I was involved in an accountability initiative at our company a few years ago and one of the books I read on the subject was The Oz Principle by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman.  Part of a three-part series on creating accountability in your organization.  A great read as it forces you to question your role in the accountability success or gaps within your organization.

In the book, it describes a condition that many of us fall into where your thought process becomes hijacked and you feel victimized.  Instead of looking at the challenges in front of you as opportunities, you see them as obstacles.  You fall victim to your circumstances and then blame the lack of results on everyone but you.

It’s called below the line thinking. 

Now there are times when you are at the mercy of others to get results and when they do not follow through with their commitments, it affects your ability to fulfill your commitments.  However, above the line thinking allows you to see these challenges as opportunities, whereas below the lines see them as the obstacles you create.

Below the line thinking often sounds like victims.  I’m going to cover my tail as it’s not my fault.  Fingers start pointing, people either ignore or deny they had made the commitment.  There is a wait and see attitude to see if this initiative is really important and people start to get confused and say “just tell me what you want me to do”. Worse yet you start to hear “That’s not my job!”.

Sound familiar?  It does for me at times.  We had no sense of accountability and when I stumbled across this book it really shed light on how our attitudes really influences our accountability.  The premise of above the line thinking is that yes you are not getting commitments filled and people are letting you down, but what can you do as a leader to get the results you need?

My job as a leader is to get results, often through the actions of others.  What do I need to do differently to get these results?

That’s where the thought process above the line comes in.  It’s a straight forward four-step process.  First you need to recognize the issue (see it), then you must figure out who owns it.  Who’s going to do something about it?  Once you made it there, then you brainstorm with the other leaders to figure out how to solve it.  Then comes the hard part, you set out and do it!  It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is.  It only matters on how you and your leadership team are going to solve it.  That’s why you are the leaders.  And the successful leaders figure out how to solve things, especially when they are not always the problem.

Living below the line at times can be helpful.  It gives you and the team a chance to blow off some steam.  But you cannot live there!  That’s a living leadership hell.  Once you recognize you are living below the line, it’s your job to climb out of hell and start living above the line.  It feels better, there are far less victims to listen to and most of all, that’s where the results are found.  Everyone hates to lose, to fail.  Everyone loves to succeed, to win.

At work, I give everyone in a meeting one below the line comment.  I ask one of the attendees to be the line sheriff to make sure everyone stays focused above the line.  Focused on solving the problems.

Focused on getting results.

Having the mindset of living above the line helps you formulate action items to get results.  It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, it only matters if you get the results you need to succeed.  Thinking above the line allows you to have a problem-solving mindset, not a problem finding mindset.

If you are interested in solving problems to get results and want to stay above the line, then you may be onto something here.

Allyn Vaughn

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash