Successful teams cannot exist without accountability–high performance and accountability go hand-in-hand.

Accountability starts with understanding the truth and continues with the thoughts, words, and actions of everyone involved in your organization. In my book, Winning with Accountability: The Secret Language of High-Performing Organizations, I explain how accountability is the key to long-term, sustained organizational success. To create a high-accountability culture, an organization must be able to identify accountability gaps.

Execution fails when accountability–the process and language of transferring strategies into reality–is missing. If you have ever experienced a failure in a relationship or project, you may have found that, in hindsight, clear outcomes may not have been properly communicated to all of the players, thus there were accountability gaps.

Identify Accountability Gaps

High-accountability cultures are something you can see.

To illustrate this, let’s take a professional basketball player, a star of the NBA who, at one time in his career, declared, “I’m not a role model. Parents should be role models.”

We’re not using his name here because that was a goofy thing for any star athlete to say. Because, despite what he thought, there were thousands of children admiring that NBA star, wearing his jersey number, and shooting baskets until dark to become just like him. In the context of accountability, even though he was a top scorer and exciting to watch on the court, you could see that athlete wasn’t a star in the Culture of Accountability.

Now, let’s turn the dial to 1993 and the confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex of the Branch Davidians led by David Koresh in Waco, Texas.

On April 19, 1993, Attorney General Janet Reno gave the FBI permission to flush the Davidians out of their residence, using tanks to smash holes in the walls of the building and then spraying tear gas into the residence. Agents then fired more than 350 “ferret” grenades into the building, but none of the Davidians obeyed the FBI’s command to exit the residence. A fire then broke out and 76 Davidians, including 27 children, perished.

As word of the confrontation and resulting deaths made the evening news, Janet Reno stepped up to the microphone at a White House press conference. “I made the decision,” she said. “I’m accountable. The buck stops with me.” Her words were notable–and noticeable–because you rarely hear politicians speak this way. At that time, she was the first female U.S. attorney general and fairly new to her job. Yet, in the face of a tragic and controversial situation, she stepped forward and was accountable. You could see that Janet Reno was exhibiting an accountability culture that was the model for her entire organization.

So, what does a high-accountability culture look like? Accountability cultures do not happen overnight. The culture evolves from one person or event to the next. One common denominator is that in accountability cultures everyone holds each other accountable for their commitments in a positive and productive manner.

As mentioned earlier, if you had ever had a relationship or a project fail, chances are high that failure occurred because specificity was missing at the front end and expectations weren’t clear. That relationship or that project failed because there were “accountability gaps.”

Accountability gaps are like potholes in a road. The gaps are holes that need to be filled quickly with specificity before greater damage is done. Just like potholes in the road need to be filled quickly with paving materials before the holes become so large that they damage the cars on the road, an “accountability gap” exists when specificity is missing.

Let’s take poor Max, who was hired by a large company. His boss told him, “Max, we’re glad to have you on the team, and as long as you do a good job, your employment with us is solid.” Unfortunately, his boss didn’t tell Max, specifically, what a good job looked like (count this as one pothole). When Max headed the team for a major project, the boss said, “Get that final report to me as soon as you can.” Once again, did that mean tomorrow or next week? Max did his best but the report was several days tardy in his boss’s eyes (another pothole).

By the time Max was fired, his tenure was rutted with potholes, lacking specificity and becoming deeper and causing more damage as the weeks and months went by.

Max failed because there was specificity missing in every expectation and assignment. Nothing was clearly stated at the front end… and when there’s no specificity on the front end, Max was set up to fail.

But, let’s not throw Max’s boss under the bus just yet. Max made a big mistake, as well. He “assumed” he knew what the boss meant when he was told to “do a good job” and to get the report completed “as soon as you can.” Assumptions dig deep potholes and are great contributors to accountability gaps leading to a failed project or relationship… and these lead to bad feelings, which become a vicious cycle of dysfunction.

Accountability is a two-way street. If you complete a task that was not specific and someone is disappointed in your work, you are the one who is considered unreliable. You’re past the point of no return. It’s too late for expectations. It’s a “gotcha” of the worst kind in every sense.

It is the role of both the sender and the receiver of the information to make sure all the potholes are filled before the task begins.

Use Specific Language

Avoid vague language such as “ASAP,” “I’ll get right on it,” “I’ll do my best,” or “I’ll turn it in by the end of the day.” These types of ambiguities are all part of the Glossary of Failure… and every one of these vague phrases increases the chances of relationship or project failure.

Like the three most important rules of real estate are “location, location, location,” the three most important rules in creating an accountability culture are “specificity, specificity, specificity.”

Practice making commitments, using the Language of Accountability by saying, “I will do it on ‘X’ date at ‘X’ time.” Rather than saying, “We’ll have the project completed by the end of the day,” tell your counterpart, “I’ll have it wrapped up by Tuesday, June 13th at 10 a.m., your time.”

Using the Language of Specificity will increase accountability and strengthen the accountability culture within your organization.

State It Once

A Culture of Accountability also helps eliminate redundancy.

Focusing solely on a problem and not on the solution wastes resources on redundancy. Everyone knows what the problem is… your energy and resources need to be focused on solving the problem. It may be productive to voice the problem once, but then it is time to move the momentum toward a solution to improve your position. Redundancy is not in many job descriptions.

A good example of the momentum of leadership would be a conversation like this:

Manager: “I’ve noticed Phil isn’t coming through with his assignments on time… and it’s getting to be a real problem for me.”

You: “I’ve also noticed that, too. What’s causing it? Where have we failed to set specific timelines and expectations?”

In pointing out that the failure may be on leadership’s shoulders, you’re looking into the mirror to find solutions.

State the problem once, eliminate redundancy, and move toward the solution.

Reverse the Momentum

Language momentum can be reversed… from any person in the organization.

Here’s an example:

In 1975, a movie about a mammoth killer shark was filmed. The title–Jaws.

After this shark has eaten a few tourists, a town meeting is called where the mayor, the chief of police, the city council and some influential business owners are all in attendance.

Many see no other option but to close the local beaches to fend off any more attacks and more bad publicity. However, businesses in the community want to leave them open. This is the “high” season for tourists and closing the beaches now will bankrupt most of the community.

The argument goes back and forth between the two factions for several minutes. No ground is gained and neither of the two sides is willing to give an inch or find a compromise. The meeting is at a stalemate. The upper echelon of the town’s organizational chart is stuck in the problem. The arguing is getting louder and louder.

Then, the gut-wrenching sound of nails being dragged down the blackboard interrupts the argument. Suddenly the room is silent and necks are craned to see a simple fisherman sitting at the back of the room near the blackboard. When he has the room’s attention, he quietly offers, “I can kill that fish for $6,000.”

That pronouncement, made by the somewhat obscure and low-profile fisherman (who was probably not on anybody’s org chart), changed the entire momentum of the meeting… and also changed the direction and focus of an entire town. The simple fisherman had taken on the leadership role, and from that point forward, the town’s momentum had shifted to assembling the team that would kill that shark!

That’s the way it can work in any situation. It’s the leader’s job to reverse the momentum of negative interactions– and anyone can be the leader regardless of their position on the organizational chart. You can reverse the momentum by applying your skills and energy toward a new, positive outcome. When a conversation is in the past (with celebrations as an exception) you are probably focused on a “problem” or, perhaps, assigning blame. However, by changing the momentum and focusing the dialogue on the future, you are now working on a “plan.”

In short, you have the power to identify Accountability Gaps during interactions and fill them with Specificity. You have the power to identify when an interaction is “going negative” and reverse the momentum so that everyone involved in the interaction benefits!

To find out how well you and your organization are doing at preventing Accountability Gaps, take the free Accountability Assessment.

Excerpted from Henry Evans’ book, Winning with Accountability: The Secret Language of High Performing Organizations (Cornerstone Leadership Institute, 2008).

Want to know some proven article marketing tips to convert your articles into truckloads of cash?

Read this article to discover how to use article marketing as a powerful strategy to make money online. I’ll reveal some fantastic article marketing tips to help you create in-demand and highly-read articles that sell.

Article marketing doesn’t require any special talent or skill, other than being able to express your ideas clearly in writing. But even if you hate writing, you can still outsource the task and leverage from the talents and efforts of qualified ghostwriters.

The Amazing Benefits of Article Marketing

Article marketing allows you to get valuable one-way backlinks, which translates to better search engine rankings for your sites.

You will be considered as an expert in your field, as long as your articles are helpful and informative.

Better yet… a newsletter or magazine company might even publish one of your articles. Just imagine the exposure you’ll get if they have hundreds of thousands of subscribers!

There’s no doubt that writing and submitting articles can provide substantial returns if done correctly.

Pre-Writing Article Marketing Tips To Remember

Here are some vital article marketing tips to remember before you write your articles.

1) Give valuable tips or information that the targeted readers can apply to their own situation. Avoid writing a bunch of meaningless theories that leave the reader confused.

Write articles that give value and improve the readers’ lives. Some good recommendations would be “how to” articles or a series of steps/tips (5 Steps to.., 7 Ways to.., etc.)

2) Write like you’re talking to the reader in person; think of it like a one-on-one conversation. Use “you” often, not “one” nor “we” unless “you” is not applicable.

For example, say, “You need to do this to attain your goals.” Avoid saying, “One needs to do this to attain one’s goal.” See the big difference? The first statement talks directly to you while the latter statement feels impersonal.

3) Express what you want to say in the fewest words possible. Make the sentence as short and as easy-to-read as possible. Do not include unnecessary fillers. Respect your readers’ time, and they will appreciate your simplicity and direct-to-the-point approach.

Strive to write short paragraphs and have plenty of white spaces between paragraphs. Long paragraphs are intimidating and tiring to the eyes.

Break down any long sentence into easily digestible parts. You want to write articles that even a 12-year old will find clear and understandable.

4) Articles should be well researched and based on facts. If you’re going to make an opinion, make sure it does not defy any proven facts, figures, statistics, etc.

5) Make your articles unbiased and applicable for all readers you’re targeting. Don’t write jargon applicable to a specific group of people, unless you’re targeting that group only. For example, don’t write legal jargon if your target audience includes readers that are not in the legal profession.

Article Marketing Tips In Writing Articles

1) Do keyword research. No matter how great your article is, you will not attain the results you want if few or no people are searching for, or are interested in, the topic of your article. Use the keyword research tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com to find out the daily searches for your keywords, as well as other related keywords.

2) Write an eye-catching and attention-grabbing title. The title is probably the most important part of the article, because the reader will not continue reading the rest if the title does not grab their interest strong enough.

Strive to put the keywords in the first words of the title. If possible, repeat the keywords twice in the title (as long as it doesn’t sound awkward).

3) Insert your keywords within the body and space them out. There’s no exact rule on how many times the keywords must appear within the body, but this is what I recommend:

Put your keywords twice in the first 2 paragraphs, once for every 150 to 200 words in the body, and once in the ending paragraph. However, don’t forcefully stuff keywords just for the sake of following this article marketing tip.

The most important thing is that you write a quality article, in a natural manner that is pleasing to the eyes of the readers.

4) Put bullet points and subtitles within the body for easier comprehension. This will allow those who are skimming to immediately spot what they’re looking for.

5) Avoid any promotions within the article. You can promote or sell in the resource box (sometimes called author bio), which appears below the article.

6) Create a compelling resource box. The resource box is 2nd in importance to the title, because this is where you get to do your marketing and promotions. It must influence the reader to click on your links.

My advice is to use your resource box to build a list. Entice them to click on your link and subscribe to your list by giving a free quality report. You can then follow-up with your subscribers any time, and as many times as, you like.

You could also write a 2-part article. The 1st part is what you submit to the article directories. Then in your resource box, you invite them to read the 2nd part on your site, where you can either put a promotion to your product or ask them to subscribe.

Article Marketing Tips When Submitting to Article Directories

After writing your article, it’s time to submit to the article directories. Before you do, prepare a list of related keywords and a short summary of your article.

Submit to the top article directories so you can start getting backlinks, visitors, subscribers and sales. Simply search for “best article directories” in Google.com to get a list of these top directories.

Article Marketing Tips On Outsourcing

Once you start seeing some returns, invest back by hiring ghostwriters. You may also hire people to manually submit articles for you or buy a reliable article submission software to hasten the process.

The more articles you write, the more exposure you will get, and the more money you will make. Follow these article marketing tips and see your bank account grow dramatically.

The World Wide Web (WWW) has leveled the playing field for companies desiring to promote their businesses on the Internet. No matter the size of your business, prospective customers view your web pages through the same browser they use to access any site. So it pays off to display information that is relevant, timely and interesting to existing and prospective customers.

Successful business promotion involves the right use of marketing strategies. So, the biggest benefit of using a web site is to showcase your products and services. You can update the information, change the focus or refine your look without the expense and the time involved with print media.

However, creating a professional and functional website for your establishment, to strategically place your organization on the Internet will make your business able to go global, stand out and compete internationally in your industry. Because the World Wide Web (the internet) is used by over 1.2 billion people globally while print media spread across an average hand of millions of people.

With a website, your company’s products will be promoted online regularly through search engine optimization and web crawler to enable you feature on Google and yahoo among other search engines. Your company will also portray an influential corporate image.

Regardless of your investment, website is the most affordable, reliable and versatile means to advertise your company and contact your prospects and clients indisputably while you beat your competitors flat with a result oriented design. Your competitors are getting online and you cannot afford to be left out.

Other benefits of having a website;

1. Huge profit by increasing sales and services
2. It gives the ability to reach broader audience of new clients globally.
3. Global e-commerce transactions
4. It makes advertisement to be efficient.
5. Possibly ordering of your products/services from the international market.
6. Wider showcase of your products or services to the world
7. It portrays the image of your corporate organization to the world
8. Website also targets the right customers for your business by accessing their information.

With a website you are sure of making a huge business success. So, be part of the winning race today and tap into the outstanding business success by joining global business networks.

For more information on how to run your business successfully, please visit; http://www.thestrategicsolutions.com

The keyword Ontario job search provides the perfect job assistance that is specially designed for the job seekers of Ontario, Canada. It provides links about several jobsites, which provide job opportunities in Ontario region.

By utilizing the keyword Ontario job search, students with various educational backgrounds are offered information about various exclusive job opportunities in Canada regions that are provided by various government and private employment sites. Applicants from outside Canada also get benefits from such employment sites. Only necessity is the proper search criteria. Therefore, the qualified aspirants can search for various job opporutinities, available to them in Ontario region.

The students who go through such kind of Ontario job search follow various online job-searching techniques. While applying for any job position, they have to carry out proper browsing of job advertisements, selection of desirable job and online application submission of a particular job. The students can search for job advertisements in Ontario and other parts of Canada in accordance with their education profile, interest and career growth.

The Ontario job search provides information about all exclusive advertisements with its releasing dates, job summary, company name and location of the job. So it becomes very simple for the candidate to grab a desirable job position as early as possible. These Ontario job advertisements also contain the essential information, which is instrumental for shaping the right kind of job career. Information such as previous work experience of student, his educational profile, job type and part time or full time job has to be filled in some jobsites, which has predesigned forms.

This job search provides various job categories through various job sites. Such job categories have jobs related to Canadian government and corporate jobs containing sales and service, management, finance, technical job categories like engineering, aerospace, aeronautical, education, jobs in science mainly for R& D and many more.

Ontario job search provides you information on exclusive career advertisements, which is initially displayed on the corporate website of that company. It is incorporated with various inbuilt job search features, which makes the job searching simple, less complicated and highly extensive.

Such kind of job search mainly trusts in endowing students with latest job positions in any field and regional jobs like Toronto jobs, Ottawa jobs, Mississauga jobs, etc. This indicates that it gives more emphasis on the detailed part of job hunting. Through Ontario job search, the job seekers can register their e-mail account with particular password for getting exclusive information of the jobs requirement on their e-mail account on a particular jobsite.

Lastly, as a part of online application submission, it facilitates the job seeker to post and forward their resume to particular e-mail ID of that exclusive advertisement. Such job portal is incorporated with career developments programs like interview and group discussions, resume writing skills, career resources for making the CV much better and eye-catching.

Therefore, the keyword Ontario job search plays an important role in finding the correct information regarding jobs prospects in Ontario, Canada. All said and done you will have to be more creative while searching for that elusive job opportunity.

There is a popular practice nowadays among Champions Online players. Now, many players prefer to buy Champions Online accounts to jumpstart their playing activities. Doing so would enable any Champions Online account owner to start playing at a very high power level. That is in contrast to starting the game and a new account conventionally, when the player would be forced to start at scratch and do the normal tedious process of accumulating starting points.

There is a need to buy Champions Online account when you are aiming to really make it good or have a popular standing as a player of Champions Online. Buy Champions Online accounts and experience how you could jumpstart your Champions Online gaming career. You might be asking yourself if you really need to do so. In the Champions Online gaming, winners are those who are good at strategizing and embracing tactics and techniques. And any means is not important as long as the result is truly spectacular. Buying such accounts is like securing cheats or privileges when playing the game.

Why is there a need to buy Champions Online accounts? First of all, some players basically aim to make it as a big and popular Champions Online player. If you want to excel as such, it is advisable that you buy Champions Online accounts or Champions Online account for yourself. Usually, players start up from scratch when starting up a gaming account. But in Champions Online, it is very different. Any player could opt to start using an account that is already existent and very much active. Why do that? Basically, some players would want to start up at already high levels. This way, they could concentrate more into boosting scores and playing points. As you all know, doing so would be very hard if you would be starting from scratch, wherein you would have to initially focus on starting up and developing your characters’ abilities, skills and powers.

There are many advantages when you buy Champions Online accounts that already exist. But the most practical edge is the advantage of starting up playing on already high level, usually about level 70. A high-level world of warcraft account would have characters that have greater powers and skills. There are also privilege points that would help the player more effectively overcome the different obstacles that can be found within the game proper. Professional players simply prefer to buy Champions Online accounts rather than to start a Champions Online account of their own, which can be freely done on the Champions Online site. Champions Online accounts available on the market can be priced very high but the level and power level is really optimal for good game maneuvering.

You are not forced to buy such secured and already existing Champions Online accounts. Be reminded that such transactions are not imperative and are very much optional. Buying Champions Online accounts can also get expensive. You have the freedom to choose whether you buy Champions Online accounts. A Champions Online account nowadays is like an investment. You could buy a Champions Online account and make it grow further so that in the future, you could take the option to selling it yourself. This can be a pretty good investment strategy.

Visit www.gametag.com for buying wow accounts, buy wow accounts, champions online accounts, champions online account, world of warcraft account, world of warcraft accounts, age of conan account, age of conan accounts and ffxiv account.

In the networking marketing world, emulating others who are successful is one key to success.
 
 Here’s a network marketing tip – pick out the most successful people in networking marketing and watch what they do and how they do it. Also, ask them if they have a networking marketing tip for you because the successful people in network marketing can contribute in a major way to your success if you let them.
 
 This network marketing tip will work well for you. If you plan your approach for network marketing rather than just working based on “gut feel” you will not be as successful.
 
 If you ask anyone who is successful to give you a network marketing tip they will often tell you about the importance of planning. There are many great resources out there to help you plan the most effective actions.
 
Ann Sieg’s Renegade Network Marketer is one of the best available & I highly recommend this Ebook & it’s principles to you IF exploding your business is the goal.

How do you get a networking marketing tip from someone who is already successful in the business?
 
 First, complement them on their success. Then ask them if they wouldn’t mind sharing a few ideas and giving you a network marketing tip to help you. Most successful network marketing people will give you a network marketing tip because you have complimented them and they will be motivated to help you.
 
Mike Klingler is an industry leading trainer whose click-by-click training  available at  Renegade Professional is full of network marketing tips & proven strategies that will guarantee your MLM business success.
 
You must also have a strong belief in the product or service you are selling.

Do your investigation on the front  in to find the best opportunity for you.
 

Because if you don’t believe in the product or service you are selling, this will come across when you talk to others about it.

Network marketing can generate a lot of income for you but only if you follow each network marketing tip you get from people who are already successful at network marketing.
 
 It’s the old story of taking advice from those who are already earning the type of income you are aiming for.

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Partners in success,

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Warren Little
Network Marketing Consultant/Trainer
“Creating Champions” (like YOU) !

http://www.NetworkMarketingSolutions.info

772-971-8637