No More Excuses: The Five Accountabilities for Personal and Organizational Growth »

Sam Silverstein is an internationally acclaimed consultant, coach, and business advisor. A past president of The National Speakers Association, his client list includes such organizations as AFLAC, Lucent Technologies, the National Association of Home Builders, Prudential Insurance Company, and the United States Postal Service.

Accountability is not a consequence.Accountability is your competitive advantage.

Many professionals avoid accepting personal accountability for failures while readily accepting credit for successes. But those who achieve truly great things in life know that true accountability makes all the difference between success and failure—on both a personal and organizational level.

Based on interviews with over fifty successful masters of the art of accountability—including academics, Fortune 500 CEOs, and Hall of Fame athletes—No More Excuses identifies the five accountabilities that all truly successful people and organizations share. These principles and traits are the common currency of successful individuals and businesses across virtually every industry and culture. When organizations embrace accountability at all levels, performances improve and competitive advantages emerge.

When you willingly accept and embrace the five accountabilities, you encourage accountability in others and empower your teams to achieve at the highest level. The result is an organization focused on its fundamental values and committed, at the individual level, to achieving critical strategic goals.

Whether you're a business owner, a top executive, or a team leader, accountability starts with you and trickles down to everyone else. If you want to build an organization that achieves its goals and beats the competition, it's time for No More Excuses.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction—Your Competitive Advantage.

Learn the Five Accountabilities that give people and organizations the edge.

How to Use This Book.

Get an overview of the ‘‘No More Excuses’’ program—and meet the Accountability Masters who contributed to this book.

PART ONE.

Chapter 1—The $10,000 Question.

Learn who you are really accountable to.

Chapter 2—Beyond the Excuse.

Find out how expensive excuses really are.

PART TWO.

Chapter 3—The First Accountability: Doing the Right Things.

You are accountable for understanding and identifying your strategic intent—and the activities that support it.

Chapter 4—The Second Accountability: Managing Your Space.

You are accountable for creating space for new ideas, initiatives, and projects.

Chapter 5—The Third Accountability: Managing the Process.

You are accountable for creatively pursuing your strategic intent, even when you hit an obstacle.

Chapter 6—The Fourth Accountability: Establishing the Right Expectations.

You are accountable for setting expectations that reflect your values, that are properly benchmarked, and that are a bit of a stretch.

Chapter 7—The Fifth Accountability: Contributing to Your Relationships.

You are accountable for giving to the relationships that matter most to you—and for giving to the larger world.

Chapter 8—Creating a Culture of Accountability.

Advice from the Accountability Masters on sustaining an accountable team.

Conclusion: The Accountability Movement.

Join the global alliance of Highly Accountable People.

Index.