Show Notes
A best-selling author and internationally sought-after speaker and consultant, Michael Timms teaches practical leadership strategies that drive high-performance. He earned an M.B.A. from Utah State University, and was a consultant with Deloitte and an HR leader in the construction and manufacturing industries, prior to forming his own consultancy. Michael is the author of How Leaders Can Inspire Accountability and Succession Planning That Works.
Links Watch the video and share your thoughts in the Zion Lab community How Leaders Can Inspire Accountability: Three Habits That Make or Break Leaders and Elevate Organizational Performance How to Claim Your Leadership Power | Michael Timms MichaelTimms.com Transcript available with the video in the Zion Lab community Highlights Michael talks about the principles of accountability within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The discussion focuses on how leaders can foster a culture of ownership and high performance among volunteers without relying on the traditional levers of corporate consequences.
00:01:46 - The Challenge of Motivation and Accountability 00:02:18 - Introduction of Michael Timms and His Expertise 00:02:53 - Michael Timms' Background and Approach to Accountability 00:03:59 - Accountability in a Faith Context 00:04:32 - Defining Accountability 00:06:18 - Understanding Results in a Church Context 00:09:23 - Starting Points for Accountability in Organizations 00:11:06 - The Role of Leaders in Accountability 00:12:20 - Key Behaviors for Modeling Accountability 00:14:21 - Setting Expectations in Leadership 00:16:43 - Importance of Feedback and Communication 00:20:03 - Clarifying Purpose and Results 00:21:36 - Establishing Expectations for Team Dynamics 00:24:24 - Addressing Accountability Breakdowns 00:26:45 - Three Habits of Personal Accountability 00:29:02 - Motivating People in a Volunteer Organization 00:30:26 - The Power of Positive Feedback 00:32:12 - Giving Ownership to Team Members 00:34:12 - Scenarios for Accountability in Activities 00:39:17 - Handling Blame in Accountability Conversations 00:41:39 - Avoiding Micromanagement in Leadership Key Insights Redefining Accountability: Timms defines accountability as taking ownership of results and focusing on the actions necessary to achieve the right outcomes, rather than using it as a euphemism for blame or punishment.
The Power of Modeling: Accountability begins with the leader; if those in positions of authority do not own their mistakes or seek feedback, others in the organization are unlikely to do so.
Defining Results: In a faith context, "results" should be defined broadly—such as bringing people closer to Christ—and then distilled into specific goals, such as building testimonies or improving how members feel about their Sunday experience.
Setting Clear Expectations: High-performing teams agree on general guidelines for how they will work together—such as preferred communication methods and response times—before diving into the work.
Three Habits of Personal Accountability: Michael highlights three essential behaviors for leaders: avoiding blame, "looking in the mirror" to see how they contributed to a problem, and "engineering the solution" by fixing broken systems or processes.
Motivation Through Ownership: Motivating volunteers is best achieved by giving them a say in outcomes, providing frequent positive feedback to trigger a sense of progress, and granting them true decision-making power within councils. Leadership Applications Requesting Feedback: Leaders can improve performance by sincerely asking those they lead for feedback on how to make it easier for them to achieve their goals.
Systemic Problem Solving: When a task is not completed, Michael suggests leaders should ask "where did the process break down?" rather than "who dropped the ball?" to reduce defensiveness and improve future results.
Standardizing Procedures: Implementing standard operating procedures for recurring events—
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