Building a culture of accountability in your organization begins with empowering individuals to take ownership of their roles. Dr. Fardad Fateri discusses how he has built a culture where members are “CEOs of their positions” - fully in charge of their responsibilities and owners of their results.
Transcript:
to our culture so out of the ten emails
I send in a month to all of you nine of
them are related to culture different
parts of it we deliberately talk about
culture a lot because everything that we
want all the expectations we have all
the numbers we look at all those results
we share on a daily basis are emerging
properties of culture so if we all of us
share the same values at the same level
and truly exercise them at necessary
levels results will manifest the
implementation of these values does that
make sense we talk about it a lot and
we're very deliberate in building a
culture that we want every organization
has a culture they may not even talk
about it they may not even know it
but every organization like every
country has a culture we have our own
I'm not saying our culture is the best
I'm not even saying it's good I'm not
saying it's bad but it's ours anyone who
comes here and wants to become
successful they need to embrace our
values and again I'm not saying these
are great values but they're ours right
so it's important to understand these
values make sure we live them we behave
them we share them and we make it a part
of everything that we do so we have lots
of components to our culture
lots
but I want to focus on just a few today
one is accountability so you hear this a
lot and again these are very common
words so if you look up the term
accountability in the dictionary you
know it has one single definition but
the way we look at accountability is
ownership you know how I bring up the
term B to see you off your position what
that means is that you are totally fully
in charge of your responsibilities but
if you don't do your job if you don't
execute guess what because we have an
accountable culture somebody's going to
become accountable for you because we
cannot let things slip and you could
have a million fantastic reasons how the
world does not let you get the job done
and half of them are totally legitimate
but we have to get the job done so
empower people around you to be
accountable to be responsible and to own
it to own the result and hold people
accountable for that result does that
make sense
accountability is huge every time I talk
to somebody about an objective their
first thing they said well I can't do
this because I'm waiting for admissions
to do this and Student Finance to do
that and career services to do that and
and and and by the way I'm not feeling
good today well
doesn't matter if admissions is not
doing their part is if financial aid is
not doing their part if Career Service
is not you do your part and you do their
part you do everybody's part to get the
job done right because you can always
blame somebody legitimately because
there are people around you that are not
doing what they're supposed to you'll
get it done own it does that make sense
I am Telling You most of you because
you're here who becomes successful at
IEC you'll learn how to navigate through
turbulent times you take ownership you
get things done if a policy if a
procedure doesn't make sense speak up if
it's in your area you're the subject
matter expert don't just say well you
know that acronym for that he doesn't
know what he's doing he doesn't make
good decisions he's stupid low IQ how
did he become CEO it should be Oh II see
you know tell me teach me I always ask
for your advice on every call and every
meeting you know why because I'm not as
smart as I as I should be but I know all
of you are so help me right this is the
kind of culture we have we have the kind
of culture that allows you to speak up
and speak out I have never ever turned
away someone who comes and says we can
do this better can I improve it I said
God thank you do it do it what's the
worst that can happen
it will fail well it doesn't get any
worse than failure right but we've tried
something you know we are a culture that
waiting and hoping and praying for
something to get better we kind of
realized that doesn't work it's
therapeutic you know kind of pray you
know you wait and you hope for something
to get better but my experience doesn't
usually work if you want to change
things you need to take action you have
to do something no matter what it is
just take action do something an
action-oriented organization is always a
successful organization because you
continue to step forward out of the
hundred things you try you only need to
make two of them work that's two things
you've improved that weren't good before
does that make sense
accountability is very important and as
obvious as it is whenever something
comes up somebody's as well I was
waiting for Sanjay to tell Amelia to
tell Darcy to tell shukri to tell far
dad and haven't gotten the email from
the acronym yet
get it done get it done regardless of
how hard it is figure it out ask for
resources ask for tools we are very
helpful people and I have to tell you
there have been so many times people
come to me and say I think we should do
this and you know you might head out
thinking there is no way in hell this is
gonna work I swear it happens so often
but I said you know that's my experience
because we're all products of our
memories and experiences right you know
the person I am today I became this
person because of all of my experiences
our memories and some of them may have
been the wrong ones so I have these
opinions that may be very faulty
so when somebody comes and says I want
to do something in my head I think I've
never seen that work but you know what I
don't say that I said go for it and I
have to tell you eight out of ten times
I'm proven wrong somebody who does
something if they have conviction and if
they have passion and if they have
resolve they will execute and get it
done and many of you in this room are
exactly those people who've done that
many many times
About the Author: Fardad Fateri
Dedicated to the advancement of student success, leadership development, and organizational excellence, Dr. Fardad Fateri has devoted his 30-year career to catalyzing innovation and transformation in American higher education.
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