When my alarm sounded at 4:30 the morning of June 8th, I
must admit to a certain lack of enthusiasm about attending the New York Chapter
PCMA meeting that necessitated the early wake up. Nor was I any more
enthusiastic at 6:30 when I departed Philadelphia for my two hour drive to
Manhattan. The bold type "No More Excuses" on the cover of the
handout for the morning's presentation did not convince me my sleep
deprivation was going to be worth it. I began to envision a generic
professional development session long on sound bites and pithy "self
help" type advice and short on actual constructive content.
Surprisingly, Sam Silverstein's No More
Excuses: The Five Accountabilities for Personal and Organizational Growth
proved to be entirely worth the early morning wake up!
Mr. Silverstein's presentation provided a plethora of
valuable insights that -- and I'm not making this up, I'm serious! -- I have already
begun to put into action. My final
admission: I have just had one of those birthdays that ends with a zero, and
engenders a fair amount of self reflection. Just as the crunch of leaves underfoot prompts me to start
counting my accomplishments and failures over the past year, and making lists
of resolutions, birthdays that end with zero have the same effect. Perhaps at another time, Mr.
Silverstein's presentation wouldn't have hit upon such fertile soil; but
fortunately it was the right message at the right time.
Mr. Silverstein discussed what he termed the Four Phases of
Accountability: (1) Accountability of Self to Self; (2) Accountability of Self
to Others; (3) Accountability of Others to Our Self; and (4) Accountability
that We help Others Hold to Themselves. While that was only a part of what he presented, it was for me the part
that had the most impact. One of
the key concepts outlined with regard to the phases of Accountability was that
most of us are more concerned with being accountable to others than to
ourselves. In other words,
individuals care more about what others think about us, than what we think of
ourselves. Read the previous
sentence again. And again. And again. Duh!
Okay, so you knew that. Or you don't think it applies to you. How often do you break promises
to others? How often do you break
promises to yourself? Yeah, I
thought so! If you're being honest
with yourself, you might be surprised at the extent to which it does apply to
you. We hold ourselves accountable
to others because we want them to hold us in good esteem, but are we as
concerned with our accountability to ourselves and how we think of ourselves?
The audience discussion about accountability raised multiple
reasons why Accountability to Others seemed to be most important, and yet all the reasons really boiled down to a
concern with our reputations. For
the past "a lot of years ending with
zero" I have been taught that what others think of me is not as important
as my own self estimation; however, somehow by changing the focus from self
esteem to "self accountability" I feel as if the missing piece that takes me
from knowing I should do something to doing the something has
finally been provided. I'm not
saying that as of 10:30 this morning I no longer care what others think of me;
I'm saying that I finally feel that I have a means of gradually shifting my personal hierarchy so that by being
more accountable to myself, I will actually make better decisions and be more
likely to garner my own and others' high esteem.
Mr. Silverstein had quite a few other insights to share, and
as one member of the audience said, it wasn't so much that what he said was
ground breaking; it was that he shifted our perspective to see things we
already knew in a different way. I
would go further and say that by shifting our perspective, he showed an opening
in the trees -- that might just be a path. In other words, he provided a better connection between what we do now
and what we hope to do in the future. Not a definitive road map, because when it comes to personal
development, I don't think there's such a thing as one path for all, nor do I
think you can set a path in advance and expect the journey to follow it without
deviation. What Mr. Silverstein
provided was, for me, a road marker, letting me know where I am and where to
step next. After that, I'm on my
own, but the lessons about Accountability will provide an invaluable compass
for me to continue navigating -- hopefully in the right direction.
________________________________________________________
Emily Nichols, is an Account Executive with Metropolitan
Exposition Services, Inc., active in both the New York and Greater Philadelphia
PCMA Chapters. Emily asks that you
not speculate on what number comes before the zero in her age, but instead spend
that time seeking the perfect belated birthday gift. [emilyn@metro-expo.com]
|
