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11 years ago Dr. Jim Sellner and I realized it was time to make a big assumption about the future of learning and development. Casting our vision out to 2020, we questioned what the future workplace and quality learning and development for distributed leaders and teams could look like (not expecting a pandemic).
We believed we could bring something new, innovative, and exciting to teams and leaders around the world. We believed we could provide the people analytics needed to make better talent decisions. We ultimately wanted to make a significant positive contribution to the lives of exhausted and overwhelmed leaders and individual performers.
Nine years ago today we put our virtual sandwich board out pitching that we were open for business. Since then we have won a bucketload of globally recognized awards. We have satisfied, loyal clients reaping the benefits of applying our innovative methods. The pandemic spring-boarded and widened our reach. With determination and a good bit of luck, we’ve managed to pull off some truly innovative approaches to L&D. It is so satisfying to celebrate how far we have progressed in 9 years.
We couldn’t have done this without all of you. Thank you to all past, present, and future clients who continue to choose to disrupt learning and development.
~ Renée Safrata, CEO and Founder, Vivo Team
Accountable Hypocrites
Dear Dr. Jim,
My manager can be hypocritical. What can I do to hold them accountable?
- Gurjot*
Hi Gurjot*,
This is a difficult issue. There are a couple of things going on.
I'm going to assume that what you mean is that your manager doesn't follow through and do what they say they're going to do, or they ask you to do things and they don't model it. This could be a big issue because a lot of managers are very busy—they get overloaded and then they just don't follow through on things.
Another reason may be that this manager is not very competent in what they do. But the question that you have that is most poignant is: how do I hold them accountable?
Simply, you can't! What you want to do is engage with them in a way that they can help you get what you need.
So one of the things I recommend is that you put it in the form of: “I need some help…” You may be very clear about what you need to do, but you're asking for help and opening up the possibility that your manager is going to respond in a helpful way.
Another way of opening up is to say: “I'm really stuck and I'm not sure what to do based on what I heard your instructions for this to be”. It's your responsibility, and I know this is very hard, but it’s your responsibility to stay as focused as you can, to stay specific about what you need, and what you want.
This is a very difficult situation. Keep at it. And, if it's not working, then you might want to talk to a colleague or another manager. Be proactive. In emotional intelligence, it’s called leader assertiveness and it's really important for us to be assertive (not aggressive) in terms of getting what we want.
Dr. Jim Sellner, PhD. DipC. answers questions leadership, motivation, accountability, manager connection, or working on a remote team. Send your questions to: askdrjim@vivoteam.com
