“…constructive accountability provides suggestions for improvement that are focused on the future, not the past.”
In the world of continuous improvement, performance improvement, and talent development, accountability is key. How can a company or an organization expect employees to improve their performance if they are not receiving actionable, timely, and constructive feedback on a continuous basis?
Below, I’ve highlighted some key ideas about this subject taken from the article The Key to Constructive Accountability by Louis Carter, founder and CEO of the Best Practice Institute.
4 Suggestions to Provide Constructive Feedback
Keep the feedback coming.
Keep the feedback positive
Provide feedback in real time.
Keep the feedback structured.
“Some companies are discovering the remarkable power of continuous feedback systems residing on a social network platform.”
It’s imperative that leaders create a culture in which constructive accountability is the expectation and one of the tools used to measure professional growth and connect to company or organizational goals.
“Accountability is a key leadership capability that measures the reliability of action based on upheld standards, performance, and a self-managed ethical approach. When employees, clients or leaders are not “accountable” counter actions invoke micromanagement, stifling growth and ineffective use of resources.” – Best Practice Institute
Collect – Immediately record anything that strikes you.
Generate – Build on your notes to brainstorm lots of ideas.
Combine – Connect previously unconnected ideas.
Refine – Edit, edit, edit. Select the best.”
“The secret of creative work is to make a lot and publish a little.
Don’t underestimate the power of giving yourself permission to create junk. Most of what you create will be mediocre or bad.
But that’s okay. You only have to show people the good stuff. Make 100 things, discard 90, and share the 10 best. Create, create, create. Edit, edit, edit.”
Veteran’s Day is a few days away and I’m thinking of Daddy. I wrote the following and read it at his funeral a few weeks ago… I can’t believe he’s gone. 🇺🇸
Ell See “LC” Ferrell, Vietnam
There’s not a lot I can say here today that you don’t already know about my dad. Most of you know that he was born and raised here in Buchanan Co and was a great football player. He was an avid archer and hunter, a veteran of the Vietnam war, a hard worker, a brother, a father, and a friend. He loved his family, friends, and this great country. He fought for it. He watched men die for it. He left part of himself over there where war raged all around him.
I wrote this piece on Saturday then on Sunday my brother David and I found Daddy’s handwritten statement about some of his war experiences and I’m including what he said as a conclusion to his statement. He said, “In closing, I would just like to say I’m proud to be a Marine, proud to be a Veteran, and proud to be an American. I’m not a hero. I’m just one of many who served when America needed us.” Just as I did so many times in your life Daddy, I’m going to disagree with you.
Like I said, there’s not a lot I can say that you don’t know about Daddy. What I do want to share is something I learned about him during this last month. I learned he was not only a friend but a hero to so many. He was not just a hero to them because he served in a war but because he walked beside them during their hard times. He listened and gave sage advice. He comforted and consoled. And, he would laugh, relax, and enjoy life, too. As his brother and best friend, Billy Joe, put it, “He was the best.” He certainly was. He was not only my daddy but my best friend.
Many of us have been lost these last few weeks that he wasn’t able to interact with us like he once did – to be our friend. And, now that he’s gone we will forever be changed. But, there is a hope, a hero, and “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” His name is Jesus. In John chapter 11 verses 25-26 (NLT) Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.” And, we are reminded in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (NIV): “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” Today I grieve the passing of my daddy, but I don’t grieve like those who are without the Living Hope of Jesus Christ. I grieve knowing that I will see Daddy again.
Daddy believed in our LORD Jesus and that by Jesus’ shed blood he was washed clean. It comforts me to know that Daddy is with Jesus, experiencing a peace and beautiful love that we can’t imagine. It also makes me smile that he is now with Mommy again. I picture her sitting there on the front porch, not in a chair but on the edge of the porch, with her feet crossed and dangling back and forth. She’s young again and looks like Daddy’s description of her in his book… she’s wearing a white blouse, red pants, and her hair is black as a raven’s wing. I know she has lots of new stories to tell him.
I love you all and can’t say thank you enough for everything you’ve done for my dad and our family. God bless you all.
~~~
My interview with Daddy where he describes how to achieve proper form in traditional archery.
I wrote this and read it at Mommy’s funeral… I’m missing her today on this beautiful Mother’s Day. I can’t wait to see her again.
Erma Jean Belcher Ferrell
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3 (KJV)
I’ll start where she always liked to start – with Papaw and Mamaw getting married and coming to Conaway. She loved telling that story more than any other about our family! And she knew the family history better than any of us. We all knew if there was anything about the family we needed to know – just ask Jean. Like I said, my grandparents’ marriage adventure to Conaway was her favorite story – she recounted it countless times to Daddy on their evening drives across the Conaway gap to look for deer or elk. The story came to be because Roy Belcher met Ms. Elsie Tackett when he was plowing for Stub Akers and Mamaw was staying there working in the house for Stub. They wrote beautiful letters to one another for a time and, eventually, the courtship turned into love then marriage. At the point they were both ready to take the plunge, Roy road the train down to get Elsie. They got married there and, on their way back home, stopped in Elkhorn City where they could borrow a team of mules and wagon from Papaw’s Uncle Kenny who lived there. Papaw and Mamaw loaded up into the wagon and set out for Conaway where they could stay with Papaw’s family for a while. I’m sure it was quite a change and a huge journey of faith for both of them, but especially for Mamaw. She had led a life of hard work as a child and young woman and now she was leaving her family and all she knew to put her life and future into the hands of this young, charming, handsome man. She loved him though, so she trusted the good Lord to work it all out.
As they traveled through Grassie Creek along the old dirt road with thick forest on both sides, they topped the hill at the Conaway Gap and Papaw stopped the wagon so the mules could rest. “Elsie, look over there.” Papaw gestured to the little, run-down trappers shack in the hill side. “Well, there it is!” Papaw was joking of course, but Mamaw didn’t care what the house looked like. She would have gone in and made it their home. He let her off the hook though and said they had a ways to go down the other side of the mountain before they would be at his mother and daddy’s place. Great-Grandpa John and Great-Grandma Mary Jane would be waiting for them.
Once Mamaw and Papaw got to John and Mary Jane’s, Papaw climbed down off the wagon and looked up at Mamaw as he took off his hat. He walked over toward the house and as he stepped up on the porch he said, “Now, I’m going to throw my hat in. If they throw it back out, we’re going to have to find another place to stay.” The hat didn’t come flying back out so they both went in and that’s where they were living when their first child was born.
Down the road from John and Mary Jane’s, Papaw built a little white house, overlooking the road and the creek, where all the other children were born and Papaw and Mamaw lived there until their passing. Four boys and three girls were raised in that house; Mommy was the sixth of those seven children and she was born on Feb. 24th of 1945. Papaw built their home by using old camp houses that Ritter’s Lumber Company used for their workers to stay in while they were there cutting logs. Papaw reused old nails that he had to hammer out straight again; times were hard and that’s all he had. At one point, he got so mad that he threw his hammer across the creek! Later, Mamaw saw him searching in the weeds for it.
A lot of people came through the doors of that little white house and so much love went out with them as they left it. No one was as good to people as Mamaw Elsie; I never heard her say a bad word about anybody. Mommy was so much like her…
~~~~
In the Hebrew language, Jean means “the Lord is gracious.” Mommy lived up to her name – courteous, kind, and pleasant. Mommy was also calm, wise, and a level-headed person who worked hard for her family. She would do anything for us, and nothing meant more to her than her three babies and her husband, L.C. She was well liked as a teacher, first at Harman Elementary then at Big Rock Elementary. For 27 years, she served the families and children of Buchanan Co by, not only teaching them the content, but by loving them. She was artistic and creative, and she brought that to her classroom. She incorporated music and art wherever she could. We’ve been blessed to receive so many lovely comments from her former students.
When David, Lance, and I were growing up, she liked to play little songs on the organ or autoharp. She liked to draw and paint, occasionally, but her favorite pastime was growing and planting flowers. She could take just about any start off a plant or flower, take it home, and get it to grow. She liked giving other people starts off her flowers and telling them how to keep them growing. My cousin, Larry, recently told the story of her going next door every day to her sister Carlene’s to tend to her flowers. Over the years she has sent me back to Kentucky with many flowers and plants or she brought them when she came to visit me. To those plants’ misfortune, coming to my house pretty much meant certain death; I do not have her green thumb.
Mommy loved pretty things – flowers, birds, music, and art. And, I almost forgot. Her other favorite thing, and ours, was baking and making pretty desserts. Everyone in the family loved those moments where Jean came carrying in one of her desserts – specifically, her red velvet or German chocolate cakes. No one makes them better than she did. It was always exciting for Daddy, David, Lance, and I to see her pull out those round pans, hand mixer, red food coloring, and other ingredients. Sheer delight… Oh, that reminds me. Her chocolate delight was heavenly, too. We can all credit a few extra pounds to her great baking skills.
Although I could go on and on, I will wrap this up by saying, she was so deeply loved. She was the best mommy to her children and a loving wife to Daddy. If we lived three lifetimes, we couldn’t repay her for the service and love she gave to us. She was always there and willing to do anything we needed and a lot of what we wanted. She doted on all three of her children, but as with many mothers, she had a special place in her heart for her boys. She will be greatly missed. We love you Mommy… we will see you when we get to The Father’s House. I can’t wait for the family reunion we will have there.
“When I started in business, I was often lonely, so I placed favorite quotes all over my apartment. They made me feel like I was never really alone. I would type up and print out my favorites on a piece of paper or cut them out of magazines and tape them to my wall.”
“Learning how someone else is already doing the same thing you want to do, or a version of it, can eliminate fear—every path is easier to follow when you see someone else’s footprints already on it.”
“…seek as much advice as I can—from everyone. You can often get great advice from all kinds of people if you just ask.” — Blake Mycoskie
“Learn all you can from your mentors. Try to work alongside them. Their passion will amplify your passion. The concept of an apprentice is an ancient and wise one, and if you can find such a position early in your career and have the chance to work with a master, take it! The enthusiasm, deep understanding, and endless curiosity of a true expert will infect you, whether you are simply trying to reinforce your own knowledge about a hobby or interest, or whether you are figuring out the kind of entrepreneur you want to become.”
“…I collected many more wonderful mentors. To this day, I keep lists of gardens, gardeners, and nurseries…”
“…I have met many brilliant entrepreneurs from whom I have collected many ideas and new perspectives.” — Martha Stewart
Today, I’m proud to have a guest blogger from Washington Co. High School. Below is a speech that he presented in his public speaking class this semester. I love his ideas and I’m so happy he’s agreed to share them here. Thank you, Cole! 🙂
The school system is broken and it needs to be fixed now. The sad truth is that the current school system is not effective and is incredibly outdated. It does not address the need for every student and it tends to focus on subjects that are not essential to being successful in life. It is bad that school prioritizes subjects such as complex algebra and science when so very few people need that information in their life. Knowing this information for the sake of knowing it should not be essential and should only be optional for people to pursue, their are many problems in our current school system, some of them are being addressed others are ignored.
An awful thing in our education system is that it is very broad in the way it teaches and often doesn’t care about what some students may want or need, focusing on narrow and complex topics to teach while ignoring what students may actually want. It’s even worse that most colleges could care less how well you did in all of your classes, and seem to care more about whether or not you have played some extracurricular activity, that you honestly don’t care about.
Also another fatal flaw in our current school system is the idea that students should have little to no control of their own education, and that they should only be able to pick a few little classes that they may or may not get into. Students have absolutely no freedom or control on what they want to do, and in a few cases where they do have some control it is heavily restricted by what the school wants and desires for the students to do.
Now would you like to know a fun fact? America ranks 14th in education in the world it may not sound that bad but you would think we would want to strive to be number one. But do you want to know who has the best education system? Finland, and you know what is so odd about that? Finnish schools are known for giving very little homework and only have tests that are optional.
Another absolutely wonderful thing about Finland education is that it gives more chances for students to do what they actually want to do! It is a truly wonderful thing that Finland made a system that actually works both good and efficiently, a system that actually benefits the people it’s supposed to be teaching.
By now, you may be expecting a solution to this problem and it is actually very simple, if we want to raise the education standard and allow students to fill their goals in life all we have to do is make the system more of a democracy and allow students to have a bigger say in their education. Giving students more power into what they actually want to learn will turn them into more creative and innovative people, which is what we currently need. The system we have now was designed to turn students into mindless obedient factory workers who must only speak when spoken to and who must only get things done and nothing else: a system that teaches them that their opinions mean absolutely NOTHING.
However, times are changing and factory appeal has gone down. Students want to be free to make their own choices. After all, this generation is supposed to lead us into the future. Also let’s take the example of Finland and copy what they are doing; break down the divide between grades, because the more we divide the students the bigger the gap of education gets. Not separating students into categories has proven to work, by good old Finland.
Another grand thing we can do that Finland is also doing so it is proven to work, is cut the time students spend in schools and classrooms. Why must this be done? Well it has been proven multiple times that people will function and work better if they get both more sleep, and more free time between activities.
In Finland the average time students start school is 9:00 through 9:45 AM and finish at 2:00 through 2:45 PM. And from what I have researched Finnish students have less classes and more break times, the average break between classes is 15 to 20 minutes. At first this may seem confusing but if you think about it a little, it begins to make perfect sense, fewer classes means students won’t have to memorize as much and long breaks between classes means students have time to digest all of the information that they have learned.
So overall Finland has proven that when it comes to education less is so much more. If you want to have an actual good education and be prepared for life and know how to properly adult, then make the school system aware that it is an absolute failure and it needs to change or else we will all suffer the consequences.
There are many issues with our current education system and I have only talked about some of them. But I believe the main thing to fix is the issue of students having so little freedom to decide what they want to do. Many children don’t want to learn complex algebra or know how many wives Henry had. Humans as a species are people who will naturally learn on their own; we don’t need to hold their hand and tell them to do this and that.
In this very classroom where I am writing this document, several students have been working hard on their own projects that they actually want to do and care about doing. It is time that we fix the school system and give the students who are forced to come here everyday to listen to complete nonsense only to forget about it all later an actual choice in what they want to learn. We need to give students more freedom, more space, and more responsibility.
In history, democracy has proven time and time again to be the best option; so let’s implement some democracy in our school system. By the time students get into high school, they should no longer be forced to learn something they do not want to; and they should not be punished for not reaching the schools expectations. Give students complete and total freedom to pick every class they want. It’s not as crazy as it may sound, in fact it is the best option.
The chapter’s main message: Learning requires positive relationships — whether between learners and teachers, or between learners and their peers.
These are the 3 major factors to developing positive relationships:
teacher expectations
teacher-student relationships
reducing anxiety
“Keep in mind that everyone is capable of learning, even in situations that seem hopeless.”
Students perform better in classrooms where teachers create “a sense of fairness, predictability, and thus safety to be engaged in learning, with all the related notions of making errors, seeking help, and working positively with others.”
Teachers can reduce student anxiety by “creating conditions where it is OK to make mistakes in front of others, to actively explore other ideas and critique them, and to learn from others.”
A smile is contagious.
“Just as a smile sends out positive signals about relationship building, a failure to smile sends out negative signals. Teachers who walk into the classroom grumpy should not be surprised that their students never laugh and are more inclined to be grumpy also…”
Rules and procedures and keeping your word also create stability and reduce anxiety in students.
Overall, the following is an important takeaway about the power of teacher-student relationships. (Teacher-student relationship: effect size of 0.72)
“When students do not know what to do next, when they make mistakes, or when they are confused, the power of the trust developed by the teacher and among peers can then really pay off.”
Melissa Ferrell Ratliff 