is delivered indifferently or carelessly, people will feel that management is really thinking about them. Of course, this will also hurt managers.

To show employees the importance of performance reviews or any other procedure designed to instill a sense of responsibility, follow these rules.

• Show the employee that you are well prepared for the interview.
• Demonstrate that the evaluation of the subordinate's performance was done with the utmost care.
• Show that you are accurate in your assessment.
• Let the employee know that it is very important to you how he works.
• Respond to interview questions in a timely manner.

Keep these five rules in mind as you read this chapter, and think about how to effectively use them to instill a sense of responsibility in your subordinates. And don’t forget: don’t complicate anything!

Eight Methods for Teaching Responsibility

Let's start with two unusual approaches that are suitable for any organization: an unexpected visit and an unscheduled call. These methods are effective because they add an element of surprise to the everyday. By scheduling performance meetings in advance, employees will have enough time to think about how they should behave and what they should say. Presentations will be prepared by the appointed time, then employees will receive assessments, and the next day everything will return to normal. Performance interviews and similar events are usually scheduled in advance. Employees know when the inspection will take place and have the opportunity to prepare. We don't usually think of spontaneous action as a management technique, but I believe that unexpected calls or visits can help you understand how much of the official reports about the state of affairs in the organization correspond to reality.

Method one: unexpected visit

The sudden appearance of management is unusual for employees. You may arrive without prior notice to a store, call center, remote service station, or employee's office. Then you will find out what is really happening on the ground.

Many times when I visit stores, I find the floor manager, and sometimes his assistant, chatting in the back room even though the store is full of customers clamoring for attention. Needless to say, I expressed my dissatisfaction with such situations to the manager, although always in a respectful manner. I didn’t have time to leave - everyone already knew about my visit. Soon all the store managers began to fear my unexpected appearance.

If you know that you can be asked in full at any moment, this soon turns into a habit and develops a culture of responsibility - it becomes the norm of behavior.

This maxim is directly related to the conclusion we made earlier that honesty is when you do everything right, even if no one is watching you. Working as if your manager could walk in at any moment means being constantly focused on what you are doing.

Before we move on, I want to clarify something. Unexpected visits are by no means a perverted game of "Gotcha!" You are not trying to catch employees doing something shameful; on the contrary, you want to make sure that they are doing everything right, and are looking for reasons to praise them for their honesty and responsibility.

An unexpected visit can also be useful in cases where the manager shows employees what is really important. If you see something that needs fixing, your visit will be the first step towards real action. If everything turns out well on site (as it did in the Long Island call center example in Chapter 5), you will have the opportunity to praise your subordinates for their good work.

In the previous chapter, I gave examples of responsible and irresponsible behavior of managers. I witnessed both of these when I unexpectedly arrived at the place of work of my subordinates. To further emphasize the importance of this method of instilling responsibility among subordinates, I will tell you how it is used in monitoring compliance with company policy.

At Verizon, we instituted a policy that required staff to maintain the grounds of our sites and other facilities. I had to do this after I received several complaints from residents of surrounding houses and from municipal authorities who threatened fines. The rule implied basic things: trim the lawn, insert glass into a broken window or fix other damage, collect garbage - things that had to be taken care of along the way. However, due to the need to cut costs and lack of attention to detail, this routine work was not always carried out.

A few weeks later, my colleagues and I visited several sites near the company's headquarters and found that most managers were doing exactly what they were asked to do—getting things in order. I then decided to travel to remote locations to make sure that the rule worked equally well throughout the country.

The first I visited was one of the buildings in Utica, New York. I chose Utica because it was off the beaten path and I knew that the vice president of the company, whose office was on Long Island, was considered a strong manager. I decided that if she was unable to organize the restoration of order, it was unlikely that her colleagues throughout the country would be capable of this.

No one was expecting my visit - after all, I did not warn anyone that I would come to Utica. I found destruction in the building and the surrounding area. I was told that city officials had come a week earlier and threatened to fine me if the lawn wasn't mowed and the trash in the far corner of the parking lot wasn't cleared by the end of the month. I asked the local manager who was responsible for cleaning, and his words left me perplexed: he didn’t know! I made several calls, and order was soon restored in the area adjacent to the building.

When managers arrive unexpectedly, they learn more than they would have if they had told employees about their visit in advance. I am sure that if in Utica they knew that I would appear with them, everything would look completely different. In addition, my visit made it clear to one of our top vice presidents that she needed to go into the field more often and monitor compliance with established rules. Unfortunately, simply telling employees what needs to be done does not guarantee that the task will be completed. Especially if it seems to people that you don’t attach much importance to what you said.

Method two: unscheduled call

Another unconventional method of instilling a sense of responsibility is an unscheduled call. If during a meeting one of my managers mentioned that they were working on some worthy issue, I made a mental note to call them in a couple of weeks.

When I called to find out how things were going, I heard surprise in the voice of the manager on the other end of the line. Naturally, the most unexpected thing for him was that I paid attention to the problem he voiced and was not too lazy to contact him and check how responsibly he treats his business. And again, news of these calls quickly spread throughout the organization, and it became clear to everyone that the president could be on the line at any moment and find out how things were progressing.

Here are some hypothetical examples of how I think unscheduled calls should be used.

Let's say during a meeting a manager tells me that another cell site will be built in September to improve coverage on Route 294 near O'Hare International Airport. I make a mental note to call in September and ask what the progress is. There is a project in progress. Or, for example, a sales specialist tells me about a new client. I ask when the deal is expected to be concluded, listen to the answer and call a couple of days after the named date to find out if everything is fine.

Let me be completely clear: what made these methods unconventional in my execution was not only the fact that the visits and calls were unexpected, but also the fact that my communication with employees was not filtered in any way. Using these methods, I consciously did not follow the hierarchy accepted in the company. Rather, I demonstrated to the managers in leadership positions between me and the rank-and-file employees that everyone is responsible and must do their job well all the time. I also showed employees that I was interested in their work, and if I encountered situations that prevented them from completing assigned tasks, I personally helped remove the obstacles. The employees understood that not only they were responsible, but so was I!

I would like to re-emphasize one very important thing. When you start using these methods, you will probably often be unhappy with your subordinates, but you will also have many pleasant discoveries. Take advantage of these positive moments by thanking employees, congratulating them on a job well done, and telling others in your organization about their success and how they achieved it.

Method Three: Coaching

Unlike the first two approaches, which are considered unconventional, the third has long had an excellent reputation. Let's take a quick look at what coaching is and then discuss how it can help build a sense of responsibility.

The term comes from a French word meaning "to transport a person from one place to another." In management, the task of a coach is to raise an employee to a higher level of professionalism. If a person is engaging in irresponsible behavior, the goal of coaching is to help him change for the better.

Have you ever wondered why the best professionals always have coaches? For example, professional athletes, singers, speakers, managers, and executives have personal trainers. The benefits of coaching in these professions are quite clear. Coaches are useful for a number of reasons:

• they help maintain concentration;
• provide their wards with objective, useful feedback on the work done;
• listen to their ideas;
• find weaknesses that hinder development;
• emphasize core principles, values ​​and behaviors that improve their performance;
• encourage positive changes in behavior and activities;
• encourage wards in case of failures;
• set goals that are slightly beyond the usual level;
• behave as responsible partners.

Employees can enjoy the same benefits when their managers use coaching in their daily work.

Despite the benefits of coaching, a significant amount of research shows that most managers are average or even poor coaches. Here's what generally explains it:

• they perceive coaching as something like babysitting;
• they believe that coaching is only about correcting mistakes;
• they don't spend enough time with their employees;
• they are reluctant to criticize;
• their philosophy is “Either swim or sink”;
• they believe that coaching is unimportant and unhelpful.

All these reasons negatively affect the effectiveness of coaching. But the main reason is that managers mistakenly believe that it takes up a huge amount of time. This is not necessarily the case. In fact, effective coaching can even save time, because thanks to it, an employee who has “dropped out” of the work process will return to it faster, and some mistakes can be prevented.

Every conversation with an employee can become a coaching session, not necessarily a long one. Short sessions can have an impact. It all depends on how you talk to employees.

The key principle here is to learn to coach little by little, this will help you simplify the coaching process. Instead of holding marathon sessions, learn to find benefits in daily meetings with employees.

Five-minute training while communicating with subordinates bears fruit.

Let's look at topics for conversation with employees that can be used to develop a sense of responsibility among subordinates.

• Whenever you set standards and set expectations, encourage people to take responsibility.
• When meeting with an employee about to take advanced training, tell them how important it will be to put into practice the knowledge or skills they are about to learn.
• Every time you set a goal for an employee, talk about how this goal can only be achieved if you take responsibility.
• When delegating authority, also encourage the employee to take responsibility.
• If you speak negatively about an employee's performance, emphasize the importance of taking responsibility for correcting mistakes.

Of course, there are many other topics of conversation in which you can mention responsibility, but the main thing is to understand that any conversation is a chance to influence the subordinate's sense of responsibility.

You must practice using this method until it becomes part of your managerial instinct, part of your daily work.

Method four: report according to the “5:15” scheme

One of the manager's tasks is to monitor the matters that are in his area of ​​responsibility. Five-minute training during conversations with employees pays off. However, very often things start to go wrong. The situation is complicated by many factors:

• frequent business trips;
• lack of direct contact with employees working from home;
• employees who are located in offices located in other cities;
• constant workload of solving important problems;
• the number and pace of events occurring in a short period of time.

A simple 5:15 reporting system will help give you confidence that you have the information you need about key events, plans or issues in your company or department. The number of reports you receive depends on the number of employees reporting directly to you. If you have 6 managers reporting to you, you will receive 6 reports. (A word of caution: Your goal is to ensure that each document is half a page long—or at least no more than a page.) A good report follows these principles.

1. Reading the report should not take the manager more than five minutes.
2. Writing should take the employee no more than 15 minutes.
3. Reports are due by 5:15 pm that day.

Determining when to submit your report is entirely up to you. For example, some managers need daily reports, but their subordinates do not receive the necessary information until 7:00 am the next day. In this case, the employee can prepare the report at 7:00 or a little later. People need to be given careful instructions on how to prepare reports. If they have to guess what needs to be said, the document will become meaningless. Some will want to write about everything they did during the reporting period, although the purpose of "5:15" is to communicate important information, not exhaustive information. Here's what a 5:15 report should contain:

• promoting work on the implementation of plans, projects, goals;
• emergence of long-term problems;
• emergence of short-term issues;
• ideas for improving work efficiency;
• listing the results achieved;
• listing opportunities that are worth taking advantage of;
• description of unexpected events.

Report according to the “5:15” scheme from the head of the department

• Meeting with a consulting engineer to begin planning regarding the installation of a waterline at Tambury Estates (implementation plan).
• Rebuilding the Park Avenue waterline (task accomplished).
• All prescribed checks and water studies were completed on time - March 18 (task completed).
• Water leaks resulted in a delay in completion of the task and an increase in costs by 5% (a short-term problem).
• All goals and objectives for the year are being implemented as planned according to data as of March 25 (result achieved).
• The forecast for water sales in the first two months of the year is 8% lower than planned (a short-term problem).
• Downward trend in water sales over four years (emerging long-term problem).
• The third stage of the water plant project was completed on time (progress).
• New radios have been installed on the vehicles - communication problems have been resolved (list of achievements).
• Restructuring bond debt, interest rates now could save us $600,000 annually (business opportunity).
• We've crunched the numbers for April and the month's profit was $657,000, 7% above target (achieved).
• A severe storm on the night of March 18 caused power outages at Erie Plant, but a backup generator prevented water shortages in the service area (an unplanned event).

Having access to this kind of information is incredibly valuable for making decisions, correcting course, changing plans, and developing new ones. This helps each committee member keep their finger on the pulse.

Here's what a 5:15 report might look like, prepared by a call center manager for the VP of Customer Success.

Report on the “5:15” scheme of the call center manager

• Improvements in call volume: 90% of incoming calls were answered within 30 seconds.
• Three new sales representatives completed training this week. Since Monday morning, all employees, without exception, have been participating in the work process.
• The budget was slightly over budget due to long-term costs. We'll be back on schedule by the end of next week. We'll keep you posted.
• The non-attendance rate was 1.25%, which is 0.75% lower than the monthly norm of 2%.
• Sales were $45,000 (below the $50,000 mark). All promotion plans were implemented. A plan to increase sales has been discussed with managers (details at a meeting on Monday morning).
• There were no system failures this week.
• Judging by our current forecast, all goals and tasks of the month will be completed in full and on time.

Notice the amount of valuable information you gained in a short time. Again, your goal is to create a report that is half to one page long (and never more). You can write your comments and suggestions on the report and return it in this form to the head of the department. In a similar way, you can convey your congratulations.

Method Five: Working Agreement

A working agreement is a method that allows you to record an agreement between a manager and a subordinate about what the latter must achieve over a certain period of time. An agreement is a simple and clear way to let employees know what their manager considers important and what he expects of them. From a certain period, such documents must contain clear goals, milestones and dates. The more precise they are, the better. For example, when I was president of Verizon in 2009, I wrote an operating agreement that included earnings per share projections. Moreover, I agreed to specific revenue growth rates and customer service metrics. In addition, my work agreement also included less specific clauses like “develop company culture” or “lead by example.”

It is appropriate to conclude a working agreement with any member of the team. For example, a call center employee can draw up a document defining the number of calls he undertakes to take during the day, the number of calls necessary to resolve a client’s problem, etc. I think you understand what I mean: it is necessary to agree on specific things.

I find this method useful for setting goals for an employee for the whole year. Some managers believe that it is better to enter into agreements for shorter periods, such as a quarter or six months. Either way, I think it's worth updating the document as soon as there are factors that need to be taken into account, such as changes in the market or the introduction of new corporate requirements. A work agreement is also a convenient way for a manager to begin communicating with employees to discuss what they have done.

A properly prepared operating agreement can take up less than one sheet of paper. Specific goals rarely need a lot of words.

Method six: regular performance evaluation

Performance appraisal allows senior managers to more accurately assess the performance of the organization's functions, the performance of managers and the results they have achieved, and also to set new goals. This method provides an opportunity to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and develop a plan to improve efficiency. Like the work agreement, evaluation is a basic element for creating a sense of responsibility in the team.

When I was president of Verizon Wireless, regular performance reviews were conducted every three months in all of our four districts. The district, governed by its president, consisted of five or six districts, which had their own leaders. For example, the Northeast District consisted of New England, New York, Philadelphia/Tri-State Area, Washington/Baltimore, and upstate New York.

The districts operated like separate companies, but maintained a connection with the headquarters, which provided oversight and suggested strategy. Each district had its own financial, legal, marketing structures, personnel services, customer service departments, etc.

Here is a typical overview of district operations:

• detailed presentations of district financial forecasts and results;
• marketing strategies including advertising, pricing and competitive analysis;
• statistics of the organization's work, planning of expenses and results;
• call center strategy and results;
• hiring, firing, training, promotion of employees.

In addition, the head of each district provided detailed results, forecasts and assessments of the activities of competitors in the territory reporting to him.

Approximately 20-25 people participated in district performance reviews, and everyone who reported directly to me was required to attend each such event. The locations where the reviews were conducted varied - usually they were regional offices or call centers. But we never held them at the head office. By holding reviews in smaller offices, we let employees know that they were important to us and that their work played a significant role in achieving our company goals.

Reviews were organized to remind managers of their responsibility for performance and achieving goals. When a problem arose (as it often did), these activities provided an opportunity to immediately begin solving it or identified areas for further analysis and improvement. Their main goal was to force the managers making the presentations to analyze their results, understand where they were missing something, and create a plan to correct the mistakes. The reviews also provided an opportunity for staff from different districts to share effective methods for solving certain problems. The significance and seriousness of these meetings were emphasized by the presence of all the company's top managers. Subordinates also had the opportunity to see that company leaders shared responsibility for working together and for helping regional managers achieve goals. It is worth noting that when management met to discuss the tasks facing ordinary employees, this made it possible to create a culture of responsibility and teamwork in our company.

In addition, business trips to regional offices and call centers provided the opportunity to arrange meetings with a large number of employees at the end of the review. This is a great way to discuss what was learned during the previous event and draw conclusions about the company's performance during the year. During each such meeting, employees could ask me or any of the top managers a question.

Method seven: employee performance assessment

Management textbooks write a lot about how to prepare to evaluate an employee’s performance. Many companies train managers in the art of grading and conducting appropriate interviews. Despite this, for many managers, performance appraisal is one of the most ineffective tools.

Because managers often believe that performance appraisal is simply a bureaucratic procedure that is carried out at the request of the personnel service, and all that is required is to fill out a special form for each of the subordinates.

But how can an organization expect employees to behave responsibly if little effort is put into evaluating their performance?

I believe that assessment is an effective tool for managers to reinforce an employee's level of responsibility and help him achieve better results. In my understanding, this is a way to convey to a subordinate in a structured way what you, as a manager, think about his work and what can be done to improve its quality. The performance appraisal is a document of a maximum of three clear and concise paragraphs (in accordance with our “Keep it Simple” concept):

1. tasks performed by the employee;
2. goals that the employee did not achieve;
3. the manager's recommendations on what the employee should do to improve his performance.

The manager must complete the document. I mention this because I know of cases where managers asked employees to rate themselves, then corrected a couple of words there and considered that they had fulfilled their “responsibility.” Undoubtedly, managers who allow themselves to do this are not only ineffective, but also lazy!

Another bad habit is “copying syndrome”: managers take individual words and sentences from the characteristics of one employee and insert them into the characteristics of another. I've even heard of a manager who forgot to change the gender of a subordinate when copying information!

Smart managers evaluate how each of their subordinates works and how to make their work more effective. They then write down these thoughts to go over each point in the conversation with the employee to ensure there is mutual understanding about how to improve the performance.

Many companies conduct performance reviews at least once a year and tie them to salary or bonus. I agree with this frequency, although it would be even better to do such events once every six months or even quarterly. Regardless of how often appraisals are conducted, they can be an effective tool in conjunction with the work agreement to let employees know what their managers expect of them and whether their performance is meeting expectations.

A properly prepared performance evaluation will take less than one page.

Method Eight: Productivity Improvement Plan

What to do if an employee is unable to achieve his goals and does not cope with tasks? First, he should be given recommendations that could improve his performance. You will understand that the employee lacks some skill and this is reflected in the results. In this case, you will probably come to the conclusion that special training should be carried out to solve the problem.

However, despite your best efforts, there may come a time when you have to document the severity of the problem by presenting the employee with a plan to improve their performance. This document identifies challenges that the employee is facing or tasks that he is missing, and describes what needs to be done to solve them.

Earlier I talked about managers who are friends with colleagues and subordinates and try to gain their sympathy. They would rather put up with shortcomings in their work than undertake to effectively solve the problem. They will look for excuses for the employee or try to explain the objectivity of failures. They may even turn a blind eye to poor performance just to avoid thinking about it. As a result, such managers do a disservice to the employee, the company, and themselves.

For many, presenting a productivity improvement plan is a cold waterfall. These people suddenly realize that their employees are not doing their job.

A proper productivity improvement plan consists of the following elements:

• the manager's desire to help the employee succeed;
• performance improvement plans apply equally to all employees;
• the plan must have a time frame - usually 30, 60 or 90 days;
• the manager tells the employee what exactly is expected of him;
• the manager also reports where exactly expectations are not met;
• the manager must emphasize that performance must meet established standards;
• the manager explains to the employee how he intends to help and support him throughout the specified period;
• The manager and employee must agree on milestone dates as the plan progresses.

We continue to embrace the "Keep it Simple" philosophy - an effective productivity plan shouldn't take more than a page.

What happens if an employee fails to follow the plan? If progress is evident, the deadlines can be slightly increased. However, be careful: if you constantly move the deadline, the plan will lose its effectiveness. I've seen "deadline", "most deadline", "very, very last", "last chance", etc. Thus the plan eventually turns into absurdity.

Of course, you should hope and expect that the employee will improve. However, if the plan turns out to be beyond his capabilities even if the deadline is extended, get ready to act. Reassignment, demotion, or termination may be necessary.

A simple but effective plan for improving productivity

If you combine the techniques described in this chapter, you will be able to create a highly effective and simple process for managing employee performance in your department or company.

First, set your expectations with a working agreement. Then hold training conversations throughout the year to set a certain performance bar. Next, use performance ratings to determine the employee's level of performance. Finally, use a performance improvement plan to correct any shortcomings.