Responsible For/Accountable To

Friday night I stumbled across a blog post from one of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Gitomer titled, "What Are You Really Asking Of "Your People?". Of course, it really started me thinking about my leadership style.

Most of you know my passion for ongoing, life-long learning. For 20 years I've studied selling on a daily basis. If you're not learning, you're going to get left behind (and the competition will kick your tail). Logic would tell you that I have been studying leadership on a daily basis as well - and your logic would be right.

Which leads me to this idea of "responsible for" vs. "accountable to".

I'm responsible for creating a daily, personal mindset of:

• Responsible for my leadership skills
• Responsible for my attitude (Hint: I study it daily)
• Responsible for my sales team
• Responsible for my actions (How easy it is to want to avoid this one)
• Responsible for sales results

If I take my responsibilities seriously, learn to share them strategically, and role model them daily, my sales team will follow naturally. They will be:

• Responsible for customers
• Responsible for their individual results
• Responsible for daily actions (planning/organization/the sales process, etc.)
• Responsible for their daily attitude
• Responsible for achieving President's Club Goal
• Responsible for their sales skills
• Responsible for working on all Five Pillars

Gitomer says it best, "If a salesperson takes responsibility for his or her knowledge, pipeline, customers, sales, income, and success, your job as a leader shifts from a paranoid accountability manager to an encouraging, supportive leader."

Simply stated: I'm responsible for AND accountable to... myself! The same holds true for you.