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Take a look at job descriptions in almost any organisation, and you’ll find they’re broad statements of areas of responsibility, or maybe lists of activities. Job descriptions like this are concerned with activity rather than output, and fuel the culture of ‘hard work’ and long hours. What you don’t see is a short, complete list of the results people are accountable for producing.

In an economic squeeze, businesses naturally focus on driving revenue and reducing costs. But there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate a strong link between high performance and a positive working environment.

Look at job descriptions in almost any organisation, and you’ll find they’re broad statements of areas of responsibility or maybe lists of activities. Job descriptions like this are concerned with activity rather than output, and fuel the culture of ‘hard work’ and long hours. What you don’t see is a short, complete list of the results you are accountable for producing.

Here’s how to manage people at each of the three levels of accountability we discussed last week…

Here’s the next key concept: the foundation of all Leadership is Accountability. Accountability is being willing to make commitments and hold yourself to account for them, regardless of the circumstances. There are two aspects to your accountability: your willingness to make binding commitments for yourself, and your relationship with the circumstances that surround you.

Here’s a thought: the likelihood is that you have great technical skills, and quite possibly great social skills. But do you have the skills in place that you need to run your organisation? Possibly not. And you can’t run a good organisation on technical skill, or social skill, alone.

For 20 years or more, we’ve operated within what we thought were the more or less universal ‘rules of engagement’ of professional service provision, at least in the UK/US/Western business world. But increasingly, it seems, other people don’t know these rules, or are actually operating by a completely different set!

Whether you’re thinking about sending a child to private school, where to go on holiday, or buying office supplies, every day you opt for one thing over another. Sometimes you’re choosing. Sometimes you’re deciding. Doing one when the other is called for can get in your way.

In this series we’ve talked about disciplines for becoming ever more authentic and completely yourself. Why then would you ever make a mistake again? Because we all fall short of ideal behaviour, and forget to choose to be great and behave well on a daily basis.

How do powerful people lose their moral bearings? What went wrong, and how can you learn from it?