Mandatory…

I was chatting with an Assistant Vice President I mentor periodically.  During our conversation he used that famous phrase that seems to be so popular in the workplace these days, “… I will hold them accountable…”  I also observe the close cousin to that phrase often… the single word, “mandatory” (sometimes communicated in ALL CAPS – bold even!).

Do you ever want someone else to do what you tell them to do?  I know I do.  I wonder why what others do, or how they do it, is so important to me.  I mean, if they get the job done their way vs. my way, isn’t that OK? And vice versa – if I get the job done should my managers be overly concerned if I did it their way or not?

This idea of getting the job done has fascinated me in the business world for quite some time.  Different approaches and techniques spanning different generations and even different countries have been well documented.

Perhaps the first time I started to pay attention to this was back in the day that Japanese companies re-invented their reputation – and success.  There was a period I can remember when “Made in Japan” represented cheap, low-quality products.  Somehow, some way the Japanese completely changed that image, true?

Alan Deutschman wrote in Change or Die ©:

Toyota gave responsibility and accountability to its production workers, and the workers responded by acting responsibly and accountable.

That same book offered a little more explanation behind why people act the way they do:

People don’t resist change; they resist being changed.  

               Dean Ormish

Sounds personal, doesn’t it?  Do you take your work personally?  I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, but I definitely take my work personally.  I take to heart Tom Connellan’s thought:

One with passion is better than forty who are merely interested.

                                                                                   

One problem with my personal, passionate approach is dealing with my emotions during occasional workplace conflict.  I’m 45 years in to the working world and still trying to keep calm when someone tells me to do something their way when I believe I know how to do that same something better – my way. 

For me, my passion for getting the job done the best way it can be done is easily misinterpreted as being arrogant; or uncoachable; or just being a general pain in the ass.  I’d like to believe all that is inaccurate – I certainly hope it is.

But having someone tell me they will “hold me accountable” or that completing thus and so is “mandatory” is not the way to unleash my full potential.  I liked what Bob Nelson wrote about this company’s culture:

In a visit to a utility company to study its best practices, teams from Sprint Corporation in Westwood, Kansas, were shocked to learn that some corporate cultures weren't quite as rigid as theirs.  When the Sprint teams asked questions regarding dress code and attendance policies, the firm responded that its policies were come to work, and wear clothes.

I know all of us must adhere to certain rules and related codes of conduct (including wearing clothes to work).  But for many of the tasks we are assigned to get our jobs done, wouldn’t it be better if our manager helped motivate us to want to complete those tasks successfully vs. dictating that said tasks are “mandatory”; or “MANDATORY”?

Easy for me to say – but it’s hard to make someone else “accountable”, true?

               GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.