Many service professionals have at least two jobs. Aside from being accountants or lawyers, partners or managers, they also have the job of bringing new business into the firm. And unless someone happens to be a natural salesperson, that can create a problem.

Until 2007-2008, it was raining clients for CPA firms – law firms, as well. In fact, CPAs were getting so much work that large firms had to outsource some of it to contractors or smaller firms.

Since the recession, that’s all changed. Now everyone is under pressure to bring in new business, tapping into skills they’ve never had to use. We have a whole generation of people, who came on board from the early 1990s on, who have never really been exposed to business development because they didn’t have to be. The old guys, who were natural rainmakers, have the skills but didn’t know how to transfer their skill set to others.

Traditional sales training doesn’t bring the results they hope for, probably because traditional sales training wasn’t designed for accountants and lawyers – it was designed for salespeople! And even when professionals try to apply what they’ve learned, there is no accountability system to make sure they follow through or track their success.

I’ve been a licensed facilitator of the Get Clients Now™ training program almost since its beginning in 1995. One of its key benefits is that it gets you into action right away. You’re not learning cookie-cutter sales methods; you’re coming up with practical strategies that suit your own business, and then you’re implementing them right away. You actually have your basic business development plan written on the first day of training.

My accountability system for professional services firms has been gaining a lot of momentum, and it’s clear that it’s filling a huge need. Because of my experience and knowledge of CPA firms and law firms, more and more of my clients have been asking about how I could help them with business development.

I was curious – they were already doing training in sales and business development, so what was missing?

I recently re-took the Get Clients Now™ program again for myself, and that gave me a huge epiphany for my business. This is a great program, I thought, but something’s missing.

Accountability!

That’s what led to the marriage between Get Clients Now™ and the Accountability Experts, Inc. accountability system, and we call our new program Get More Clients NOW and Forever™.

The Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program solves professional services firms’ seemingly unsolvable business development problems now and forever.

Here’s what makes this comprehensive sales, marketing and accountability program so unique:

● The I.M.P.A.C.T. system, which stands for Immediate, Measurable, Perpetual, Accountable, Coaching and Training. There are other systems out there that have some or most of these components, but none have it all – until now. From my many years of experience working with accounting and legal professionals, I’ve seen that in order to have sustainable, effective and successful business development in your firm, you must have all six of these pieces. It is the marrying of the Immediate piece (from Get Clients Now™) with the Accountability piece (we call it our “secret sauce”) that really makes it work.

● Un-sales training. Because the professionals we’re working with inside CPA and law firms are lawyers and accountants, not professional salespeople, conventional sales strategies and techniques do not work for them. Most sales programs are taught by sales people. Do you want to be taught by a “salesy” type of person? In the Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program you’ll be taught by me, Alan M. Dobzinski, someone who understands sales and business development because I’ve been there and I’m still there – bringing in the clients – but I’m not a salesperson. That’s why we call this un-sales training. This is results training, not sales training.

● Industry knowledge and experience. Aside from working inside a professional services firm for over five years, my client experience has been almost exclusively focused on CPAs and law firms, except where I’ve branched out to related industries such as banking, financial and insurance. I’m a Master Certified Coach, one of only 622 in the world. As for accountability, well, I wrote the book on it.

The reaction to this program has been beyond my wildest expectations. I thought 1+1 would equal 2 or maybe 3, but it seems that 1+1 = 11! If you want to see the magic for yourself, click here for more information about the Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program.

In 2009, I read an article in the ABA Journal about renowned Washington, DC trial lawyer Mark Levy. Levy was someone who would take the big, well-known cases that would make a name for him and his firm, but wouldn’t necessarily make a lot of money. When the firm made cuts to deal with the economic recession, Levy’s name was on the list. A few days later, he came into work and put a gun to his head.

“Levy loved the practice of law, but he struggled with the business of law. Without a firm stable of paying clients, he grew vulnerable in a world where rainmaking is often valued over skill and judgment.” – Richard B. Schmitt, “A Death in the Office,” ABA Journal

The leadership of legal firms like Levy’s had begun experiencing enormous pressure. Clients were choosing smaller firms – with lower overhead, these firms could do similar work for less money. This anxiety trickled down to all levels.

In the CPA firms, as well, the economic change started a huge turnaround that we’re still seeing today. In fact, a recent 2011 study of the top issues and challenges facing CPA firms today revealed that the top three concerns are:

1. Partner accountability
2. Getting new clients
3. Keeping existing clients

Before the recession, it was raining clients in the CPA firms as well – to the point where there was actually a shortage of qualified CPAs. They had more business than they could handle, and were farming out some of their work to contractors or smaller firms. Much of this business came from doing more work for existing clients, rather than gaining any new clients.

Now things have turned 180 degrees. It’s not raining clients anymore here either. CPA firms must constantly be on their toes and bringing in new business. More and more, firms are tying compensation into business development results, creating pressure at all levels.

At the heart of the problem in all professional services firms is this dynamic: Leaders (managing partners, senior partner group) are telling their people to go out and drum up new business. “We did it, why can’t you do it?” Meanwhile, anyone who came into the firm before this change has rarely had to go to market, so they lacked these business development skills. Even when firms have brought in sales training, those off-the-shelf programs never seem to fit these accountants, lawyers and other financial professionals.

Leaders of the firms and/or the managing partner and partner group of the firms, on the other hand, had little or no experience in holding people accountable for business results. When it was raining clients, there was no need to develop the coaching and accountability skills to be able to transfer their natural business development strategies to the rest of the firm. These managing partners and other rainmakers have always just done it themselves, and that was enough – but it’s not enough anymore.

Everyone is like a fish out of water and no one is getting what they need.

It doesn’t have to be this way!

That’s exactly why I developed my program, Get More Clients NOW and Forever™, which provides:

1) A structure for new business development that is essential for the rookie developers, and helpful to everyone else as well – specially designed for accountants, lawyers and other financial services professionals

2) A firm-wide mentality that makes business development a priority and prevents financial loss during recessions

3) Accountability principles that can be applied to productivity as well as new business development, leading to increased sales, decreased costs and increased profitability.

Click here to learn more about the Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program.

Here are the top 10 habits that could be responsible for the business development results you’ve been blaming on the economy (click on the links for more information about these crucial topics):

10. You forget that your people aren’t you. You complain when a person or team doesn’t live up to your expectations, yet what you’re really expecting is what YOU would do in the same situation. They’re not you. And that’s not a fault, it’s a fact.
9. You overbook yourself. If you’re overbooked with no room in between meetings, you can’t do the problem solving that’s required in the course of a business day. You’ll either have to ignore the fire that’s just cropped up, or tend to it and drop one of your other commitments. It’s one or the other.
8. You take too much responsibility for day-to-day operations. If you and/or your key leaders are the only ones who can keep operations going, you’re completely unprepared for the unexpected but inevitable. If half your leadership team were to leave to form a new firm, or even if a few people were out sick at the same time, where would that leave your bottom line?
7. Your people are unclear about their job descriptions and responsibilities. Accountability begins with people really understanding what you expect from them. Actually, it begins with you understanding of what you expect from other people. If you don’t know, how can you expect others to know? If you’re not in the habit of clarifying your people’s role and responsibilities, no one is accountable for what needs to be done.
6. You let yourself and your people off the hook as soon as you hear the first “no.” Don’t give in to your ego. Instead, work to confidently match your solutions to the client’s problems, and then follow through and solve those problems. Encourage your people to innovate and create new services that will help current and future clients.
5. You attack your people when they’ve disappointed you. Attacking tends to shut down creativity. Who can think when they’re being attacked? Who dares submit an idea when it might be mocked or rejected? When it’s time to have a conversation with one of your people-even someone who’s not working up to par-think of it as an approach, not an attack.
4. You enable your people to keep depending on you. If, for instance, someone handles a project poorly, and you re-do it yourself, you’re enabling that person to remain unskilled, instead of empowering them to grow, learn, or develop. Turn over the control and develop the talent that’s in front of you.
3. You don’t follow through with requests or consequences. You can talk all you want, but in the end talking is a waste of time. Doing and following through is the way. Use proven accountability tools such as regularly scheduled accountability meetings, recapping, upfront agreements, the accountability meeting binder and the 48/24.
2. You let simple things stand in your way.Instead of dealing with small frustrations or blocks, you either ignore them and force yourself to walk farther and farther out of your way to get around them, or you let your resentments build up and then explode inappropriately.
   And what’s the #1 habit that’s blocking business development and keeping your business stuck and underperforming?
1. You don’t put time into developing your people. You either try to bring in all the business yourself, or you put yourself and your people through an endless cycle of demands, disappointments and deflation. Without a foundation of support and development, you’ll continue to invite resistance, rebellion, turnover and a whole host of other people problems.

Do you recognize yourself in any of these unproductive habits? Is it possible that some of these things are what’s really responsible for the state of your business? Here’s the good news: Once you turn around these habits, then you, your people and your business can thrive in any economy.

If you’re looking for a way to combine solid business development practices with proven accountability strategies, stay tuned for a big announcement about my new program. You’ll get the news delivered right to your Inbox if you subscribe to my weekly updates.

I’ve watched the sign change from 23 years to 24 years, 25, 26 and all the way up to 27 years in business. 27 years is pretty impressive, yet in all this time I never even noticed what the business was. Until last month.

You see, a friend had called me up and asked for my support. She needs to lose weight but didn’t want to go to a weight loss program on her own. I was hesitant, but I wanted to help my friend so I agreed. And the next time I passed by the long-time business near the trail, I saw that it was a weight loss program. Isn’t that something? It’s like when you’re considering a new car and all of a sudden you spot them all over the road.

It looked like this place offered more of a personal, one-on-one approach, and I liked the idea having more privacy during this process. So I called up my friend and asked if she’d like to try it. The minute we walked in the door I could see that not only had the business been around for 27 years, a lot of the furniture and equipment had too! Forget about computerized accounting programs, this office used a one-write system. When my client stepped on the scale, it was a mechanical scale, not a digital one. When she got a photo for the “before” shot, it was taken with a Polaroid camera. You get the idea.

The woman who runs the business didn’t inspire our confidence at first, since she was overweight herself and had obvious related health problems.

At the end of the day, though, when my friend looked through the “before” and “after” photos and heard about the personal approach to the program, she could see that it worked. Even more, it was easy to see how much this lady cares about her clients. We had her full attention, yet she didn’t once try to sell or manipulate us.

And the program is chock full of accountability. Three times a week you visit the office for a one-on-one check-in meeting – an accountability meeting, of sorts – to review what you’ve eaten over the last few days and set up your eating plan for the next few days. She also monitors your blood pressure to make sure you’re healthy.

And she gets results. That’s why her clients are happy and refer their friends. That’s why my friend signed up for the program. That’s why the business has been there for 27 years. It works. It doesn’t matter that the decor is outdated or the record-keeping is on paper instead of the computer. As long as there’s good old-fashioned accountability in the mix, this old business will keep going for many years.

Has your business progressed in terms of systems and procedures, but left behind some good old-fashioned practices for dealing with your people?

If you’re looking for more accountability insights, you can join me live on May 9th, 2012 for The Buck Starts Here: Why Leadership Accountability is The Key to Less Stress, More Time and a Better Bottom Line – Click here to find out more and to register. All proceeds raised will benefit Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Thank you for your support.

Now that I was on the mend from some back issues I’d been having, one day I decided to try hiking one of my favorite trails. In the past, I’d go up this hill with no sweat (literally). On this day, when I reached the first major incline I was already out of breath and sluggish, and the hill looked like it had doubled in size since the last time I’d been there.

Still, I persisted. It was a beautiful day, and I really wanted to make this climb. After having to take it easy while I was healing, this accomplishment would symbolize that I was back in action. It meant a lot to me.

As I got into more movement and more momentum, I saw myself conquering the hill. The more I moved, the higher I climbed, the more positive I felt. The next thing you know, my heart was pumping, my blood was flowing, my legs felt lighter, my whole body was alive with energy, and my face lit up in a smile.

When my back was bothering me, it felt like my creativity was suppressed. But as I climbed that hill, I experienced a flood of new thoughts and ideas. I grabbed my smartphone and started typing them in.

Since that day on the hill, both my back and my brain have stayed functioning at that higher level. And at least one of those ideas has already resulted in economic gain for me in my business. Every single one of those ideas was inside me, but had been blocked by my back pain and recovery process.

That day, the trail became my third place – the magical location outside of your regular work and home activities where you can dream, plan and prioritize. All leaders need designated time for thinking and planning. Otherwise it’s too easy to get overbooked and just run from action to action with no accountability for the big picture. The third place is where you can do that thinking.

On the trail, I even found my fourth place. The fourth place is where we can shift into a different mindset and way of thinking about things – a new dimension, even. Some people call it being in “the zone;” where we can tap into all that firepower we knew was in there but weren’t able to get out.

Do you know that I went back and made a second trip around the trail that day? Only that time I got to the top and realized I hadn’t even experienced any sense of climbing. It was like the hill had disappeared. I was in the fourth place, and in the fourth place we don’t see hills or obstacles, we see only paths and possibilities.

Where is your third place? When have you experienced being in the fourth place? Where could you go to get energized when you’re stopped and blocked?

Would you like to meet me in person and get an intense blast of accountability insights, all while helping inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy? Join me on May 9th, 2012 for The Buck Starts Here: Why Leadership Accountability is The Key to Less Stress, More Time and a Better Bottom Line – Click here to find out more and to register. All proceeds raised will benefit Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Thank you for your support.

Your answer could tell me a lot about your leadership style. I could probably accurately predict how people respond to you, and even how accountable they are.

Your answer also tells me about where you work. I can tell instantly whether yours is a “knowing” organization, one that already knows the answers and is therefore not very open to new learning or possibilities. Or is yours a “learning” organization? If so, you’re open and you want to grow. I can only work with learning organizations who are ready to change.

I don’t mean to sound overconfident, and I certainly don’t mean to sound critical. It’s just that I’ve observed many leaders over the years. In general, those who set the goals belong to organizations where management perceives itself as having the answers, and instructs people what to do. It’s all top-down: “Here’s where you have to go, and here’s how you need to get there. Don’t take any detours.”

Traditionally, goal setting has been the purview of management. “Naturally,” it has fallen to them to tell people what to do. And that’s a logical approach, actually—except when you remember that you’re dealing with human beings. Humans have a stubborn need to be involved in decision making, to take ownership of their own work, to feel heard and respected, and to think, learn, and grow.

So those organizations tend to have more difficulty with ensuring accountability than the organizations where people are coached around setting their own goals.

That’s why I have a different approach. I encourage leaders to guide people to set their own goals. These goals should be within the guidelines of their job description, of course. And they must be consistent with company policy, mission and values. When you coach people to set their own goals, you’ve already taken a giant step toward holding them accountable to achieve those goals.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t have input. After all, you know that as a business leader, your performance is based on the performance of your people. So your team’s goals are of utmost importance to you.

If, for example, you’re a managing partner with a team of four partners, and you’re accountable for bringing in $200,000 of new business this year, you’ll need to make certain that the partners’ goals add up to at least $200,000.

But if you pull each person’s goal out of nowhere, without making sure you’ve matched their individual capabilities, you’re fighting a losing battle before you start. That’s why leaders should be working with their people to set the goals. It’s a “we” thing.

In my example of the $200,000 sales goal, each of those managing partners needs to choose a sales target that’s based on what’s feasible for them. One might feel like $75,000 is a stretch they can work towards. Another might feel like $130,000 will be a walk in the park. If you’ve hired and trained ambitious people, those four targets might add up to more than $200,000.

I guarantee you, when people choose their goal themselves, they’ll be more motivated to reach it, and also have more faith that they can. You’ll get bigger and better results than when people are just doing what the managing partner said they should do.

Would you like to meet me in person and get an intense blast of accountability insights, all while helping inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy? Join me on May 9th, 2012 for The Buck Starts Here: Why Leadership Accountability is The Key to Less Stress, More Time and a Better Bottom Line – Click here to find out more and to register. All proceeds raised will benefit Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Thank you for your support.

There will be moments in every accountability conversation where things get a little cloudy. Feelings of doubt, mistrust, hesitation or confusion may be keeping the person stuck and making it difficult for the two of you to move forward in finding a solution.

Like a laser pierces through a surface, there are certain phrases that just seem to cut through excuses, habits, blame and other things that are stopping or blocking this person from being productive and successful.

With the right words, timing and approach, you can bring the person just over the edge of their comfort zone – not too far to shut them down, but far enough that they’re jarred out of their current thought pattern.

Here are three examples of these “edge” questions:

1. “Is that the best you have?” – Janet was newly hired to run the marketing department of a consulting firm. The managing partner asked to hear her plans for the department. A week later, she arrived in his office, excited to share her report. Without even looking at it, the managing partner asked Janet, “Is that the best you have?” She fumbles and stutters and asks what he means. He repeats the question. She meekly agreed to look at it again and leaves the office. She updates the plan and a week later, the exact same conversation takes place. “Is that the best you have?” Again, she goes away and re-works her plan. The third time, when the managing partner asked the question, Janet answered confidently, “Yes! This is the best I have.” The question really got Janet to push past her edge and raise her own standards of excellence.
2. “Tell me again, why are we here?” – I use a version of this question with my own clients: “Tell me again, why did you hire me?” When people are feeling stuck, it’s easy for them to fall into victim mode or react to things from a distance. They’re showing up but not really doing the work. This question reminds my clients that they chose to participate in this change process with me – in fact, they’re paying me for it. Think of an equivalent question that will help your people to get more engaged, maybe something like, “Tell me again, which of your goals are you most looking forward to achieving this year?” Sometimes it’s best to abandon whatever conversation topic got you stuck, and start here with what the person is really jazzed about. Then continue with, “So what’s stopping or blocking you from making progress towards that goal right now?”
3. “When are you going to stop tolerating xxxxx?” – When a person keeps coming back, over and over, with the same issue, “That Johnny, he’s just so….” or, “I can’t believe I still haven’t…” suggest that if they really felt strongly about the problem, they’d be doing something about it. Again, this is edgy stuff – you’re pushing someone over the edge of their comfort zone and they probably won’t like it. But it’s not your job to solve this problem for them, even if they want you to.

Holding people accountable includes getting them back on track when they stray from their goals, and jolting them into action when they get stuck.

Would you like to meet me in person and get an intense blast of accountability insights, all while helping inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy? Join me on May 9th, 2012 for The Buck Starts Here: Why Leadership Accountability is The Key to Less Stress, More Time and a Better Bottom Line – Click here to find out more and to register. All proceeds raised will benefit Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Thank you for your support.

His partner group, on the other hand, were mainly in their 40s. They were all highly competent in their technical abilities, but not very good at bringing in new business. Up until then, they hadn’t needed to concern themselves with that – it was raining clients. And they also saw plenty of growth just from adding on new services to existing client accounts.

All of that changed with the economic landscape in 2008 when the firm began losing clients. And that’s when Keith hired me.

Keith had the skills – they were natural to him. He just couldn’t figure out how to transfer those skills to the people around him. “How do I get people to go to market (when they’ve never had to) and bring in new business??”

The first thing Keith had to understand to become a more accountable leader was that just because something came easily to him, doesn’t mean it came easily to others. “They’re not you,” I often reminded him in our early sessions.

Instead, Keith needed to apply all the components of my accountability system – recapping, meeting his people on a regular basis, asking open-ended questions, developing his people, etc.

Instead of riding the bike for them by micro-managing, managing all the new client meetings himself and exhausting his own network and database to make introductions, he began to use my three core skills of leveraging, collaborating and strategizing.

Leverage: When people told him excuses about how their databases weren’t big enough to bring in any new business, Keith showed them how to mine the gold from even the smallest database. For example, an old college fraternity chum whose brother-in-law happened to be the CFO at one of the firm’s target companies.

Collaboration: As I worked with Keith to show him these strategies, I was also modeling a collaborative approach to putting our heads together to come up with solutions. Keith learned that there was a lot of middle ground between doing everything himself and trying to get people to carry out tasks they weren’t yet equipped to handle.

Strategy: As I taught Keith the accountability system and he started putting it into place, he and his people discovered that those same practices can apply to meetings with new prospective clients. For example, they started slowing down the process and preparing a strategy long before they actually got in front of the potential new client. That way, they weren’t just reacting in the moment and then catching up to the conversation (an approach that certainly hadn’t been working).

Keith wanted to create a legacy at his firm, and his own talent for bringing in new business had brought him a lot of success and the title of managing partner. As a leader, though, I helped Keith see that the real legacy he was creating was empowering his people to land their own new business successes.

The accountability system that I helped Keith put into place resulted in $750,000 in absolutely new client business.

If you want to keep learning about accountability strategies that can bring you results like this, sign up for my email updates. Simply visit this page to download my free special report, and then you’ll hear from me each week with my latest article.

Luckily, he remembered hearing me deliver a talk about accountability, and he gave me a call to see if I could help him improve his leadership effectiveness.

“Even after hiring Alan, I couldn’t quite buy into the program,” Josh remembers. “I was willing to support the effort up to a point, but didn’t want it to take up too much of my time. Looking back, I think I hoped that Alan would somehow magically turn my employees into an accountable team.

And I’m happy to report that Alan did transform my people into accountable employees. He just didn’t do it the way I thought he would, with me on the sidelines. He did it by coaching me to be more accountable to myself. By helping me model accountability, and by learning to hold my people accountable to themselves. He did it by giving me tools we could all use to create accountability in our workplace.”

After a bit of a rocky start, Josh jumped fully on board. He totally embraced the accountability system and was meeting with his people every single week. In fact, he’s the one who first taught me the analogy of the airline pilot. He said he wouldn’t want to get on a plane with a pilot who’s become complacent about completing the pre-flight checklist.

“My staff started to come prepared every week with lots to talk about. It began to feel more comfortable for me and the people I was coaching. I began to see how effective accountability meetings really can be.

At that point, things shifted in my mind and I made a commitment to making it work. I began preparing for the one-on-one sessions, too. I reviewed the previous meeting notes and looped back on things my team members had brought up in the past.

To my amazement, using open-ended questions helped me see that my people often come up with better answers than I could have thought of on my own. I’ve worked hard at staying more on the “asking” side of the equation, and seeing the benefits, I’ve gotten a lot better at it.

One result of the trust that’s developed between me and my team is that people are coming to our accountability meetings with more sensitive issues, things they previously would not have discussed with me. Some of my managers have even started admitting when they don’t know what to do about a particular situation. We’ve created an environment that makes that okay.

Something else that surprised me: at the end of some coaching sessions, I hear ‘thank you.’ My employees sincerely appreciate my efforts, attention and guidance. I think they’re surprised, too. They didn’t expect to enjoy our time together so much. But they do, and I do. It’s working, and that’s obvious to all of us.”

Josh’s improved relationships and communication led to some other huge wins: He experienced double-digit increases in revenues and profits, took an early retirement to pursue his hobbies and passions, and left the company on a high note. And it was all thanks to accountability.

If you want to put these winning accountability strategies to work in your organization, start with the free tips in my special report, “Stepping Up to the Plate: 7 Accountability Strategies That Will Actually Make a Difference to Your Bottom Line.” You’ll also get my latest articles delivered right to your Inbox.

There were going to be two big differences for Dan’s team: First, many people would be in a managerial role that had never been managers before. Second, many of the current managers’ roles and responsibilities would be changing considerably.

Dan was completely on board with the initiative, but many on his team were not. He saw the resistance building up and wondered, how could he lead them through this experience in a positive way? How could he keep things simple through a time when they had so much to deal with?

I introduced Dan to the following key accountability leadership principles for leading people through times of change:

1. Empathize (don’t sympathize) – Your people may be experiencing a lot of anxiety. In my client’s situation, for example, his new managers were worried about their capability for their new roles, so he assured them that there would be extra training to get them up to speed. That really showed them that he cared. While sympathy just enables people to stay stuck, empathy puts them at ease so they can move forward.

2. Be patient (don’t tap your toes) – As a leader, you may have already embraced this change. If you expect your people to have the same mindset, it will be like you’re speaking two different languages. Show patience for where they’re at. Watch your body language for these signals of impatience you may not realize you’re sending: rolling your eyes, not looking someone in the eye, swinging your leg or tapping your foot.

3. Ask, ask, ask (don’t tell, tell, tell) – While you’re giving people time to catch up with you and your vision, ask them to tell you more about their concerns. You’ll get clues for how to present the benefits of the change in a way that addresses exactly what they’re thinking about. My client could have said to his new managers, “Here’s what I want you to do – just suck it up and do it!” Instead, he asked them, “How are you feeling about your new role?” and “What concerns do you have?” If you try to guess what people are thinking, it’s going to result in confusion and chaos – the direct opposite of the clarity and calm that you want. That’s why it’s so important to ask, ask, ask.

4. Enroll (don’t sell) - It doesn’t matter how convinced you are that this change will benefit the company and your people. Right now, they may only be able to see the negativity of the change itself. Instead of pushing your viewpoint onto them and trying to sell them on it, you must attract people to the opportunities that are here.

5. Keep (or don’t keep) – People may consider leaving the organization if they don’t want to embrace the change. In some cases, this may be the right thing for someone who wasn’t a good fit for your team. On the other hand, if there are people you sincerely want to keep, make that clear. Follow the above suggestions to practice empathy, patience, questioning and enrollment to ensure they remain a part of your team.

6. Do all that you can and then let go (don’t force it) – The final and most important principle of effective leadership is that once you’ve applied all the other suggestions, you’ve done the best you could and you’ve got to let go of the results. You have no control over what people choose to do with what you’ve given them.

By developing a higher level of conscious awareness of these thoughts, habits and techniques, you can not only lead people effectively through change, you can also:

● Support and develop your people, leading to improved productivity and job satisfaction

● Decrease stress in the workplace, leading to a calmer atmosphere and less turnover

● Increase accountability and follow through, leading to a better bottom line

For more accountability tips and resources, download the special report, “Stepping Up to the Plate: 7 Accountability Strategies That Will Actually Make a Difference to Your Bottom Line.”