- Just ahead on our WTVP 50 Years of Leadership series, we're talking about leader accountability.

Tonight's critical conversation brings us a discussion from three more great central Illinois leaders.

And it all starts right now, my friends.

(upbeat music) Good evening, thanks so much for joining us, I'm Amy Burkett.

Are you ready to talk about leadership accountability?

Our panelists are, so let's meet them right now.

We begin with Kelly Schneider, program manager and CEO, at the CEO Council, excuse me.

Kelly, talk to us a little bit, tell us about your organization and what accountability means to you.

- So the CEO Council is a group of different CEOs and leaders from different organizations within the community and we work together and pool our resources to help make projects happen that need to be done in order to move forward as a community with our goals.

And so accountability to us is everything that we do, we're being accountable to these leaders within the community.

- Great, thanks so much for being with us.

Adam White, owner RC Outfitters, and talk to us about your organization and what accountability means to you.

- RC Outfitters is a small brick and mortar specialty retail operation.

We sell shoes, lifestyle apparel, exercise apparel.

And I think that for us, accountability, I need to remind myself to differentiate accountability from responsibilities.

Responsibilities are the things that I and our organization need to do, the duties that we have.

The accountability comes into play with holding ourselves accountable for those duties, the actions, the results.

How did we show up and to actually execute?

Where do we need to improve?

What did we do well?

Where are those opportunities for improvement so that we can do a better job with those responsibilities later down the road?

- Thank you.

Last but not least, Eric Larson, senior manager operations at Illinois American Water.

Eric, talk to us about what it means to be accountable as a leader.

- Sure, sure.

So I'm a part of Illinois American Water where community members who serve the community life giving water.

So we love what we do, accountability is really I think a trust mechanism, it's a mechanism to make sure trust isn't broken or a way to keep it, making sure our leaders do the right thing and the organizations do the right thing.

- And it isn't easy to do the right thing, friends, right?

So if you can share an example in your organization or in your personal life where it was difficult to hold yourself accountable.

Kelly, let's start with you.

- Oh, okay, this is a really great question.

So I'm really new at my organization but I've been a member of chamber for many, many years.

So I've seen the work that the chamber and the CEO Council together have done and what we're doing and the thing that I've seen especially lately was making sure that people understand some of the legislation that comes down the pipeline and how that's actually going to affect business leaders and the businesses within the community, because it's not always just affecting the business owners necessarily, but how does that impact their employees and what is the longterm effects of those?

So I've watched the chamber represent our businesses through that for very many years and I'm really proud to now be a part of that organization to help that.

- Eric, tell us a personal story about how you held yourself accountable.

- There are times where you make a mistake and holding yourself accountable is facing the truth and admitting that mistake in order to move forward.

So, you know, I make mistakes with my kids, I'm not a perfect parent.

- None of us are perfect parents.

- Admitting it to them and just saying, "Hey, I'm sorry, let's go from here."

And just restoring the relationship.

So a difficult thing with accountability is looking in the mirror and owning it when you've failed to meet the expectation or promise or whatever it is.

- Adam, give us an example of holding yourself accountable and how that was difficult.

- I would say one of the larger, most recent situations was in May when the state was shutting businesses down.

We didn't see the way in which that was being rolled out on a state level as being just, and it felt that we had a responsibility to do something about it.

And we chose to open our business when the state was saying that a business like ours should ought to be closed.

So being held accountable in that decision was looking at how did I approach my team, getting their support, did they want to be a part of it?

Going about the mechanisms that if we were going to go outside of the wing of the state and how they wanted us to operate, were we going to take the necessary precautionary measures that we felt were going to keep our team safe, the community that we were endeavoring to serve safe as well, and reviewing all of those systems and processes along every step of the way to put our best foot forward and do the best that we could in an uncertain time.

There was a lot of needing to look in the mirror to see what we were doing well and where we needed to continue to improve.

And so I think that was the most recent situation of strong accountability on our part.

- What were the ramifications going against the accepted norm?

- I think that certainly, I mean, I got my share of nasty grams.

But I think overall, we didn't do it to seek praise, we did it because we needed to survive.

And if we didn't do that, then our business was not going to make it through.

There was just no way financially we could afford to do that at that time.

And what came out of it, more than anything, was I think even stronger appreciation by the majority of the community that we serve here in Greater Peoria for having the courage to stand up and do what many people in our backyard felt was right.

So I think in the long-term instilled some consumer confidence that we stand for something that is bigger than just our business and small businesses in general.

- Such a difficult time for small businesses, for sure.

- It's been challenging.

- Businessman, educator and author Stephen Covey said, "Accountability breeds responsibility."

And that's the next conversation that we want to have with our guests.

And that responsibility, Kelly, talk to us about the difference.

You know, you can't have one without the other.

What's it mean to you and your organization?

- Sure, so responsibility, I mean, I think accountability comes in when you have these other differentiators.

So for example, accountability is maybe you're divvying up things for people to do, but accountability really comes in when you have these clear expectations of what the responsibility is and then the follow through.

And accountability isn't always just a negative thing.

And I think a lot of people feel that there's a negative connotation that goes along with accountability, but accountability is the trust in each other within a business to say, "Hey, you know, am I following up with the things that I said I would do," and feeling comfortable with the other people that you work with to say, "Hey, you know, I wanted to make sure that you're staying up on this because it's what you said you could do as well."

So I think responsibility is these duties that you say you're going to do but the accountability is these expectations that go along with it.

- Adam, I want to get personal for a minute.

You have shared publicly about your genetic predisposition for alcoholism.

- Yes.

- And the accountability and the responsibility that's involved in that, talk to us about how you work through that.

- Acceptance, looking ourselves in the mirror, Eric said it, to accept that I suffer from alcoholism is a program of acceptance and accountability.

I have to look myself in the mirror, I did, and accept the decisions that I had made, the fact that I do have a disease and that I have the opportunity to do something about that.

Because I might've had a genetic predisposition to it doesn't change the fact that I'm not accountable for actions, decisions, behaviors that came from that.

But with that, there can be an extraordinary freedom and an opportunity to learn and grow in a way in which I never could have imagined.

So on one hand, might be a little bit heavy, but on another hand can be quite liberating depending on how I take accountability for that which I have.

- Eric, let's get back to our employees, our team that we work with and serve.

And many people struggle with those beloved performance reviews and I often see a lot of young leaders really want to pass over as like, "Oh, but John's my friend," and when you talk to them about a performance review, but you've said John has this challenge and this growth opportunity and none of it showed up in their performance review.

I want to help people from a professional standpoint understand that a leader at every level, that accountability it's not hurting your direct report, it's helping them grow and improve.

What tips do you have for people to bond with that performance review and be honest in a desire to help them?

- Right, right.

So, I mean, God gave us two ears, so hopefully we can listen twice as much.

And we often get opportunities to hear feedback and are we willing to actually hear it?

There's a lot of pure area mentors I've had Gary Griswold, Jack Caldwell, Rick Neil, Scott Hersham who spoke into my life early in my career.

And there were some times I had some youthful errors and they steered me on a right path to hold myself accountable, to perform at a higher level, to listen to others and to grow.

So there's opportunities present, it might be something that makes you squirm when you hear it, but take it home, run it over, talk to your, you know, people in your life and get some honest feedback from them too.

What could I do to grow here?

But I think the opportunities are there if you're using both ears.

- Both ears.

Sometimes we talk first and listen last.

And so, Kelly talk to us when you're dealing with teams and helping new leaders when it comes to that holding each other accountable, holding our teams accountable, what are some of the challenges that you see with people and how do you work through that?

- I would say one of the biggest challenges is that people are people and there's all different personality types, right?

And so sometimes you end up with maybe too many cooks in the kitchen, if that makes sense, or too many strong personalities that are trying to lead within a team.

So I think the biggest thing is being able to recognize different personality types that are within your team and that helps you communicate with them better.

So if you can be communicating to all of the people to their strengths and helping them with those, that's what's going to help everybody kind of work together because they feel recognized, they feel acknowledged, and they see that you want them to be helping utilizing the strengths that they have.

So I actually have a lot of experience with that in one of my previous jobs with a nonprofit and we did weekend retreats for stroke survivors across the country.

So we were often leading different teams at different time.

and so that was something we frequently came across.

But you know, that's really the biggest piece of advice that I have is being able to communicate effectively with different types of personalities.

- Here are six ways to hold yourself accountable from entrepreneur.com.

Number one, make to-do lists, identify your personal mission statement.

I'm gonna pause right there.

This is my favorite, friends.

So I think it's probably been about a decade ago.

My mentor, New York Times bestselling author, John Maxwell, challenged us to write our own personal mission statement.

And at first, I confess, I'm like, I'm not a company, why do I need a mission statement?

But I wrote it, you know, it's to grow myself and others to be all that we were created to be for the benefit of our community.

That's my mission statement.

I put it out to each of you.

What would you say your mission statement is?

And I'm totally sorry if I caught you off guard, but that's the fun of these conversations.

I'm gonna start with Adam.

- Today, simply to be willing and not willful.

- Powerful.

Powerful.

Eric, next up.

- On the vein of accountability, I've given my life to God and it's just to glorify him in everything I do.

- Awesome, Kelly, your turn.

- I think mine is to do everything with integrity because it's, you know, talking about accountability, that's being accountable to other people but I feel like integrity is being accountable to yourself.

- Oh and I always call integrity my most prized possession because you get one chance to lose it.

And you want to try and keep that.

Let's get back to our list.

You want to reward accomplishments and create micro goals and review your performance often.

Seek feedback from your team.

So all of these things that we're talking about, ways that we can hold ourselves accountable, ways that our audience can, I think improve our lives through accountability.

I wonder do you share that view?

Is accountability a positive or a negative and why, Adam?

- Oh, 100% it's positive.

The feedback that can be given might be interpreted on the surface as negative if it is an opportunity to improve, but if it's heard and one truly has a desire to better oneself, the organization in which they're serving, the community in which they're serving, how can that be a negative in and of itself?

But I think that culturally, our society has found itself in a state, sadly, that we shirk accountability and we like to point the finger of responsibility elsewhere because looking in the mirror is challenging, especially when I need to show up and own the decisions that I made.

So that can be tough, but there's nothing but growth that has the opportunity to come from that ownership.

- What a beautiful statement.

Kelly, your turn.

- I mean, I totally agree, that was really well said, honestly.

As I mentioned earlier, I think society has really put accountability and I think you said it so right, we're not looking at being accountable anymore, we're so focused on pointing the blame and pointing the finger at other people.

But I think when we can open ourselves up to being accountable and we can recognize we've made a mistake and share that with others to show, you know, I want to improve, this is my opportunity to do so, I think that opens it up so that other people feel more confident and comfortable with accountability of themselves as well.

And so that kind of creates a different type of culture that you guys can build together.

But it starts with being able to do that for yourself I think, and show others that it's not a negative, it is a positive thing.

- Eric, negative/positive on accountability.

- Super positive.

Love it.

You know, you go online and you read about a service, some brand of clothing fits true to size, no, it's a little snug, wears out fast, nice color.

You know, we love accountability for whatever we do.

- When it's someone else sometimes, but not always for ourselves.

- Exactly, when it comes to ourselves, it's a personal question.

Some of us find it difficult, but we want it, and then for a lot of people, it's just very uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable doesn't mean wrong though, or negative.

Uncomfortable, not wrong or negative.

- I love that.

I want to build on that for a minute.

Uncomfortable, how do we get comfortable with the uncomfortableness of accountability, Kelly?

What are the steps?

Are there any steps that you see?

- I mean, I would say just starting small, starting with yourself, but that might be really challenging.

But I think it's easier if you can start with yourself, it doesn't have to be negative self-talk, in fact, you're probably better at doing accountability for yourself when you are more positive self-talk, right, because you're not beating yourself up about something but you're trying to retrain yourself.

I think that's probably the best way to start and then being open and sharing with other people, look, I'm trying to make myself more accountable, I would like your help in this.

But it usually always goes back to communication, doesn't it?

- So many things do.

Adam, how do we get rid of the negative connotation around accountability for our society?

I mean, we've said it here today, society, in many cases, we don't want to be accountable but we want everything changed to be exactly the way we want it to be.

- There's many aspects to that.

If the question could easily be answered, I don't think that we would be sitting in a quagmire that we have collectively found ourselves in.

But on an individual basis, I think that we need to remind ourselves to be courageous, we need to be brave.

We need to do a better job, and I say we, because it's an I thing.

I need to do a better job doing these things, I need to do a better job continuing to practice my own self-care and my own self-forgiveness from that.

Because I think it is these underlying fears that if I admit my wrongs, where I might have not shown up in the way in which I wanted to, that I fell short, that I will be judged by those people around me and I would not be capable of handling said judgment.

So the more that I practice showing up, the more that I practice being brave and taking small steps of accountability with myself and woven into that, that self-care, that self-forgiveness that I am human and I am going to stumble, I am going to fall, but if I continue to make that forward progress and continuing to better myself, I think that the more that then I can do that that other people as Kelly had said as well that the more that the people around me will see that behavior, hopefully, and I think that that becomes attractive in and of itself.

You know, Eric suggested that as well, I think that we are drawn to that.

And the more that society sees individuals standing up and showing up in these ways, it has the opportunity to be contagious.

- And that's the thing we want to spread.

Not necessarily the virus that we're dealing with from a public standpoint, but to spread accountability and that desire to be held accountable.

Well, Canadian self-help author, Bob Proctor said, "Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to result."

So I want to talk about that, commitments and results would not happen if we did not have accountability.

So Eric, why then is it so hard for American people to bond with the fact that we're going to hold ourselves accountable?

We're going to have watchdog organizations, we're going to hold it on each other.

Why is it so hard?

- I'll go back to what I said earlier, we really like it for other things, especially the businesses that serve us, holding them accountable for great service or great product.

It's hard for us because, and this goes back to the very first question, I've got to look in the mirror and maybe say, I didn't do something perfectly, or maybe I've got room to grow there.

So accountability can be difficult if we're not willing to look ourselves in the mirror and say those things.

- Thank you.

Adam, why is it so hard?

What can we do to spread this and get people to bond with the fact that accountability is our friend, not our enemy?

- I think it comes to being okay with allowing ourselves to be vulnerable because if I show up and I am seeking really looking at myself, honestly, inside the mirror, upside or downside, there is the opportunity to be vulnerable in that state.

And because I find myself being vulnerable doesn't mean that that is a bad thing in and of itself, but it's being comfortable and having enough strength inside myself in the shoes that I stand in that I am okay with allowing myself to be vulnerable and again, I think it's one of those things that we as a society, we grow from seeing other people taking these actions and getting through it.

When I see other organizations and I see other people holding themselves accountable when it's hard, it's inspiring for me.

That says, if they can do it, I can do it too.

So back to that, I think it can become infectious in that, but that's where I get my strength from seeing other people doing it and growing from it.

- Growth, that's the whole purpose of this conversation.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have decided to stick with love because hate is too great a burden to bear."

We're gonna be running out of time quickly but I want to talk about that, you know, his accountability of focusing on love as opposed to hate when people are unkind, word say, be kind anyway.

When things aren't fair, treat people the way you want to be treated, anyway.

Kelly, talk to us about that, that choosing love over hate, focusing on the good that comes from accountability.

- Sure.

Well, again, I think that goes back to personal integrity.

You know, you can't be preaching something, but then not personally following those things and that's what makes a good leader in our world is being able to see somebody who's really following through with the things that they said that they would do, and like you said, that's inspiring to large groups of people, especially when it's someone who is very influential I'd say within any community.

So I think it's personal integrity and focusing on that.

And there's that saying about like focus on what you want to see and that's what you'll continue to see.

So I think that's what those people are usually doing.

- As we're running out of time, I want final thoughts and advice for others how they can bond with accountability.

Adam.

- Being able to look inside the mirror and again be kind to oneself but take ownership for the actions, the decisions that one makes and that constant quest to improve.

Knowing that I'm human and with that I error, and I always will.

But if I learn from those errors and I'm constantly seeking to grow and be the best me that I possibly can be, that's part of the journey and it's okay.

- We are on a journey.

Eric, talk to us, your advice for others.

- We find it so refreshing when somebody owns something that they either did wrong or just a problem say, "Hey, I'm going to take this.

This is what I'm going to do, I'm going to run with it."

We love to see that.

So if you have the opportunity to do that for somebody else, they're going to love you for being accountable.

They're going to love you for saying, "I'm going to own this.

This is what I'm going to do for you or for others to fix this thing."

Could be starting with I'm sorry, but people will love you for it.

- Got 15 seconds, Kelly, to give you the final word of advice.

- I agree.

I think it's the self-care and taking the opportunities to just be accountable yourself and show others that that's what you want for yourself and hopefully inspire them as well.

- Thank you to our great panelists for helping us better understand leadership accountability.

Next week, we wrap up our WTVP 50 Years of Leadership series with a conversation about presidential leadership that you won't want to miss.

Good night, my friends.

(upbeat music)